William and Charles’ united front after Prince Harry’s bombshell interview: Prince of Wales and the King set for rare double engagement at Order of the Bath service

The royal family will put on a united front amid the fallout from Prince Harry’s bombshell BBC interview, with King Charles and Prince William expected to make a rare joint appearance later this week. 

The King and the Prince of Wales will attend the Order of the Bath Service at Westminster Abbey in London on May 16 – weeks after the Duke of Sussex spoke of his strained relationship with the monarch. 

Speaking to the BBC after Harry, 40, lost the appeal challenging his downgraded security status, he said he did not know how long his father, who is battling an undisclosed form of cancer, had left to live. 

‘Some members of my family will never forgive me,’ he continued. 

In the extraordinary interview, the California-based royal alleged his father could have ‘resolved’ the dispute over his security arrangements if he wanted to – after Harry claimed to have ‘uncovered shocking truths’ about the Royals’ involvement in decision. 

He claimed his ‘jaw dropped’ when he discovered the Royal Household sat on the ‘secretive’ Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that decided to withdraw Harry’s taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK. 

He insinuated that more could have been done by the monarch, as well as the King’s private secretary Sir Clive Alderton, who had a position on Ravec.

Harry told the BBC: ‘There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands.

‘Ultimately this whole thing could be resolved through him.’

He added that while Charles ‘won’t speak to me because of this security stuff’, Harry hoped to reconcile with his family as ‘there’s no point continuing to fight anymore’. 

Despite his plea for reconciliation, experts suggested the scorched-earth interview may, in fact, have driven the wedge between Harry and the royal family even further – as a palace source claimed they have ‘zero trust’ in the Duke. 

‘The family feel that private conversations with Harry are not possible,’ an insider told Hello, after the emotionally charged BBC interview. 

The outlet further claimed that even if Charles were to rekindle a relationship with his youngest son, the same can’t be said for Prince William, who has reportedly abandoned all hope of repairing his relationship with his brother.

William, instead, appears focussed on supporting Charles, 76, with Friday’s engagement at Westminster Abbey marking a rare, joint appearance for the monarch and his heir. 

The event will be Charles’ first Service as Sovereign, with William set to be installed  as Great Master of the Order during the ceremony, which will include the oath taking and installation of five Knights.

The Service for the Order of the Bath is held every four years; the monarch traditionally attends every other service – meaning once every eight years – while the Prince of Wales, as Great Master, attends each service. 

The King last attended the ceremony as Prince of Wales in 2022 in his role as Great Master of the Order – one that he has held since 1975. 

During his final appearance as the Great Master, before William takes over from his father on Friday, Charles donned his full regalia for the ceremony that honours officers of the Armed Services and civil servants. 

It is a role traditionally carried out by the monarch, however Charles performed the duties on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, during the 2022 ceremony. 

Charles first stepped in for the late Queen, who died on September 8, 2022, at the Order of the Bath Service in 2014 – after aides feared that the steps at the Abbey were ‘too steep’ for her while dressed in full regalia.

Ahead of Friday’s service, King Charles joined Queen Camilla at a charity function in London on Tuesday, May 13. 

The royal couple attended a reception and awards ceremony for Elephant Family, set up by Camilla’s late brother Mark Shand, who tragically died aged just 62 after falling and suffering a head injury in 2014.

The star-studded event at The Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, West London, attracted guests including Princess Beatrice – who looked stylish in a red Rebecca Vallance gown – Lady Marina Windsor, Ronaldo Nazario, the Brazilian footballer, actors Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

In an impromptu speech the King, who accompanied his wife as joint president of the charity, which is now part of Charles’ British Asian Trust, said ‘collaboration is far better than conflict’ as he gave an impromptu speech. 

During the function, Camilla, 77, became emotional as she watched a posthumous video of her brother in which he spoke about his ‘optimism’ for saving endangered elephants that brought her to tears. 

Meanwhile, Prince William handed out honours to English Olympian Keely Hodgkinson and former Formula One driver and sports broadcaster Martin Brundle at Windsor Castle yesterday. 

Speaking as Hodgkinson, 23, received an MBE at Windsor Castle yesterday, Prince William told her that Princess Charlotte, 10, watched her win gold at the women’s 800m at the Paris Olympics last year.

The athlete later revealed that the Prince, 42, also shared that Charlotte, who recently celebrated her 10th birthday, is currently training for the 400m ‘at the minute and the hurdles’.

During their exchange at Tuesday’s investiture ceremony, William also told Hodgkinson that ‘he wished he could be there’ to watch her take gold in person.

‘He told me that he remembers me winning and that he wished he could be there to see it himself,’ the Manchester-born Olympian told PA.