There were widespread reports that the Duke of Sussex planned to see his father during this week’s visit to London – and surprise, even shock, when no such get-together happened.

As Prince Harry’s newly appointed British spokesman explained on Tuesday: ‘In response to the many inquiries and continued speculation on whether or not the Duke will meet with his father while in the UK this week, it, unfortunately, will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme.

The Duke, he continued, ‘is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon’.

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The Duke of Sussex meets members of the public at The Invictus Games Foundation’s tenth Anniversary Service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday

The 75-year-old King has met his younger son only once since he was diagnosed with an unnamed form of cancer more than three months ago – and that meeting lasted no more than 30 minutes.

Harry had dashed straight over from his home in California following the announcement of Charles’s illness – but he was soon heading back to the airport following the briefest of meetings with the King.

Why might His Majesty have chosen not to see his younger son this week?

‘He doesn’t need the drama in his life,’ explained one of the friends.

‘Harry and Meghan have brought him, and the rest of the family, nothing but worries over the past few years.’

King Charles has long wanted to use his position to make an impact.

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Friends of the King and Queen have told the Mail’s Richard Eden that the monarch decided not to meet Harry this week because he ‘doesn’t need the drama in his life’ from a bitter son

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Meghan, Harry, Charles and Princess Kate are pictured at the Trooping of the Colour in 2018, before the Sussexes left the UK for the US

He founded the Prince’s Trust in 1976 to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. Later, he encouraged traditional architecture and became a passionate advocate of protecting the environment – just a few examples of his many interests.

‘In some ways, this might sound odd, but the cancer diagnosis has given His Majesty even more energy,’ another friend tells me.

‘He spent decades waiting to be King, of course, and realises that his time might be very limited.’

‘So, he’s determined to make as much difference as he can – as soon as he can.

‘Frankly speaking, Harry and Meghan are a painful distraction that he could do without.’

The King returned to his public engagements last week – with a visit to a cancer centre – even though he has not yet completed his own treatment.

And the Queen gave an insight into her husband’s sense of urgency when she told a guest at a Buckingham Palace reception: ‘I think he was really thrilled to be out.’

She added, tellingly: ‘I’ve been trying to hold him back.’

It is understood that the Sussexes are yet to make an apology for their highly personal and very public criticism of the Royal Family.

It is said that, in private, they continue to insist that they are the ones who deserve an apology.

From everything I hear, there will be no rapprochement between the Sussexes and the royals until Harry and Meghan have said sorry for the distress that they have caused.

I understand that The King finds it particularly hard to forgive the comments Harry made in his explosive memoir, Spare – in which the Duke portrayed his stepmother, Queen Camilla, as a ‘villain’ who left him as a ‘body in the street’ in her desire to rehabilitate her own image.

It was no coincidence that one of the Queen’s closest and most discreet confidantes, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, chose to speak last year about the pain that Harry’s comments had caused.

‘Of course it bothers her, of course it hurts,’ Lady Lansdowne said then.

‘Her [Camilla’s] philosophy is always, “Don’t make a thing of it and it will settle down – least said, soonest mended”.’

Until Harry apologises for that hurt – at least in private, if not in public – meetings with his father might be hard to come by.

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