Towards the end of August, Prince Harry’s office announced that he would travel to New York for UN Climate Week, which is next week. He’s booked and busy for the trip – he will have meetings and events in and around UN Climate Week, plus The HALO Trust, The Diana Award, Travalyst, Archewell and more. I’m convinced that he will actually have meetings AT the United Nations. Well, after Harry wraps up his events in New York, he’s flying to London for The WellChild Awards on September 30. WellChild announced this on their social media, and of course Becky English at the Mail is treating it like it’s her exclusive:

Prince Harry will return to the UK later this month to attend a high-profile charity event in London. It has been announced that the Duke of Sussex will be a guest at the annual WellChild Awards in his role as the charity’s patron.

The national charity for seriously ill children is one of the few UK-based organisations that the prince kept links with after his acrimonious departure from royal duties and move to the US. He chose to remain in the position, which he has held for 16 years, when his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, asked him to step down from his other royal patronages as a now non-working member of the family.

There was no mention of his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, accompanying him. According to some reports she has vowed never to set foot in the UK again, and when she flew into the UK earlier this year when the couple visited Nigeria she didn’t even set foot outside the airport.

With the King currently based in Scotland but returning to London regularly for his ongoing cancer treatment, it could give an opportunity for father and son to actually meet in private. However the King has a major engagement in Scotland just two days before Harry’s when he and Queen Camilla visit the Scottish Parliament to mark its 25th anniversary. This suggests he could well remain north of the border while his son is in the country. The last time they saw each other was in February when it was announced that the King had cancer and the prince flew from the US to see him briefly. When he returned again in May, however, the King was too busy to meet, although His Majesty did offer him alternative accommodation in one of the royal properties, contrary to reports. Harry chose to stay in a hotel instead.

[From The Daily Mail]

This actually feels like Harry boxing in his father once again. Sources close to King Charles couldn’t shut up about the birthday-wishes social media posts for Harry and how it was an “olive branch” and “the ball is now in Harry’s court.” Harry’s like, let’s see if you really mean that. My guess is that it’s the same play from May: Harry contacts his father’s office and asks for a meeting, and now the proverbial ball is in Charles’s court. If Charles refuses a meeting, Harry will release another statement saying, in essence, my dad’s too “busy” to meet with me. It’s interesting that the awards are on a Monday as well – I wonder when Harry will fly to the UK, and I wonder if a possible meeting was discussed between Charles and Harry in the “birthday phone call.” Ten bucks says that Charles is going to try to get Harry to come to Balmoral again.

Also: “He chose to remain in the position, which he has held for 16 years, when his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, asked him to step down from his other royal patronages.” Keep in mind that WellChild is not a “royal patronage,” it’s a private charity and Harry has loved spending time with those kids for years and years. Also keep in mind that all of the royal patronages which were taken from Harry were actually really mad about it, they wanted to keep Harry as their patron but QEII and her courtiers wanted to “punish” Harry. They thought punishing Harry was more important than charity work and service.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.