Scan the pages of the Duke of Sussex‘s biopic Spare, and you might be left with the impression that King Charles was an inadequate father.
Give it a closer read, and with claims that the monarch, 77, was always a bit ‘checked out’, had ‘trouble listening’ and being ‘intimate’, and it will seem virtually irrefutable.
But there are always two sides to the story – and Prince Edward‘s ex-girlfriend, Ruthie Henshall, who dated Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child for the best part of five years, revealed a different perspective in her sensational new book, The Showgirl And The Prince.
Having spent time at Balmoral with the most senior members of the Royal Family, Ruthie recalled Charles’ hands-on parenting style.
‘I watched Charles playing rough and tumble with William and Harry (then aged ten and eight) in the Balmoral corridors. He clearly loved those boys, and they were squealing with joy as daddy chased them.’
Prince Harry’s Spare, in comparison, paints a much different picture. ‘Pa didn’t hug me,’ the 40-year-old wrote.
Other passages read: ‘Not that Pa hadn’t always been a bit checked out. He’d always given an air of being not quite ready for parenthood – the responsibilities, the patience, the time.
‘Even he, though a proud man, would’ve admitted as much. But single parenthood? Pa was never made for that.’
In his book Spare, the Duke of Sussex claimed his father, King Charles, wasn’t the most emotionally present parent – but others have indicated differently (pictured with the Prince of Wales in Kensington Palace in 1985)
Another section read: ‘Pa and I mostly coexisted. He had trouble communicating, trouble listening, trouble being intimate face-to-face.
‘On occasion, after a long multi-course dinner, I’d walk upstairs and find a letter on my pillow.
‘The letter would say how proud he was of me for something I’d done or accomplished. I’d smile, place it under my pillow, but also wonder why he hadn’t said this moments ago, while seated directly across from me.’
Despite the Prince’s feelings towards his father, Ruthie isn’t the only person providing an alternative account of the type of father Charles is.
In her novel Charles: Victim Or Villain?, the prominent British journalist, Penny Junor, claimed the monarch was often left with muddied trousers after enjoying a session of rough and tumble with his sons.
Junor wrote: ‘Whenever Charles arrived at home at Highgrove by helicopter, it would land on the front field, where sheep graze.
‘As soon as William and Harry heard it overhead, they would come running out to meet him.
‘Once it landed safely, they would race across the field and jump into his arms for a hug, smearing one suit after another with the sheep droppings they had trodden in on the way.’
Pictured: Harry and his father Charles at a photocall at Highgrove in 1999
Pictured: William, Charles and Harry looking at an iPhone as they watch the athletics during the Invictus Games at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in 2014
She explained elsewhere in the book: ‘The Prince’s private persona is also completely different from his public one. He fools around with the boys, they tease each other, laugh, joke, rough and tumble, and even hug and kiss.’
And according to the journalist, the love was reciprocated: ‘On the last night of their skiing holiday in Klosters in 1997, there was a big farewell dinner party in their hotel restaurant.
‘In the middle of dinner, Harry got to his feet and, in front of a table full of people, made a little speech to thank Papa, as both boys call him, for giving him such a wonderful holiday.
‘He then walked up to his father and smothered his face in kisses until, in mock embarrassment Charles begged for mercy. It was a touching scene.’
Royal author Christopher Andersen is of a similar opinion as Junor, writing in Brothers And Wives: Inside The Private Lives Of William, Kate, Harry, And Meghan: ‘The public simply never got to see Charles’s interactions with William and Harry, or the undisputed depth of affection between father and sons.
‘The game of Big Bad Wolf that sent the boys into hysterics as they tried to frantically escape their huffing and puffing dad, the fierce pillow fights that churned up massive clouds of feathers, the wrestling matches and tickle fights.
‘Even the days spent fishing in the Scottish countryside and the long walks at Sandringham with Tigger and Roo – all took place far from prying lenses of the indefatigable paparazzi.’
It comes amid reports that Harry longs for his father to stand alongside him at next summer’s Invictus Games.
Charles has reportedly received an olive branch from his son in the form of an invitation to the multi-sport event, held in Birmingham.
The games’ organisers are likely to either invite the King to the opening or closing ceremony as well as some of the sporting spectacles where he will get the chance to meet competitors.
Harry met the King alongside his wife Meghan and the couple’s two children, Archie and Lilibet, earlier this summer, and the Duke is thought to be buoyed by the reunion.
Queen Camilla was also present at the Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire when father and son exchanged words in what was the first public in-person meeting in four years.
Charles has scarcely seen his grandchildren since Harry and Meghan withdrew from their royal roles in 2020 and headed to the US permanently.
And the Duke is keen to broker further meetings with his father in a bid to get him to spend more time with Archie and Lilibet, the Mirror reports.
One source said: ‘Next year is a big deal for Harry. He is determined the Birmingham Games will be the best ever. It would mean the world to him to have his father there.’
