Prince Harry has had a shocking week — and now may need to rely on pals like Elton John to help pay millions of dollars in legal fees, Page Six can reveal.
The renegade royal’s UK trip this week had descended into a humiliating farce, but there was a bright spot on Friday: After days of whispers and briefings from Sussex sources and royal insiders, Harry finally got his wish and met King Charles and Queen Camilla with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children.
Finally, Harry made a bolt to Highgrove, his father’s country estate, where Charles and Camilla were reunited with the children for the first time in four years.
Markle, 44, brought the kids over from Portugal, where they had been staying.
It was a much-needed win.
Royal insiders in the UK described this past week as “chaotic” for the Duke of Sussex, whose reps announced on Monday morning that he had accepted an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace — only for the palace to publicly rescind the offer moments later.
We’re told that Harry had been personally dealing with his father’s staff and first told them, on Saturday, he would not need a room, then changed his mind hours later. The palace said he had missed their requested deadline.
One insider said the decision was partly operational, as there was a lack of time to bring household staff into the residence, which is currently under renovation — but admitted palace courtiers were worried it would be constitutionally problematic for the king if Harry stayed there on the same day he lost his court case against Associated Newspapers Ltd.
On Tuesday, he lost his privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail— and could face up to $20 million (£15m) in legal fees, which, sources told Page Six, he does not have.
Harry, 41, and his fellow claimants, who sued ANL over allegations of unlawful information gathering in stories about them, will have just 14 days to pay the fees after a judge finalizes costs later this month, even if they ask for the right to appeal.