The Duke of Sussex’s security court case has been attracting interest for months and, as I previously revealed in Woman magazine, this was the reason the King was not speaking to his second son. With the case finally over there was some prospect of healing fragile family relations.
Whilst Prince Harry was suing the King’s government, in the King’s courts, about his taxpayer-funded security being removed, there was no way Charles could safely talk to his son - either constitutionally or from a personal perspective.
After all, it’s not as if Harry hadn’t spilt family secrets on everything from Oprah to Netflix and his tell-all autobiography Spare. However, what he did after the Court of Appeal rejected his case felt like the final torpedo in his well-used arsenal.
It was arguably the final betrayal. Speaking to the BBC in a Californian hotel he - in my opinion - practically blamed his dad for the decision to remove his UK police bodyguards and claimed that the King has the power to reinstate his police protection.
Note to Harry: no, he doesn’t, it’s up to a special Home Office committee.
He said, "There is a lot of power and control in my father’s hands. Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him. Not necessarily by intervening but by stepping aside, allowing the experts to do what is necessary."
In a bizarre move, he also accused those who have decided not to give him what he wants (does that include your dad, Harry?), of conspiring against him and wanting him dead.
"The other side have won in keeping me unsafe," he declared.
With an apparent reference to the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, he said he had discovered “that some people want history to repeat itself, which is pretty dark”.
Oh Harry, are you seriously suggesting that people want you (and your wife and children) to die in a car crash? Can I remind you of a little history? The reason your mum didn’t have police bodyguards was because she refused them, thinking they might be being paid to spy on her.
And that night, a drunk-driver got behind the wheel of the black Mercedes, and against the advice of her bodyguard (the only one to survive the smash as he was the only one wearing a seat belt) drove Diana and Dodi Fayed from the safety of their hotel to his Paris apartment.
But the thing that will really enrage his father – and those "men in grey suits" courtiers at Buckingham Palace – was the comment on his father’s health.
"I don’t know how much longer my father has," the Duke of Sussex said, reflecting on his father’s cancer. "He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile."
Buckingham Palace, Queen Camilla - and even King Charles himself - have been at pains to point out that yes, the monarch is living with cancer, but he is in good spirits and has strained every sinew to keep the royal show on the road throughout.
The Palace operation will give no clues about the King’s prognosis or what he suffers in private, maintaining that his progress is good and a recent hospitalisation for the side effects of treatment was merely a "blip".
Prince Harry’s choice to raise the question of how long the King has left to live was described by one source as being in particularly "poor taste". There is, they said, "nothing that can be trusted to remain private", adding that "as for there being no contact, well, he has just proven why, yet again."
This is perhaps why any emotional crisis talks after the onslaught of that interview will have remained within the privacy of palace walls.
The Firm seldom respond to anything, but the allegations made by one of their own flesh and blood must have cut deep, as they issued a blunt and rare right to reply. This latest family feud may never be healed, with Harry’s hopes of reconciliation beyond out of reach.
Prince Harry has claimed it’s a "good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up" that means he, his wife and two children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, three, can't now visit the UK.
This, despite the fact that he (and they) would get state-funded security if they came over for a royal reason, and that the Duke pays for his own private security.
Read the room! The thing is, Harry, you’re not a working royal any more. You may still desperately want the trappings of royalty – the titles, the security, the status and the deference – but you’re not doing the job!
It’s a bit like leaving a company and demanding they still pay you a pension or your health benefits. You’re a wealthy celebrity who, like everyone else, has to pay for it themselves. I don’t hear Beyoncé or Taylor Swift bleating on to the BBC that us plebs should pay for them!
The public gnashing of teeth about losing one of your royal privileges is the quickest route to ridicule and contempt from a public that has infinitely less than you. Have a good listen to yourself, Harry Antoinette. And put a sock in it!
This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.