What was behind King Charles’s vintage selection of Father’s Day photos?

Sunday was Father’s Day in America and the UK. Prince William made a point of releasing his new Father’s Day portraits on Saturday, in time for them to make all of the Sunday newspapers’ front pages. King Charles’s office waited until Sunday to post their Father’s Day photos, and they didn’t include any new shots of Charles and his sons and grandchildren, probably because those photos don’t exist, because Charles is a dogsh-t father and a dogsh-t grandfather. So in lieu of new photos, the palace posted some curiously chosen vintage photos – one of Charles and his late father, one of Camilla and her late father, and one of Charles with his two sons when they were much younger.

The photo of William, Harry and Charles is from the summer of 1997. The summer Princess Diana died, while Harry and William were in Balmoral with their dad. William would have been 15, Harry was 12. It’s a curious and evocative choice, to post something from the summer where your two sons’ lives turned upside down. It also comes across as vaguely menacing, but I’m still paranoid about that sh-t that went down with the Sussexes in New York last month. Of course, the royal commentators have a completely different take on why that photo was chosen:

King Charles has offered an olive branch to Prince Harry by posting a photo with both his sons in a Father’s Day tribute. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams has claimed the photo aims to ‘evoke bittersweet memories’ and is the King’s way of ‘sending a sensitive message’ to Harry about loyalty. Charles is also ‘reminding’ William how ‘very different’ the relationship between the brothers once was and that they all used to share ‘precious family moments’, commentators say.

Mr Fitzwilliams says the Balmoral photo depicts happier times between the King and his sons and was meant to send Harry a message. He claims the photo appeared to show Harry making a discovery that both Charles and William were ‘intrigued by.’ He claimed the snapshot captured an ‘enchanting and innocent moment’ shared by the trio on the countryside estate.

‘King Charles is surely sending a sensitive message to his wayward son about what really matters and where his real loyalties should lie,’ Mr Fitzwilliams said of the post. ‘He is also reminding William on this very special day of how very different things once were between him and Harry. They too, once shared precious family moments! Could they again?’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah… choices were made, but I don’t believe that Charles was sending an olive branch to Harry by posting a photo from the summer of Diana’s death, the formative moment of Harry’s childhood and adulthood. There are plenty of photos of Charles with his sons from completely different eras too… it just occurred to me that Charles wants to erase Diana so thoroughly, he can’t even post a photo including Diana for Father’s Day. Literally, he won’t acknowledge the mother of his two sons. Not only is Charles beefing with his mixed-race grandson (a literal child), Charles is beefing with the memory of a woman who died over 25 years ago.

To Dads everywhere, we wish you a very special Father’s Day today. pic.twitter.com/cphS47cHxg

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 18, 2023

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, Royal Family’s social media.