King Charles' Prince Harry and Earl Spencer Palace Statements Were Designed to Try and 'Protect His Peace' as He Continues Living With Cancer: Source

King Charles' unusually direct interventions over Prince Harry and Earl Spencer were designed to "protect his peace" as he continues living with cancer and attempts to avoid being dragged into fresh royal disputes, sources have exclusively told OK!.

Charles, 77, has authorized two notable Palace interventions this month – guidance reiterating that Harry, 42, and his wife Meghan Markle, 45, remain non-working royals following their return to Britain, and a rare response challenging claims about him in Spencer's memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.

Both followed intense media inquiries over issues Buckingham Palace believed required clarification.

A royal source told us: "There wasn't some grand strategy to start publicly fighting with Harry or Charles Spencer. The Palace was being inundated with questions, and there comes a point where allowing speculation to continue creates more noise than simply stating the position. The King wants peace around him, and his statements were designed to try and protect that peace. He's still dealing with cancer treatments and has absolutely no appetite for spending this stage of his life being pulled into endless arguments about the past or allowing every royal controversy to develop into another prolonged public battle. That's particularly important when it comes to Harry. His return to Britain inevitably generated questions about whether his position had changed. The answer was no, and officials wanted government departments, the military and Lord Lieutenants to understand that rather than having uncertainty every time Harry and Meghan attended something publicly. The same principle applied to Spencer's allegations. Normally the Palace would much rather leave a book unanswered, but these were extraordinarily personal claims concerning what Charles supposedly said immediately after Diana died. There was such a volume of inquiries that remaining silent risked being interpreted as accepting the account. Charles isn't looking for confrontation with either man. If anything, the intention is the opposite – establish the Palace's position, stop answering the same questions repeatedly and then move on. At this point in his life, protecting some sense of calm matters enormously."

Spencer, 62, alleges the then-Prince Charles told him after Diana's death in 1997: "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."

Buckingham Palace responded that Charles was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."

Spencer has stood by his account.

The separate letter concerning Harry and Meghan reiterated the arrangements established when they stepped away from royal duties in 2020.

It stated: "It is well known that in January 2020 the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of the Sovereign, and are no longer working members of the Royal Family."

It added: "The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity."

The guidance was distributed to Harry's representatives and senior government, military and royal officials.

The Sussexes were said to be surprised by how little notice they received before its release to the media.

The Palace stated the clarification was issued "to help avoid doubt or confusion" following Harry and Meghan's return to Britain.

Spencer, meanwhile, has continued defending Swan Song, saying he stands by the memoir and did not intend it as a "hit piece" on Charles.