King Charles III is ‘less irritated’ with Prince Harry than heir Prince William, Princess Diana biographer Tina Brown says

King Charles III is privately at odds with Prince William over work and image, with sources telling Wonderwall.com the monarch has grown increasingly frustrated with his heir amid simmering tensions over duty and family.

Charles, 77, and William, 44, have long presented a united front, but in recent weeks, their differing approaches to royal life have been thrown into sharper relief.

The king, who is still undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer following his diagnosis in 2024, reportedly carried out more than double the number of official engagements as William did last year.

As Charles continued his demanding schedule, Harry, 41, returned to Britain in July for one-year countdown events ahead of the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, England. The Duke of Sussex, wife Meghan Markle, 44, and their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, also privately met with Charles and Queen Camilla at the monarch’s Highgrove estate on July 10 — a move royal commentators have widely said played unexpectedly well with the public.

“There is a growing sense that the king feels the weight of the institution resting largely on his shoulders, particularly when he looks at how busy his own schedule has been compared with his heir’s,” a source with knowledge of palace dynamics told Wonderwall.com.

“When he sees that he is pushing through a demanding program of work, even as he manages treatment and recovery, while William’s public commitments sometimes look relatively light, it becomes more than just a scheduling issue — it starts to feel like a source of real tension.”

Royal biographer and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, who wrote the bestselling book The Diana Chronicles, believes the issues between Charles and William go beyond scheduling and reflect deeper personal frustrations.

“The king is, I am told, currently less irritated with the prodigal Harry than he is with his elder son and heir,” Brown wrote on her Fresh H*** Substack. “Somehow, William’s parenting dedication always seems couched as a tacit criticism of the king’s own paternal deficiencies.”

Brown also highlighted the contrast between William’s schedule and the king’s workload despite undergoing cancer treatment.

“After five confirmed family vacations in the past seven months,” she wrote, “William’s first‑week‑back diary pulsated with two outings: a father‑daughter excursion to a Women’s Rugby World Cup pool match and a stroll through the Natural History Museum’s new gardens. Charles, despite his battle with cancer, has carried out official engagements on 175 days during the past 12 months.”

Brown also argued that Harry quietly reshaped his public image during his recent visits to Britain — a shift she thinks could be uncomfortable for William.

“At last, Prince Harry has got it right, which is bad news for the Prince of Wales. After five years of exuding choler and wrath and spouting therapeutic gibberish, the ginger whinger finally realized that all the royals have to do to win public enthusiasm is zip around the U.K. and smile.”

Brown pointed to Harry’s decision to give his own funds to a charitable project. “Harry’s own reset — a positivity campaign he hopes will endear him to … [Charles] and a negative British public … came with a new unexpected gambit — a contribution from his own bank account of [nearly $1.5] million to the Children in Need project,” she wrote. “It cannily unleashed for William the uneasy question of what exactly” the Prince of Wales is doing with his own money, Brown suggested.

Harry’s spokesperson echoed that positive assessment after that trip, saying Harry “loved being back in the U.K., catching up with old friends, colleagues and just generally being able to support the incredible work of the causes that mean so much to him.”