The Sign Prince Harry Won't Mend Things With Camilla Amid King Charles' Cancer Diagnosis

The world was stunned by the news of King Charles III's recent diagnosis of an undisclosed form of cancer. But once the initial shock had passed, the talk turned to the status of his relationship with his black-sheep younger son. Some saw a subtle hint the king was opening the door for Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex: Charles reportedly broke the news of his illness to him personally. Others clucked over the briefness of the visit, not to mention his timing. As commenter Carole Malone told "GB News" (per Geo.tv), "When you have a dad who's 75, you know that medical things are going to be bad ...You do not wait until he's had a cancer diagnosis to come and visit him."

Also of concern was the prince's optics regarding the rest of his family. His 45-minute stop in London didn't include a visit to his brother William, Prince of Wales, or his convalescing sister-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales. Nor are there any signs of a warming between Harry and Queen Camilla. Petronella Wyatt, a good friend of the queen, told The Telegraph recently, "Harry, I hear, preferred not to be in the same room as his stepmother when he spoke to the King about his cancer diagnosis." This, she claims, is just the latest chapter in the prince's long-standing grudge against the king's wife.

Prince Harry apparently isn't ready to reconcile with Prince William, if his abbreviated visit is any indication, and his alleged request to speak to his father privately suggests he's still on the outs with Queen Camilla. Of course, one has to consider the source of The Telegraph's fiery blast. As a devoted pal of Queen Camilla, Petronella Wyatt is protective of her and her image. She defends Camilla as a model of dignity in the midst of the criticism heaped on her over the years, and claims she would have been just as happy remaining as King Charles's unwed partner after his divorce. "With her clean tradition as the daughter of country gentry, her complexion that rejects make-up and the elements, and her forthright, genuine approach, the closest she has come to 'scheme' is on a Scrabble board," Wyatt writes.

Harry did call Camilla "a wonderful woman" at the time of his father's marriage and claimed to be happy for the couple. Years later, however, his memoir "Spare" revealed darker thoughts. He accused Camilla of "sacrific[ing] me on her personal PR altar" (per Hello!) by leaking unfavorable information about him in order to bolster her image. Wyatt dismisses the prince's claims as being childish and suggests his past drug use may have addled his brain. "Even so, I do not understand his continuing choler where the Queen is concerned," she writes.

Only the prince and his stepmother know the truth behind their relationship — and neither is likely to share it anytime soon.