Prince Harry and his father Charles have ‘barely spoken’ in MONTHS

Prince Charles and Harry have ‘barely spoken’ in months as relations hit ‘an all-time low’ following the Duke of Sussex’ repeated jibes at the Royal family.

The heir to the throne has been left ‘deeply shocked and hurt’ following Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview and repeated statements after their departure from public duties.

Tensions escalated further on Sunday when Harry said he had ‘severed ties’ with Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz a year before Prince Charles presented the controversial Saudi billionaire with a CBE. 

Prince Charles has been ‘keeping a dignified silence’ because he fears a public split could affect his reign, sources told The Sun. 

Harry’s relationship with his father soured following the tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March. The duke said his father had cut him off financially when he and Meghan announced plans to move to America and there was ‘a lot of hurt’. 

The father and son last spoke in person at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral eight months ago, and have exchanged only a few ‘fraught’ phone calls since.

Prince Harry was in London in July to unveil the Diana statue but the father and son did not meet – and the future king has not yet met his six-month-old granddaughter Lilibet. 

Prince Harry has made repeated jibes at his father, telling a podcast he moved to the US to ‘break the cycle’ of ‘pain’ from his childhood.

Of his relationship with his father he said: ‘He treated me the way he was treated.’

On Sunday Harry said he cut ties with Mr Mahfouz because he had ‘concerns’ over the businessman’s ‘motives’. He made the comments after it was revealed that he had held a private meeting with Mr Mahfouz, who has given tens of thousands of pounds to charities associated with the duke.   

A friend of the Prince of Wales said: ‘Charles is deeply shocked and disappointed by Harry’s latest statement which effectively threw his father under the bus. 

Prince Harry has made repeated jibes at his father, telling a podcast he moved to the US to ‘break the cycle’ of ‘pain’ from his childhood. Pictured, the Royals at the annual Commonwealth Service in March 2020 

Prince Harry was in London in July to unveil the Diana statue but the father and son did not meet – and the future king has not yet met his six-month-old granddaughter Lilibet. Pictured, in May 2018

‘This attack was more damaging than the swipe at Charles’s parenting skills because this was a challenge to the way he conducts his business which is far more damaging to the future King. 

‘Attempts have been made to clear the air but they have barely spoken since the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.’

The friend said Prince Charles loves his son and will not be retaliating. 

One source who worked for the Royal Family when William and Harry were children told the Daily Telegraph: ‘William and Diana had a particularly close connection.

‘Harry was very young for his age. Charles was largely absent and undemonstrative but unmistakably affectionate.’

The source added that the ‘dynamics changed quite a lot’ after Diana’s Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 in which she said: ‘There were three of us in this marriage.’

The newspaper reported that the Prince of Wales in fact had a more challenging relationship with William than Harry until recent years.

The Telegraph also claimed that Charles played peacemaker between the brothers amid tension between them around the time of Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018.

And Harry is then said to have become annoyed that Charles was increasingly turning to William for help in decision-making surrounding Megxit at the start of last year.

However, a source also told the Telegraph that Charles would be sad rather than angry at the breakdown in his relationship with Harry.

A former aide said: ‘The prince absolutely adores Harry. He will feel absolutely devastated by this – distraught. He’ll be beside himself if this means he also becomes more ostracised from his grandchildren.’

Mr Mahfouz is embroiled in claims that he showered money on charitable causes close to the Prince of Wales in the hope of obtaining an honour and British citizenship.

Harry is said to have become concerned about Mr Mahfouz in 2014 and wound down their relationship the following year, having met him twice.

But in an extraordinary statement which could spark a family rift, Harry said he had no involvement in what he described as the ‘CBE scandal’, insisted he had concerns about the Saudi businessman’s ‘motives’ and claimed he ‘expressed his concerns’ about him.

The Duke of Sussex (left) said he had ‘severed ties’ with Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz (right) a year before Prince Charles presented the controversial Saudi billionaire with a CBE

In an extraordinary statement which could spark a family rift, Harry said he had no involvement in what he described as the ‘CBE scandal’, insisted he had concerns about the Saudi businessman’s ‘motives’

Prince Charles (left) has been engulfed by criticism in recent months owing to his relationship with Mr Mahfouz (right)

Charles has been engulfed by criticism in recent months owing to his relationship with Mr Mahfouz and the hundreds of thousands of pounds the billionaire donated to the royal’s pet projects via his charitable trust.

The prince’s senior aide Michael Fawcett was forced to resign as head of The Prince’s Foundation last month over his role in the scandal.

An independent investigation last week found Mr Fawcett had colluded with ‘fixers’ representing Mr Mahfouz who were trying to secure an honour in exchange for donations.

Mr Mahfouz is thought to have donated at least £1.5 million to royal charities.

The Duke of Sussex said that when he cut ties with Mr Mahfouz in 2015, he ‘expressed his concerns about the donor’. But his statement did not make clear to whom he voiced these qualms.

The following year, Charles presented the Saudi billionaire with an ‘honorary’ CBE in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The Prince of Wales and Mr Mahfouz also held private meetings in Scotland and Saudi Arabia. 

