Buckingham Palace says Prince Harry will not be staying at the palace for part of his visit to London this week, despite his team announcing this morning that he had accepted an invitation to do so.
Royal sources say the duke had not formally responded to the offer of accommodation at a royal residence by the deadline, which was the end of last week, and was told over the weekend that he could no longer stay at Buckingham Palace.
It is understood that the palace requires a minimum notice period to ensure a guest can be hosted and staff from the Royal Household provided.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry said that despite their earlier statement they understood that the offer to stay at the palace had now been “withdrawn” – a decision they described as “disappointing”.
In Buckingham Palace’s version of events, there was an offer for Prince Harry to stay at the palace, but the Sussex team had failed to confirm whether to accept and had then declined.
According to the Palace, the Duke’s team accepted to stay there later, but it was too late to make arrangements.
The Palace says that this decision was communicated to Prince Harry.
There were also concerns about the prince staying in the palace when a court result about his claims against Associated Newspapers was being published on Tuesday.
In response, a spokesman for the Duke of Sussex described the situation differently, claiming Buckingham Palace had withdrawn an offer that had been formally accepted.
The Sussex version of events said that the timing of the court case result was already known last week and rejected it as being a factor.
“It is therefore unclear why, having formally accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment,” said the spokesman for the Duke of Sussex.
This acrimonious war of words is a row that shows how much distrust and poor communication exists between the two camps – the Sussex team and Buckingham Palace.
Both sides are putting out contradictory versions of the invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace – with no sign of either side accepting the other’s account.
This could make a meeting between King Charles and Prince Harry, which had been expected this week, even more complicated.