Prince William and Prince Harry have a “hot and cold” relationship with their father, King Charles

Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry

(Image credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images/Future)

published 20 November 2022

Prince Harry and Prince William's tumultuous relationship with their father, King Charles, started long before Harry stepped away from The Firm - and money seems to be the root of a lot of their problems.

King Charles's relationship with his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, has never been an easy one, with problems between the family arising early on
Royal biographers have now revealed that money issues are massive cause of conflict for the trio, with King Charles not only being his sons father, but also their boss
In other royal news, The Crown viewers gush over young Prince Harry moment in season 5

The relationship between Prince William, Prince Harry and their father, King Charles, may currently be at rock bottom, but before it got there, tensions between the three means they have never had a drama-free relationship.

There are many well documented reasons for this; the royal pressures that affect the family dynamic and the tensions between Charles and the boys’ mother, Princess Diana being just two. But it has now been revealed that one of the biggest causes of friction between Charles and his sons, that has been damaging the relationship for years, has been money.

Royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand have claimed that both Prince Harry and Prince William “can be hot and cold with their father,” in their book Finding Freedom, which is available on Amazon. The biographers explain that the brothers had to decide how much funding each of them could get from their father to fund various projects they wanted to undertake.

While it may first seem like, as a father, the then Prince Charles would gift his sons whatever funding they desired, his role as their boss meant funding was hotly debated and put a strain on their relationship.

The pair write, “The brothers sometimes had to vie for additional funds for projects from their father. They actually genuinely have to debate who gets what amount from their father to fund their projects. While Charles may be a father to [William and] Harry, he’s also their boss, and that makes their relationship complex for a number of reasons.”

The relationship between the brothers and their father has been a hot topic since Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back as working members of the royal family. But with recent reports that Harry was trying to find a way to leave The Firm as early as 2018, and that the young Princes were often left along at Highgrove House with no way to contact their father, it reminds the public that royal life may not be all it is cracked up to be. This long-standing strain proves that perhaps money will always be an issue in families, even, and maybe especially, when there is a lot of it.

In the eyes of the public, Charles and William’s relationship is now thriving. The Prince of Wales is set to play a leading role in the planning of his father’s coronation and photos of the pair show no obvious resentment between them.

Conversely, tensions between Charles and Harry are currently at a fever pitch. The release of Harry’s much anticipated book, Spare, set for release on January the 10th 2023, along with his and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries, which is set to be released in December, the contents of which experts believe could leave Charles to cut his younger son off completely, OK! reports.

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Charlie Elizabeth Culverhouse is a news writer for Goodtoknow, specialising in family content. She began her freelance journalism career after graduating from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Magazine Journalism, receiving an NCTJ diploma, and earning a First Class BA (Hons) in Journalism at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. She has also worked with BBC Good Food and The Independent.