Charles should abandon ‘peace summit’ with Harry and Meghan, says Tom Bower

The Royal Family will find it ‘impossible’ to compromise with Harry and Meghan because the only thing they will accept is a ‘grovelling apology’ and a ‘capitulation’, a royal author warned today. 

Tom Bower, who wrote an unauthorised biography of the Duchess of Sussex, suggested it would be naive for King Charles and Prince William to seek a ‘peace summit’ with the Sussexes and urged them to issue a statement rebutting the couple’s claims instead. 

He told Good Morning Britain: ‘There’s no compromise with the Sussexes. They are set on one thing which is to get a grovelling apology, a capitulation. They want William, Kate and King Charles to say that the Sussexes are absolutely right and have been wronged. But they’re not right and haven’t been wronged. 

‘For the Royal Family to in any way seek a compromise with a couple who have proven themselves to be so unreliable, untrustworthy and deceptive is a recipe for undermining the monarchy.’ 

Mr Bower said the Sussexes had caused ‘colossal’ damage to the monarchy and ‘now is the time’ to make a statement’. 

‘Ever since they appeared on Oprah Winfrey, Meghan and Harry have spewed out endless accusations, misrepresentations, inaccuracies and often downright lies,’ he said. 

‘I think Harry has no other option for his own profit and Meghan’s profit to continue these allegations into infinity. 

‘At some stage, the Royal Family has to draw a line and say that these allegations are untrue and the institution – which is supported by the majority of Britons – represents us and will not be traduced by this couple in California who hate them but keep their titles. 

‘They’ve so far earned over $120million just by rubbishing and fabricating, in my  view, about a family who provides a huge service to Britain.’

It follows reports this weekend that a reconciliation between Prince Harry, Prince William and their father was not out of the question.  

‘It’s fixable,’ the source – who reportedly has ties to both camps – told The Sunday Times. ‘Both sides need to hold their hands up and admit ”we didn’t get everything right, and we got a lot wrong”… It’s going to take flexibility on all sides, but it can be done.’

‘It needs Harry over here, in the room with the King and Prince of Wales, a couple of other family members, some of ‘his people’ he trusts who always had his back, so he doesn’t think he’s being ambushed.’

The source said King Charles would have no issue with these terms. And Harry has made no secret of his desire to reconcile with his family – even in the midst of all the mudslinging of the past few weeks. 

Prince William may be slightly harder to win over, the source said.

He’s said to have been extremely hurt by the way his younger brother has portrayed him in his memoir, Spare. 

Harry has shared deeply personal recollections of brotherly spats they have shared, revealed text messages between his wife Meghan and the Princess of Wales during their now infamous bridesmaid dress argument and accused the future King and Queen of endorsing his Nazi costume.

Even still, the royal source says William’s loyalty is ultimately to his country, and he will reconcile if he believes it’s the best thing for the future of the monarchy. 

A second source said: ‘They have to invite them in before the coronation, or it will become such a circus and distraction.’

The King’s coronation will take place on Saturday, May 6. There have been conflicting messages as to whether the Sussexes can expect an invite to the ceremony.

Initially, it was reported Charles would extend an invitation to Harry and Meghan, though insiders quietly felt they’d find a reason to politely decline.

But amid the onslaught of insults there were whispers His Majesty was being urged to reconsider his position – even by some senior ranking royals – out of concerns any private discussions would make their way into print.

These qualms were no doubt not eased when Harry revealed in an interview with The Telegraph this week that he had enough material to publish a second book.

In fact, half of his first draft ended up on the cutting room floor, because he feared revealing its contents would mean he’d passed the point of no return with both his brother and father.  

He said: ‘There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.’ 

These memories were shared with ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer only for context, and did not make the final cut. Publisher Penguin Random House says Spare is already a record breaker.  

Harry said he knew that including any details about intimate moments with his family would attract backlash, but ultimately decided he could not truthfully tell his story without them.

Still, the Royal Household is said to remain hopeful the worst of the grenade throwing is now in the past.

If that proves to be correct, and Harry spends the next few weeks living the quiet life in Los Angeles he and Meghan have longed for, sources say there is hope for his relationship with his family. 

Harry said he’d be open to reconciliation and even returning to a partial royal role, on the condition he could have ‘frank’ conversations with his family which would stay private.

‘I don’t know whether they’ll be watching this [interview] or not, but, what they have to say to me and what I have to say to them will be in private, and I hope it can stay that way,’ he said, noting he doesn’t want ‘frank discussions [to] leak out’.

The comments have been labelled ironic given all the private moments Harry has shared in his memoir.

He also said he’d require an apology for Meghan if he were to return to the royal fold.

The prince said: ‘You know what you did, and I now know why you did it. And you’ve been caught out, so just come clean.’

