LOS ANGELES – Prince Harry last night lambasted ‘men in grey suits’ at Buckingham Palace, accusing aides of trying to sabotage his reconciliation with the King.
The Duke’s furious broadside is an extraordinary echo of his mother Princess Diana’s criticism of shadowy royal courtiers – who she also derided as ‘the men in grey suits’ and accused of undermining her.
Harry is understood to be infuriated at what he sees as a concerted campaign by unnamed palace officials to torpedo his efforts to strike a rapprochement with his father by giving hostile briefings to newspapers.
“The relationship between the Duke and His Majesty The King is a matter for the two of them and the two of them only,” a source close to the Duke told The Mail on Sunday.
“The men in grey suits should stay out of it.”
The increasingly bitter war of words between Harry’s camp and Palace officials erupted after this newspaper revealed last weekend that talks were underway between aides to gradually bring the King and his younger son together in a public show of unity.
The MoS disclosed that as part of cautious plans to foster a reconciliation, the Duke might take part in more public events in Britain, though not as a working member of the royal family.
Details of the talks came after Harry spent 50 minutes with the King at Clarence House earlier this month – their first face-to-face meeting in 18 months.
Nevertheless, within hours of the MoS publishing its story, insiders began briefing journalists that Harry will never be allowed to return as a ‘half-in, half-out’ working royal – despite such a claim not appearing in this newspaper’s report.
In a waspish comment about the significance of the Duke’s meeting with Charles, one unnamed source suggested those in Team Harry had ‘mistaken a brief tea and a slice of cake for the Treaty of Versailles’.
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