Prince Harry may have learned about King Charles III's recent health scare through news outlets, according to reports out of London, echoing the dramatic sequence of events in 2022 which saw the prince find out that his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, had died via a news bulletin on his phone.
On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace released a rare statement about the king's health, revealing that "in common with thousands of men each year" Charles had sought treatment for an "enlarged prostate" and would be admitted to hospital over the following days for a "corrective procedure."
The announcement, it is believed, was made shortly after the king's diagnosis but that attempts had been made to inform members of the royal family about the development before the statement went out.
According to a report in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday, private attempts to reach Harry may not have been received until after he had read the global news coverage sparked by the release of Buckingham Palace's statement.
"Buckingham Palace did make efforts to inform all senior members of the royal family and that included relaying a message to Prince Harry," the outlet reported.
"However, the public announcement was made at 3:25 p.m. U.K. time, which is 7:25 a.m. in California, and it is thought the Duke may have seen the news alerts before any private message."
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Prince Harry and Buckingham Palace via email for comment. So far, neither have responded to the report.
The news comes at a time when relations between California-based Harry and the royals in the U.K. have been ongoingly strained.
Following the prince's split from the monarchy in 2020 and move to California with Meghan Markle, the couple have been outspoken in their criticism of royal family members and the institution, as well as the British tabloid media.
Harry published his memoir, Spare, in January 2023 in which he revealed the drama that unfolded around the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, just months earlier and how communication with his family at the time had broken down.
After writing that repeated attempts to speak with Prince William about making travel plans to get from Windsor to Balmoral where the queen was, Harry told readers that he chartered his own plane to Scotland.
Then he revealed that it was via the media, not his family that he found out his father was now the king.
"As the plane began its descent, my phone lit up," he wrote. "A text from Meg. 'Call me the moment you get this.' I checked the BBC website. Granny was gone. Pa was King."
The fallout from the book's many bombshells proved reputationally damaging to both Harry and the royals, something which was revived in November 2023, when a foreign translation of the book Endgame by Omid Scobie appeared to name King Charles as having participated in a conversation about Prince Archie's skin color before his birth.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the latest drama surrounding Charles' health scare and how his youngest son found out about it is not something either side wishes to escalate.
"Each side is keen not to stir up further tensions, aware that any kind of declaration could plunge relations to a new low," the outlet reported.
It's more pertinent considering that the royal family is currently facing a second, more serious health development. On Wednesday, prior to Buckingham Palace's announcement about Charles, Kensington Palace revealed that the Princess of Wales had been hospitalized and operated on for a "planned abdominal surgery."
Kate is expected to stay in hospital for up to two weeks and face up to three months of recovery, not returning to public life until after Easter.
Speaking to Newsweek, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said these latest developments could signal a time for Harry to make "positive" contact with his family.
"There may be debate over when precisely Harry found out about the King's prostate diagnosis. Hopefully, we won't find out about it in a future memoir," Fitzwilliams told Newsweek.
"Given the very public rift in the royal family, it would only make sense for any contact to be private. The main reason that members of the royal family view the Sussexes with mistrust is their use of the media. Now might be a time for quiet, positive contact," he said.
"Harry was in touch with his father on his 75th birthday," he said, referencing a phone-call exchanged reported at the time of Charles' birthday in November. "But that was soon followed by the fiasco surrounding Omid Scobie's Endgame. Some contact is surely likely to follow, and hopefully, it might, at long last, prove beneficial for future relations."
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
