In his first speech as King on Friday, he addressed the Commonwealth and indeed the world following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, a day earlier. As well as his touching tribute to her, Charles also named his son William as the new Prince of Wales and added: “I also want to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives abroad.” A palace spokesman told Page Six: “It was a signal from the King that Harry is still very much part of his loving family.” It comes, of course, in the wake of two difficult years, starting with a reported rift between Harry and William, which reportedly involved Markle’s romance moving too quickly. Harry and Meghan announced they are stepping down from their royal duties and leaving America. The Queen strips the couple of their HRH titles. A bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in which Markle, who has a black mother and a white father, accused a senior family member of questioning the complexion of the couple’s children. Harry told Winfrey he felt “trapped” as king. Markle recently told The Cut that her husband had “lost” his father in all of this. In his first speech as King, Charles extended an olive branch to Harry and Meghan. Getty Images So the King’s very personal display of love was a “public olive branch”, a Sussex source said. “It was very clever and kind of Charles to include that line.” Added one royal: “A speech can’t build a family, but it’s a good start.” However, a Buckingham Palace insider who has worked inside the gates for years said Charles and his team may not be as accommodating to Harry and Meghan’s “vagaries” as the Queen, who loved the couple immensely. “There’s no way Charles’ team would be so generous in turning the cheek and not calling them out,” the Buckingham insider said. For example, after Harry told the family that he and Markle wanted to become private citizens, “They shouldn’t be using their titles everywhere. That was not on the table.” A source said King Charles may not be as accommodating to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s “whims” as Queen Elizabeth was. AFP via Getty Images While they don’t use HRH’s previous titles, the couple have “benefited” from the use of their names, including deals with Spotify and Netflix, according to a Hollywood insider. “Yes, they have benefited from the use of their names,” said the Hollywood insider. “It gave them access to relationships and projects that make money.” It remains to be seen whether the coming week before Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, said to be scheduled for Monday, September 19, will help thaw the ice. But they are, even when they are torn apart, a family united in grief. “I know that at the moment, everyone in the family is grieving, focusing on this,” said another royal insider. “It can be hard to remember that this is a family that has lost a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. It’s still too early.” Harry and Meghan are expected to remain in the UK through the Queen’s funeral. Queen Elizabeth died “peacefully”, Buckingham Palace announced at Balmoral, a place where she and her beloved husband Prince Philip, who died last year, had spent so many happy days. She died in the afternoon and most of her relatives – including grandsons William and Harry, sons Prince Andrew and Edward and daughter-in-law Sophie Wessex – arrived too late to say goodbye. The Queen was joined by her heir and eldest son, Charles, and her daughter, Princess Anne, Princess Royal, both of whom were already in Scotland. While the others arrived around 4pm, Harry didn’t make it until just before 8pm. – nearly an hour and a half after Buckingham Palace announced the monarch’s death on social media and on television, sparking questions about why the siblings had traveled separately. King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen’s consort, greeted crowds at Buckingham Palace the day after the Queen’s death. Mirrorpix/MEGA However, Page Six is told by a source in the know that “absolutely no decision has been made to disqualify” Harry. The source added that the royal had already asked his siblings to come to Balmoral to see their ailing mother before her health rapidly deteriorated. Then, early on Thursday morning, Charles is believed to have asked William to fly out and attend the Privy Council meeting in his role, as Charles would have to support the ailing Queen. At that point, it was still unclear what the next few hours would bring. “That’s why you didn’t see the other grandchildren on that flight,” the source said. It remains to be seen how Andrew, no longer a salaried working king, will fund his lifestyle now that his mother’s support is gone.AP Initially, Page Six was told that Harry and Markle were going separately, but in “coordination” with the rest of the family. A few minutes later, the story changed: Harry would be traveling alone. “Tensions were so high and there was no way Meghan would have gone to Balmoral,” a senior palace official told Page Six on Friday. “The fact that the Sussex camp said both Harry and Meghan would go – and then quickly retracted that statement – tells you all you need to know about the drama behind the scenes.” Charles and eldest son William – now the direct heir to the throne – have been tied together over issues such as how to get scandal-ridden Prince Andrew out of the public eye.POOL/AFP via Getty Images But the changes taking place in the royal family don’t just affect the Sussexes. In his public speech on Monday – recorded in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen has recorded some of her Christmas messages – a glassy Charles renewed his mother’s promise of “lifetime service”. He also said he will rely on his family as he takes on the role he spent more than 70 years preparing for. “I rely on the loving assistance of my beloved wife, Camilla,” Charles said, adding that “in recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my queen consort.” The King’s coronation will reportedly take place next summer.POOL/AFP via Getty Images The king also named William as Prince of Wales, the title he himself held before the queen’s death. “With Catherine by his side, our new Prince and Princess of Wales, I know, will continue to inspire and guide our national conversations, helping to bring the marginalized to the center where vital help can be given,” Charles said. Concluding his speech he said: “May the flights of angels sing to you in your rest.” It was a reference to lyrics from John Tavener’s “Song for Athene”, which was performed at Diana’s funeral as her cortege left Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997. The lyrics themselves borrowed the line from “Hamlet” of Shakespeare. The Queen passed peacefully on Thursday with her family in her bed. Getty Images Diana remained Princess of Wales, albeit with the title HRH, until her death. And even though Kate Middleton is taking on the title once held by the most famous woman in the world, a royal source told Page Six Friday that the mom-of-three would “do things her way, over time.” “I think Catherine is very appreciative of the past and understands the previous holder of the title,” the royal source said. After King Charles’ speech, Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson was asked by CBS News about his thoughts on seeing Charles go to Buckingham Palace with his wife Camilla – the woman who broke up her marriage Diana. “History is history. The royal family wants us to remember their glorious past and here and there they would like us not to remember their less glorious moments,” Jephson said. Harry, who was in England at the time, rushed to the Queen’s bedside but was too late to say a final goodbye.TheImageDirect.com “I think that will be an ongoing underlying challenge for the new reign. People will look at Charles and Camilla and many of us will also remember Princess Diana. It’s ironic that Camilla was the third person in Diana’s marriage and Diana, in many ways, is the third person in Charles’s reign and that’s just history.” He added that William, as the direct heir to the throne, now possesses an “extraordinary maturity in his approach to public duties. “Now the day has come when he must really go up. In theory, he could become king tomorrow … that’s the mindset he and his advisers now have to be in … When I worked for the Prince and Princess of Wales, we knew that at any moment they could become king and queen.” As the royal family enters a period of mourning that will last up to seven days after the Queen’s funeral, Majesty director Joe Little told Page Six that we will have to wait for Charles’ coronation next summer. With Charles (far left) becoming king, Prince William (far right) and his wife Kate (centre) become the Prince and Princess of Wales. AFP via Getty Images And it raises questions about what might happen to Prince Andrew’s finances, as it has long been speculated that the Queen has been funding his lifestyle. “We know it is funded by money from the Queen’s Duchy of Lancaster estate, but its exact details are shrouded in a fog of pea proportions,” author David McClure told the UK Press Association. But Charles, along with William, spearheaded the effort to remove…
