Speculation mounts over whether Prince Harry and King will meet as Charles flies back to London

Speculation is growing over whether the King and his son the Duke of Sussex will meet this week after the monarch was seen getting on a plane back to London.

Prince Harry has not seen his father in over a year and is reportedly open to meeting Charles, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024.

Charles is thought to be in London after boarding a jet from Aberdeenshire at around 2pm, after staying in his Balmoral home for his summer break.

While his son was visiting Imperial College London’s Centre for Blast Injury Studies, an institution he has close connections with, having opened its laboratories in 2013.

Harry has been pictured with former Army captain David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, founded by the duke for wounded and sick military and veterans.

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Mr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics at Imperial.

The duke has been carrying out a string of events since arriving back home on Monday and beginning a four-day working stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.

Since relinquishing royal duties with his wife, Meghan Markle, and moving to California in 2020, Harry has had minimal contact with his father and elder brother, Prince William.

The rift deepened after the couple aired grievances against Buckingham Palace via an Oprah Winfrey interview, a Netflix series, and Harry’s memoir, Spare.

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But his visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family.

He remains estranged from his older brother the Prince of Wales, who is travelling to Cardiff to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day, with no prospect of the pair meeting.

In February last year Harry made a transatlantic dash from his Californian home to Britain to see his father following his cancer diagnosis.

The move showed both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold and since then there have been further developments.

Senior aides to Charles and Harry were pictured in the Mail On Sunday during a meeting in London this summer that was reportedly a step towards restoring the relationship between the duke and the Royal Family.