Why King Charles 'stopped taking' Prince Harry's calls: 'Tense'

After stepping down as a senior member of the royal family in 2020, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle famously sat down with Oprah Winfrey the following year in a bombshell-filled interview that saw the pair take aim at the royals.

During the interview, Harry famously claimed that King Charles had "stopped taking [his] calls", with royal author Robert Jobson revealing it was due to the fact His Majesty was getting annoyed at the fact his son was constantly asking for money.

"Charles stopped taking the calls, however, after his son had sworn at him and repeatedly asked for funds in their tense calls," the author reveals in his book Our King: Charles III: The Man And The Monarch Revealed.

"When the Queen asked him why, Charles told her that he was not a bank."

When Charles refused his calls, Harry continued trying to stay in touch with his grandmother after moving to the US.

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"The Queen hoped that her grandson, having decided to live in Canada and then California, would find peace and happiness living the life he had chosen, but in the end she asked him to speak directly to his father," Robert added.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022, reportedly found the calls "difficult and wearisome" and she "didn't want to interfere" in her son and grandson's relationship.

In his book, Spare, Harry revealed how his father told him in the early days of his relationship with Meghan that he didn't have "enough money" to support her, suggesting she continue working as an actress to earn money.

The Duke of Sussex wrote that his father complained that he was "already having to pay" a lot to fund Harry, as well as Prince William and Princess Kate.

"Pa didn’t financially support Willy and me, and our families, out of any largesse," he wrote. "That was his job. That was the whole deal."

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He also added that he believed Charles' reasoning may have been more personal, not financial.

"Pa might have dreaded the rising cost of maintaining us, but what he really couldn’t stomach was someone new dominating the monarchy, grabbing the limelight, someone shiny and new coming in and overshadowing him," he said.

Charles and Harry seem to be mending their relationship following the release of Spare, with The Sun reporting they are putting aside their differences with a “willingness and wanting to mend on both sides”.

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