King Charles and Prince William spend third consecutive Balmoral father–son mini-break

Prince William has flown to Balmoral to spend time alone with King Charles III on a father-and-son mini-break for a third consecutive year, according to a royal insider. The Prince of Wales travelled to Aberdeenshire on Tuesday afternoon to spend an informal few days with his father privately, in a stay described as not diarised with senior staff but set aside to chat as sovereign and heir. Kate, the Princess of Wales, is thought to have remained at home in Windsor with the children. The heir to the throne was photographed stepping off a private jet at Aberdeen Airport before getting into a waiting Range Rover after taking a flight from Liverpool. William had earlier been showing his support for the families of the girls killed in the Southport attack as he visited their schools with the Princess of Wales.

Charles and William will have plenty on the agenda to discuss, not least after Prince Harry's trip to the UK earlier this month which saw him meet with the King. The 54-minute chat at Clarence House was seen as a significant but tentative step towards repairing the troubled relationship between Charles and Harry. But William and Harry did not see each other during the four-day trip amid an ongoing row between the estranged brothers, which shows no sign of healing. Prince William steps off a private jet at Aberdeen Airport after landing on Tuesday afternoon. The Prince of Wales walks towards a waiting vehicle after landing in Aberdeen on Tuesday.

News of the King and William's time together this week was revealed by the Telegraph, but Buckingham Palace declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail. Charles and William will also likely discuss ongoing revelations regarding Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York and the couple's friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Several charities severed ties with Sarah on Monday after it emerged she apologised to Epstein and called him a supreme friend in April 2011 after publicly disowning him in the media. The revelations came just days after the Yorks were pictured front and centre with other Royal Family members at the Duchess of Kent's funeral at Westminster Cathedral on September 16.

As for Harry and Charles, until this month they had not seen each other face-to-face since February 2024, when the Duke made a transatlantic dash to the UK following the King's cancer diagnosis. The Prince and Princess of Wales spoke to pupils at a school in Southport earlier on Tuesday as part of William's ongoing public duties in support of the community. Harry has previously expressed hopes of reconciliation with his family amid his belief they may never forgive him after his public accusations. Harry, who stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020, levelled a barrage of accusations at Kate, William, Charles and his stepmother Queen Camilla in an Oprah Winfrey interview, a Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare. He previously claimed Charles was jealous of his wife Meghan and Kate, did not hug him when he told him his mother Princess Diana had died and said he believed the King was never made for single parenthood, but to be fair, he tried. Charles, according to Harry, pleaded with his sons during a tense meeting after Prince Philip's funeral: Please, boys. Don't make my final years a misery. Relations between William and Harry have long been strained despite their former close bond with the shared trauma of the death of their mother in a car crash when they were 15 and 12. The fallout is said to have begun before Harry's wedding to Meghan, with the Duke accusing William of being snobbish to his bride. In the Oprah interview, Meghan described how Kate made her cry ahead of her wedding after reports had initially said Meghan had left Kate in tears at Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress fitting. Another account in Harry's candid autobiography Spare caused friction between the siblings, when he accused William of physically attacking him and pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan, and teasing him about his panic attacks. He also alleged it was William and Kate who encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005 and howled with laughter when they saw it.

The Telegraph reported news of the Balmoral visit as part of a broader pattern of high-profile royal moments this month, with Palace officials remaining tight-lipped on specifics. The family remains under intense scrutiny as it navigates ongoing internal tensions and public discomfort surrounding multiple members and their affiliations. In Balmoral, the focus of William and Charles will be on private, family-facing matters, but the surrounding context of the monarchy means observers will likely watch for any signals about future steps in the broader royal narrative.