Royal news live: Harry and Meghan accused of ‘ballot harvesting’ for Kamala Harris as duke plans UK return

A new drama series based on the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew’s 2019 Newsnight interview will be released on Amazon Prime tomorrow (19 September).

The three-part series, A Royal Scandal, will bring to life the events leading up to the interview that ultimately forced the Duke of York to step down as a working member of the royal family.

Watch the trailer below:

King Charles is reportedly “relieved” that Prince Harry made the decision not to update Spare in light of its impending paperback release.

The bombshell memoir, which was first released last January, featured several shocking revelations about the royal family, including the claim that Prince William attacked Harry during an argument about Meghan Markle.

Vanity Fair reported the insider claim, adding: “They do speak on the phone. Charles wants to know what’s going on in Harry’s life and hear about the children, but he’s guarded because Harry has breached the trust between them on a number of occasions. Charles needs to know their private conversations remain just that. Private.”

The Duchess of Sussex is said to be “genuinely relieved” that the Princess of Wales has completed her cancer treatment.

Speaking to Closer magazine, an insider said that the Sussexes have “complicated” feelings about the Wales family video released to announce the happy news last week.

“There’s still an element of guilt that she and Harry are grappling with. They both have regrets over going so public with their complaints about the family and Kate in particular,” the source said.

“When they spoke out, Meghan felt they had no other choice, but now that time has passed and those heightened feelings have cooled off, she realises things could have been handled more discreetly. It’s not something she likes to dwell on, but of course, watching Kate’s video brought it all to the surface.”

An insider has claimed that King Charles will have spoken to Prince Harry on his 40th birthday, despite ongoing tensions between the Sussexes and the royal family.

The revelation comes after the royals posted an unexpected birthday message for the duke on Sunday, which was shared by the Prince and Princess of Wales.

As reported by Vanity Fair, a source said: “It was always the king’s intention to publicly acknowledge his son’s 40th, and I am sure that the king will have spoken to Harry on his birthday.

“After all, it is his son, and whatever has happened, Charles loves Harry unconditionally as any parent does, and Sunday was an important day.”

Harry is reported to have marked the occasion in a low-key manner with his family in California and is set to further celebrate on a weekend getaway with friends.

The Duke of Sussex will return to the UK at the end of September in his capacity as patron of the charity WellChild.

Harry, 40, will attend the charity’s awards in London on 30 September. WellChild provides support to seriously ill children and young people in the UK.

It is not known whether the duke will be accompanied by his wife Meghan Markle.

The Princess of Wales has appeared on the royal rota for the first time since completing chemotherapy for an undisclosed form of cancer.

Kate, 42, attended a meeting at Windsor Castle yesterday (17 September) with her task force that supports early childhood development.

Yesterday’s Court Circular read: “The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron, the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, this afternoon held an Early Years Meeting at Windsor Castle.”

The meeting likely concerned the Shaping Us campaign that aims to raise the profile of the importance of early childhood development and the impact it can have later in life.

This marks the princess’s third royal engagement of the year and her first work engagement.

King Charles is said to have an “ambition” to welcome Prince Harry back into the royal fold and reconcile.

The monarch last saw his youngest son for a reported 45 minutes in February following the announcement of his cancer diagnosis.

A family friend told The Daily Beast: “The King has made it very clear that he loves Harry and wants to be part of his and his family’s life.

“Publicly wishing him a happy 40th birthday is completely of a piece with that ambition.”

An insider has claimed that the Prince and Princess of Wales’s birthday message to Prince Harry was not sent personally by the couple.

They told The Daily Beast that if the message had been sent by the future king and queen, it would have been signed “W & C” as many of their other posts are.

“It was just a company thing,” the insider said. “Happy birthday blah blah blah.”

The source added: “It makes sense for Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace to align themselves on a little bit of essentially routine messaging around Harry.

“It shows William is willing to respect his father’s seniority and do what is asked of him.”

Prince William is said to have “no interest” in reconnecting with Prince Harry, despite wishing him a happy 40th birthday on the official Kensington Palace channel.

A friend told The Daily Beast: “The honest truth is that William has no interest right now in reaching out to Harry and Meghan.

“He regards what Harry said in his book [Spare] as unforgivable and, understandably given Catherine’s cancer diagnosis, just wants to focus on his wife and family first and his job second. There isn’t space for a complicated reconciliation process with Harry. It’s not a priority.”

A royal expert has claimed that Prince Harry and Prince William were not close prior to their mother Princess Diana’s untimely death in 1997.

Biographer Ingrid Seward told The Sun: “I remember after William went on his gap year, way back on operation Raleigh, Harry said ‘he’s much nicer now’, so this myth that Harry and William were very close, is a myth.

“They were only really close after their mother died. Of course, they unified and they were the only two people that knew what it felt like. But they weren’t very close as youngsters.”

But while the brothers are said to have once been close, their relationship now appears to be worse than ever and they are reported to have kept their distance when they recently attended their uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’s funeral.