Prince Harry is “playing the victim” after he reportedly turned down an olive branch from King Charles over security concerns, a royal expert has claimed.

Royal insiders claim that the Duke refused an offer from the King to stay in a royal residence during his UK stay earlier this month. It is said the offer was knocked back because it did not come with any security provision and he would be in a “visible location with public entrance and exit points and no police protection”.

Instead, Harry stayed in a hotel which meant that he had no reunion with the King, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment. His team swiftly released a statement saying his dad was effectively too busy to see him.

Harry with his father King Charles ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
But speaking to OK!, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said Harry’s reported excuse “does not wash”. She explained: “I find it very hard to buy the argument that Harry wouldn’t feel safe in a royal residence. They are heavily guarded, as you would expect and there are usually several ways of getting in and out of palaces and castles, so he wouldn’t necessarily have to be seen.

“I’m afraid it does rather sound to me like Harry trying to make himself into a victim once again when we are told that the offer was there for him to stay in a royal residence.”

Harry has been embroiled in a long-running case against the Home Office after it was ruled in 2020, when he moved to the United States, he would no longer be given the “same degree” of publicly-funded protection when in the country. The Duke’s case has been rejected but there are now plans for an appeal.

During the case, the High Court was told that Harry believes his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet cannot “feel at home” in the UK if it is “not possible to keep them safe”. Since moving to the US, Archie and Lilibet have only been to the UK once, with Charles only having one face-to-face meeting with his youngest granddaughter.

And according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, the security issue looks to be the barrier when it comes to a royal reunion. She told the Mirror: “Harry and Meghan’s security fears could well be a stumbling block to any kind of reunion with the Royal Family. But no doubt they have been invited to Balmoral this summer.

“As the late Queen discovered, Scotland offers the only quality time a monarch has to devote to family. It would be very sad if Charles was denied the pleasure of seeing his grandchildren just because of Harry’s unfounded security woes.”

She continued: “The King is wary of his troublesome son. Whatever he does to try and help him is turned into a snub. Nothing is ever Harry’s fault. It is either the fault of the British Government, or the lack of security afforded him by the Metropolitan Police. They have offered him a ‘bespoke’ arrangement, assessing each visit individually.

“Not good enough for Harry. He had his own arrangement to stay at a luxury private hotel where the entrance and exit are hidden from peering eyes and cameras and even the hotel staff don’t know what VIP guests are staying.”