He claimed that ‘if people had listened’ to his concerns earlier, the gulf between he and Meghan and the rest of the royals would not have grown so wide. 

It is not clear what Harry wants his family to apologise to his wife for but he claimed he was fighting the ‘good fight’ by siding with Meghan. 

During the publicity blitz to promote his book, the Duke of Sussex told Tom Bradby that ‘a lot can happen between now and then’ when asked if he will go to see his father crowned in May.  

The coronation – just 16 weeks away – will be a smaller affair than ever before, which is a reflection of King Charles’ ambitions for a slimmed down monarchy. The palace are yet to publish plans for the ceremony and the guest list has not yet been agreed.

Organisers said the event will ‘reflect the monarch’s role today’ and ‘look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry’. 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: ‘There is always a way forward. But it has to be at the right time.’

Charles reveals to friends he wants to shy away from a bitter battle with Harry: The King knows better than anyone the Duke of Sussex has barely scratched the surface about his marriage to Diana and that he has reason to fear his son, writes TOM BOWER

At a recent private dinner for friends hosted by Charles and Camilla at Clarence House, the King’s guests were taken aback by his obvious reluctance to confront his son Harry over his disloyalty.

In the face of multiple smears, indiscretions and provocations, Charles betrayed one of his cardinal weaknesses: a constitutional unwillingness to confront personal problems head-on.

Rather than fight for an important principle, Charles disclosed to his guests, he preferred to shy away from a bitter battle.

And so it came as no surprise to read yesterday’s newspaper account of proposals for a mooted peace summit, with Palace ‘sources’ quoted as saying that the King might ignore Harry’s treachery and deceit over the past week and seek ‘reconciliation’ by admitting his errors.

Such a suggestion must have truly shocked Britain’s monarchists, a constituency that makes up the vast majority of King Charles’ subjects.

The very idea that he might succumb to pressure from his younger son shows that Buckingham Palace’s officials fear they are losing control of the narrative.

The revelation that may well have given them most pause was Harry’s claim that he had junked half the final manuscript because of its length – the clear implication being that another 400 pages of embarrassing revelations and vitriolic accusations could be published in the near future.

No one knows better than Charles that Harry has barely scratched the surface when it comes to his tumultuous marriage to Diana, his difficult relationship with his own parents and his adulterous relationship with Camilla. The embattled King knows he has good reason to fear his son.

Charles’ resolve is also weakened by guilt. He is sufficiently self-aware to realise that, in the wake of Diana’s death, he was anything but the supportive father he should have been.

All too often, at weekends and during school holidays, Harry was left in the care of his nanny at Highgrove while his father pursued his own interests or nestled in another home with Camilla. The chickens, Harry might say, have now come home to roost.

One of the most poignant – and revealing – quotes attributed to Charles in Harry’s book is the King’s plea to his sons following Prince Philip’s funeral: ‘Please boys, don’t make my final years a misery.’

In that one sentence, Charles exposed his vulnerability. His reign, he feared, could be wrecked by Harry and Meghan.

And homing in on any human weakness seems to me to be Meghan’s speciality. Just as she humiliated her own father and dumped her family and many friends, she appears vengeful against Harry’s family for perceived slights.

Hence Harry saying last week that his family should apologise.

As someone who has climbed the very greasy pole that leads to success in the dog-eat-dog world of American television, Meghan can smell weakness a mile off and Charles positively reeks of it.

Finding himself between a rock and a hard place his first instinct is to sue for peace – he would not last even one minute as a studio executive.

But Charles should be aware that he could jeopardise his status and popularity with the British people if he caves in to the demands of the Sussexes.

Not only would the majority of his subjects, outraged by Harry’s perfidy, deplore any concessions to the Montecito hucksters, but William and Kate would surely not co-operate in any humiliating apology.

For the Cambridges have borne the brunt of the Sussexes’ attacks. In all their interviews, Meghan and Harry have – perhaps unconsciously – revealed their breath-taking jealousy of the heirs to the throne.

Even before her glittering marriage, Meghan appears to have been outraged by the fact that Kate outranked her, both in the hierarchy and when it came to privileges.

Which is why the Cambridges have good reason to suspect the genuineness of Harry’s desire for reconciliation. The fact is that William can sense his father’s temptation to surrender. That’s the obstacle to Charles’s peace-making endeavours.

In the interests of the monarchy, William and Charles have been only recently reconciled. As an eyewitness to his mother’s distress over Charles’s adultery, William has always found it difficult to warm to his stepmother entirely.

Now, it’s hard to believe that he or Kate can see any advantage in bowing to Harry’s demands. Concessions, they believe, will only lead to further accusations.

The King and his advisers, William knows, are treading a dangerous path. Talk of reconciliation is a mirage. Harry and Meghan will settle for nothing less than total capitulation and victory.