Prince Charles had reportedly stopped taking Prince Harry’s phone calls following his bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year.
The Duke of Sussex opened up to the American TV legend in a tell-all chat along with his partner Meghan Markle in March.
In the interview, he claimed that there was a ‘lot of hurt’ between him and his father.
Royal commentator Julie Montagu claimed that Prince Charles was ‘knocked to the ground with several punches’ after seeing his son’s interview, reports the Mirror.
(Image: VIA REUTERS)
She said that the television chat left viewers in no doubt that “there is a real rift” between the two.
Speaking on Channel 5’s Charles and Harry: Father & Son Divided, which airs later tonight, she said: “The person who was really knocked to the ground in that interview with several punches was Prince Charles 100 per cent.
“The takeaway from that interview was that there is a real rift, there is real distance, there is real anger.”
Relationship psychologist Anjula Mutanda added: “You could see that it was difficult for Harry to speak about his relationship with his family, but at the same time he wanted to.
“He wanted to get a message through that he has struggled deeply with what has been going on and there were definite fractures in the relationship.
“These are seismic statements to make about one’s own family members, and I wonder from Charles’ point of view he would have felt very exposed by his son.”
During the bombshell interview with chat show host Oprah, Harry said he felt “really let down” by his father, saying: “He knows what pain feels like.
“Of course I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that.”
During the interview, which sent shockwaves across the world, former actress Meghan told pal Oprah that being part of The Firm was tough.
(Image: Getty Images)
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The Duchess of Sussex made the claims after admitting that becoming a royal was hard after “having lived a really independent life” before marrying Prince Harry.
Meghan told how – what many would think to be a fairytale existence – is not as idyllic as it seems, due to not having the usual freedoms that she had prior to becoming Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor.
The interview – which the pair were not paid for taking part in – rocked the world with several allegations.
The couple also spoke out about being financially cut off from the Royal Family, racist comments about Archie’s skin tone, relying on inheritance from Princess Diana to survive, and Prince Harry revealed that his father, Prince Charles, stopped taking his calls.
Both the Duke and Duchess admitted that being part of the family left them feeling “trapped” and “silenced.”
Prince Harry spoke to Dax Shepard on Thursday about his upbringing, saying his father passed on “genetic pain” and discussing how he wants to “break that cycle”.
Speaking about his upbringing as a Royal, Prince Harry told Shepard on his ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast: “When it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on.
“It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say ‘you know what, that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you’.”
Harry said that, as he grew older, he realised Charles was raising him in the same way he had been raised himself, and he wanted to change that for his own children.
Charles & Harry: Father & Son Divided airs on Channel 5 on Saturday, May 15 at 9pm
