King Charles included Prince Harry in his Father’s Day tribute on Instagram despite their strained relationship. The British monarch, 74, shared a throwback photo of Harry, 38, and Prince William, 40, in his post from The Royal Family’s official account on the June 18 holiday. Charles also included photos of his late dad Prince Philip and Queen Camilla‘s late dad Bruce Shand. The caption to Charles’ post read, “To Dads everywhere, we wish you a special Father’s Day today.”
The image of Charles with his two sons was taken at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in 1997, roughly two weeks before their mother Princess Diana died in a car accident. The tragedy changed Harry and Williams’ lives forever. At the time of Diana’s death, she and Charles were divorced, and Charles was in a relationship with Camilla, who he later married in 2005.
Although Charles showed Harry some love on Father’s Day, the royal leader still excluded Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, 41, from his first Trooping the Colour as King on June 17. The Duke and Duchess, who currently reside in California with their two kids, Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 2, were reportedly not invited to Charles’ big day, even though they were at Queen Elizabeth II’s final Trooping the Colour celebration in June 2022. The last time Harry saw his estranged family was for Charles’ official coronation in the U.K. at the beginning of May. Harry jetted out of town immediately following the ceremonial part of the coronation to make it home to Meghan and the kids.
Before the coronation, royal expert Omid Scobie revealed that Charles and Harry were in communication despite the fallout from Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docu-series and Harry’s tell-all memoir, SPARE, both of which included bombshell allegations about the royal family. But Omid did note that Harry’s had “minimal contact” with his brother William since their grandmother’s funeral in September 2022. Harry did not interact with his father or his brother at the coronation on May 6. He also had no formal role at the ceremony.
Harry and Meghan have distanced themselves from his family since stepping back from their royal duties and relocating to America in 2020. They first spoke out against the family in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. They then went on to release a docu-series in Dec. 2022, which went more in-depth in explaining their struggles with life under the monarchy. Harry further shared his life story in a tell-all memoir, SPARE, released in Jan. 2023.