The prince’s senior aide Michael Fawcett (pictured) was forced to resign as head of The Prince’s Foundation last month over his role in the scandal and was pictured on a shopping trip this weekend

Clarence House yesterday repeated that Charles had ‘no knowledge’ of the ‘cash for access’ allegations, but it did not comment on whether Harry raised concerns with him about Mr Mahfouz.

The Metropolitan Police has made initial inquiries into Mr Fawcett, but a full investigation has not been launched.

Ex-Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who filed a criminal complaint about the matter three months ago, said: ‘The fact Harry dropped this guy should have been a red light for Charles, but clearly he ignored that and drove straight through.’

Royal commentator Peter Hunt added: ‘Prince Charles presented Mr Mahfouz with his CBE in 2016. Did Prince Harry tell him about his concerns in 2015?

‘Just one of the many questions the Metropolitan Police could ask father and son if they choose to investigate.’

Harry first met Mr Mahfouz in 2013 at a pub in Chelsea, west London, owned by Mark Dyer, a former royal equerry, The Sunday Times revealed.

They discussed the duke’s charity Sentebale, set up in 2006 to help people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by Aids, following his gap year in Africa.

The newspaper reported the pair met again at Clarence House the following year after Charles had also met Mr Mahfouz, where Harry allegedly joked: ‘Has father beaten me to it and got the money?’

In February 2013, Mr Mahfouz donated £50,000 to Sentebale. Later that year he gave £10,000 to Walking With The Wounded, another charity of which Harry was patron.

A spokesman for the duke said: ‘The duke had one planned meeting with this donor eight years ago, did not introduce him to any members of the Royal Family, and expressed his concerns about the donor.’

The Prince’s Foundation is being investigated by the Scottish charities regulator over claims it accepted a six-figure sum from a wealthy Russian donor which was later rejected by its ethics committee. An independent investigation into the ‘cash for access’ allegations commissioned by the foundation last week found ‘evidence of communication and co-ordination’ between Mr Fawcett and ‘fixers regarding honorary nominations for a donor between 2014-18’.

Sentebale said: ‘It is entirely normal and legitimate for patrons to meet potential donors, on whose support we depend. This includes the two donations received in 2013-14 from the Mahfouz Foundation – donations that we would not have accepted if we believed there was anything improper behind them.’

Harry throws his own father under the bus  

By Rebecca English 

To say that the Prince of Wales’ relationship with his sons is complex is an understatement.

Both William and Harry have historically accused Charles of being a ‘laissez-faire’ father – one more preoccupied with weighty affairs of state and his considerable philanthropic legacy than bathtime, wrestling matches and bedtime stories.

It’s not entirely fair, of course. The reality when it comes to the Royal Family – as with any family – is always more complicated.

Like other royals, Charles was ‘deeply, deeply’ hurt at the manner of Harry and Meghan’s bitter exit from the family in 2020.

Still, as Harry and William’s relationship descended into acrimony, their father tried to remain a non-partisan figure – partly because Charles has always shied away from personal confrontation with his sons, but also because he genuinely wanted to retain a Swiss-like neutrality between them.

But, while disappointing, the statement from the prince’s Los Angeles-based spokesman effectively throwing his father ‘under a bus’ over the ‘cash for honours’ investigation did not come as much of a surprise. The comment, which was belatedly issued after a newspaper highlighted Harry’s own links with Saudi billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, was at pains to try to emphasise the younger prince’s own foresight. It glossed over Harry’s private meeting with Mahfouz in a close friend’s pub in Chelsea – and a subsequent encounter at Clarence House where he was said to have joked: ‘Has father beaten me to it and got the money?’

Much as there is the notion of collective responsibility at Cabinet level, so is it within the folds of the Royal Family: defend your position directly and to the point by all means, but not at the expense of your nearest and dearest.

Harry’s statement, however, was liberally sprinkled with digs at his father – the reference to ‘the CBE scandal’, for example. Then there was the suggestion that the younger prince and his advisers saw sense at the earliest possible opportunity, when Charles’ former senior aide Michael Fawcett – and presumably the Prince of Wales himself – did not.

As for the claim that Harry ‘expressed his concerns’ about the donor… well, to whom? Certainly no one within his father’s household has any recollection about this at all.

Indeed, I understand that Charles wasn’t even aware until this weekend that his son had met Mahfouz in a west London pub, let alone encouraged his charity to accept any money from him.

If Harry was that concerned about the Saudi billionaire, surely he could have warned his father, possibly when he saw him at his London residence the same day.

It was also no secret, subsequently, that Mahfouz had become a major donor to Charles’ charitable endeavours – he had a wood named after him at Dumfries House, the Scottish seat of his charitable empire, after all.

Contrary to claims in the BBC’s recent controversial documentary on royals and the media that the three royal households are all too quick ‘brief’ against each other, Clarence House was again maintaining a dignified silence last night.

But one loyal friend of the Prince of Wales felt obliged to ask: ‘If Harry indeed had such deep concern about this man and his ‘motives’, then why on earth did he not tell his charity, Sentebale, to just hand the £50,000 he had given them back?’