Prince Harry will not meet the King during his visit to the United Kingdom

The Duke of Sussex will not meet the King this week, the Telegraph can reveal.

Prince Harry, 39, landed in London on Tuesday morning and made no secret of his hope of seeing his father during the visit.

But a spokesperson for the Duke said: “In response to numerous inquiries and continued speculation about whether or not the Duke will meet his father during his stay in the UK this week, this will unfortunately not be not possible due to Her Majesty’s full schedule.

“The Duke of course understands his father’s commitments diary and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”

Prince Harry is expected to spend the rest of Tuesday in meetings related to the Invictus Games.

On Wednesday, he will attend a Thanksgiving ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Games at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he will deliver a reading.

Buckingham Palace this week highlighted the king’s “busy” schedule, which leaves little room for maneuver.

He has meetings on Wednesday morning and is expected to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party on Wednesday afternoon, followed by his weekly audience with Rishi Sunak, the prime minister.

On Thursday he will have a public engagement outside London. He also continues his cancer treatment, which requires regular hospital appointments.

The Duke is expected to stay in London for three days before flying to Nigeria, where he will be joined by his wife, Meghan, for a quasi-royal tour.

Although it was his Invictus Games commitments that brought him back to the UK, he had fervently hoped that the visit would also bring him back to his father.

The Duke last saw the King in February, when he crossed the Atlantic to visit him following his cancer diagnosis and appeared encouraged by a 30-minute meeting at Clarence House.

But the meeting was far from simple, with plans changed at the last minute and the Duke unable to travel to Sandringham with his father as he had hoped.

In an interview days later on an American breakfast show in Whistler, Canada, he explained how the disease can bring families together.

“I love my family. And the fact that I was able to get on a plane and go see (my father) and spend time with him, I’m grateful for that,” he said.

The Duke refused to divulge any information regarding his father’s health, saying: “That remains between him and me. »

But he vowed to visit her in the near future. “I have other trips planned that will take me across the UK or within the UK, so I will stop and see my family as much as possible,” he added.

The failure of the two sides to align their agendas will dash hopes that long-broken relations will be restored.

The Duke is keen to reconnect after a difficult few years which saw him increasingly estranged from the royal family due to a series of public revelations and accusations.