A distraught Prince Harry told his father, King Charles, “Don’t you want to see your grandchildren?” after being forced out of his British home according to a new book.
While Harry is currently on a “reconciliation tour” of sorts, attempting to make amends with his father, Page Six is told, things were less than cordial when he was told to move out of Frogmore Cottage.
“Endgame” recounts the moment a “shocked” Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, were told they had to hand back the keys to the multi-million dollar UK home they were gifted by the late Queen Elizbaeth upon their wedding in 2018.
While the Sussexes were told to give back the house because they’re no longer working royals, and no longer live in Britain, writer Omid Scobie dubs the move “a cheap shot from a wounded father bound by an institutional system that is often intolerant of human emotion.”
Harry, 39, was allegedly left so upset by the news in March that he told Charles, 75, it would be hard for him to see his grandchildren, Prince Archie, 4, and 2-year-old Princess Lilibet.
Scobie claims the home was the family’s “only true safe option when visiting the United Kingdom” as the grounds are secured by armed guards.
Harry is currently fighting in the UK courts to get Government security for his family when they’re over the pond – and has stressed that he does not feel safe bringing his wife and two children back to his homeland without proper security.
Charles has barely seen Archie – and only met Lilibet, who was born in California, once, in an “emotional” first meeting last summer. He is believed to have turned down an invitation to Lilbet’s christening in California in March as he was too busy.
The book claims that several days after being informed they had to vacate Frogmore, Harry got on the phone with Charles and asked: “Don’t you want to see your grandchildren?”
During that tense call, Charles’ silence was followed by a “half-hearted declaration that they would always have “somewhere” to stay,” which did not give Harry “much hope.”
Weeks beforehand, Scobie says, Charles had been cold and brief on the phone to Harry after his memoir “Spare” was published, in which he told all about his childhood with his father and falling out with his older brother, Prince William.
A phone call had been brokered by a friend, as Harry thought if they didn’t speak then they would never speak again.
They had spoken over Christmas after Harry reached out, but Charles was “cautious” to chat to his son.
“The message among the family about Harry was he is not to be trusted until they see what is in the book and what he says while promoting it. They all took that seriously,” a source told Scobie.
While Charles’ younger brother, Prince Edward, allegedly said they should make up, Princess Anne made her feelings known — and said that Charles should boot out Harry and Meghan, and also kick the disgraced Prince Andrew out of his Windsor home, Royal Lodge.
Another source said that Anne, 73, was making it clear that both Harry and Andrew were no longer working royals.
Scobie writes: “Staying mum about Harry’s accusations and remaining publicly unconcerned for his son’s well-being while ending his family’s lease on a safe U.K. residence was not a decisive action by a resolute King; it was a cheap shot from a wounded father bound by an institutional system that is often intolerant of human emotion.”
A final blow came when the Sussexes found out that Charles wanted his younger brother Andrew to move into Frogmore, a five-bedroom property, according to the book, and far smaller than the 30-room Royal Lodge.
They were particularly upset that they had paid £2.4 million ($3m) for renovations and had also covered a lease on the property well into the future.
Palace sources have previously insisted to us that Andrew — who paid a $7 million settlement to Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Guiffre — did not want to move into Frogmore and Charles will not make him, stressing that it’s up to Andrew to keep paying the rent.
Meanwhile, Scobie writes at length about racism in the royal family. One non-white household member tells him, “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a difficult environment to be a person of color.”
He then alleges that Markle, 42, accused not just one but two people of discussing “concerns” about son Archie’s skin color.
The Sussxes sparked a race row by alleging an unnamed member of the Royal Family spoke about “how dark his (Archie’s) skin might be when he’s born”, during their Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2019.
But Scobie says that in private letters she wrote to Charles, Markle named two members of the Royal Household she says took part in the “conversations.”
The identity of the pair has not been disclosed in the book, which is out Tuesday.
It is not known if the second accused person is a member of the Royal Family or someone who works for the family, but they are a member of the Royal Household.
Scobie claims he knows the names but “laws in the United Kingdom prevent me from reporting who they were.”
When asked, one palace source, however, told Page Six: “It was only one person, never two.”
Scobie also turns his attention to the future King, Prince William. There is a “marked change” in him as he gets closer to the top job, he says, as he is showing off a “colder side ” to him that friend and his brother have described.
William, 41, feels “betrayed and sad” after the release of “Spare” and does not want to know “this version of Harry”, according to the book.
The father-of-three is also readying himself for the throne.
“He respects his father, but he also sees him as a transitional monarch, paving the way for his arrival,” a source close to William told the book: “Their views, their outlooks are very different and I can see that becoming an issue over the years ahead.”
So what of the future for the royal family?
As we near the fourth anniversary of that fateful Christmas vacation to Canada that saw them upend their royal lives, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex want “peace for everyone”, says a source who knows them.
And of course, the source adds, “They want their children to know their grandfather.”