When the Prince of Wales set foot on Sugarloaf Mountain at the start of a five-day visit to Brazil, the phones of the assembled press pack started to ping.
The messages were not updates on the prince’s itinerary, but an announcement from Prince Harry’s office that the Duke of Sussex had travel plans of his own. He would be travelling to Toronto, Canada, later that week to mark “remembrancetide”.
The duke’s office added that “the Palace” had been informed in advance “as a courtesy”. However, it appears no one at the Palace received the memo, leading to questions as to whether it was ever sent.
One source said it was “a bit rum” to claim the Palace had been informed when nobody at either Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace appeared to have received any advance notice of the trip before it was released to the press.
When the duke’s office was asked when they gave the “courtesy” warning and to whom, there came no reply.
The guidance that the Palace had been informed about the trip ahead of time appeared to give it a royal seal of approval. That was perhaps particularly important given the trip’s royal connotations before Armistice Day.
During the trip, the duke met soldiers from the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, of which his stepmother Camilla is Colonel in Chief. He then spoke to troops from the Royal Regiment of Canada, which has the King as Colonel in Chief, a role he has held since 1977.
On Thursday, the duke met veterans who were taking part in a creative arts programme at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
Prince Harry met Ed Marshall, who served in the Second World War
NATHAN DENETTE/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP
The duke also published an essay on his website in which he reflected on remembrance and honoured those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in war. In the piece entitled The Bond, the Banter, the Bravery: What it Means to be British, the duke said that remembrance “is not simply a minute’s silence”, but “a call to collective responsibility”.
Yet on Sunday morning, as the royal family was preparing to mark the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, pictures emerged of the Sussexes partying with the Kardashians.
Wearing a black tuxedo and a red poppy, Harry was pictured with Meghan arriving at Kris Jenner’s James Bond-themed 70th birthday party, which was hosted by Jeff Bezos at his Los Angeles mansion.
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Pictures later emerged online of the couple posing with Jenner at the party, including one of Harry looking a little bleary-eyed. However, Jenner and her daughter Kim Kardashian, who had posted the images on social media, deleted them shortly afterwards.
The Sussexes’ office has not responded directly to the case of the deleted images, however it is understood that their removal came at Meghan and Harry’s request.
While the mysterious case of the vanishing party pictures may provide a few moments of titillation for social media users, the disagreement over whether the duke informed the Palace of his royal-related military tour of a Commonwealth realm has more serious undertones, exasperating many at the Palace.
To some royal sources, the late Queen’s statement in 2021 that “recollections may vary”, in response to the couple’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, feels particularly salient.
Harry’s office claimed the Palace had been briefed on his visit to Toronto
NATHAN DENETTE/POOL/REUTERS
It appears to be the latest communication breakdown between the duke and the rest of the royal family at a fragile time for relations between the King and his youngest son.
After losing his final High Court appeal against the Home Office over his UK security, the duke told the BBC of his wish to “reconcile” with his family, particularly in light of the King’s cancer diagnosis. He added: “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
Since then, however, the duke appears to have reignited his calls for police security, writing again to Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, but there have been various other disagreements.
Earlier this year, details of a meeting between Harry and the King’s aides appeared to be leaked to the press and a picture was published showing Meredith Maines, Harry’s chief communications officer, and Liam Maguire, his press secretary, meeting Tobyn Andreae, the King’s director of communications.
The meeting led to a reunion between the duke and his father at Clarence House, their first meeting for more than a year. After the brief reunion, which lasted less than an hour, a newspaper report said that the duke had given the King a framed family photograph.
His office was incensed about the report and claimed that courtiers were trying to “sabotage” his relationship with his father. A royal source hit back, saying the Palace was “saddened and perplexed” by the accusation.
It seems that, for now at least, recollections may continue to vary.
The Times has approached Harry for comment.
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