'Shamed' Harry surprised by King Charles' reaction to his Balmoral 'nightmare'

30 July 2023 , 22:59

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King Charles comforted son Harry in the wake of his 2012 Las Vegas scandal (Image: Getty Images)

Once the Queen's favourite residence, Balmoral has taken on a tragic new significance since the monarch died there last September at the age of 96.

But long before then, the idyllic 50,000-acre estate in Aberdeenshire was also a source of trauma for another member of the Royal Family - Prince Harry. It was at Balmoral in 1997 that he and brother William received the tragic news that their mother had been killed - they were just 12 and 15 at the time.

Already a site of "complicated memories", Harry revealed in his tell-all memoir Spare that Balmoral was also where he suffered through a "Kafkaesque nightmare" after a nude Las Vegas scandal. In 2012 photographs were published of him playing strip billiards at a Sin City hotel, a thoroughly humiliating experience for the then 28-year-old.

William and Harry seen at Balmoral with Charles in August 1997, just weeks before Diana's death (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

"I berated myself: How had I let it happen?" Harry writes. "How had I been so stupid? Why had I trusted other people?" The Duke continued: "My sense of guilt and shame made it hard at moments to draw a clean breath."

He went on: "I fled to Scotland, met up with my family at Balmoral. It was August and they were all there. Yes, I thought, yes, the one thing missing from this Kafkaesque nightmare is Balmoral, with all its complicated memories and the pending anniversary of Mummy's death just days away."

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Dreading a confrontation with his father about his behaviour, Harry said Charles was actually surprisingly "gentle" and supportive when the two finally talked about it.

Young William and Harry with Diana in 1989 (Getty Images)

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"Soon after my arrival I met Pa at nearby Birkhall," he wrote, adding: "To my surprise, to my relief, he was gentle. Even bemused. He felt for me, he said, he'd been there, though he'd never been naked on a front page."

The King has broken with tradition this year and is not spending the summer at Balmoral Castle. The late Queen always made a pilgrimage north to Scotland at the end of the season to stay at the country home, thought to be her favourite royal residence.

But Charles and Queen Camilla have reportedly chosen Birkhall as their main base until autumn instead, leaving Balmoral without a monarch physically in residence for the first time since the 19th century.

Harry says his father was surprisingly "gentle" about his nude photo scandal (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

Birkhall, the smaller private residence on the 50,000 acre Balmoral estate, is where the couple spent most of the Covid-19 lockdown and the King has called it "such a special place". He inherited it upon the death of the Queen Mother in 2002 and has diligently turned it into somewhere he and his wife Camilla can happily call home.

Sources told the Daily Mail the King and Queen will 'decamp' to the main castle for official visits, like that of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf. Balmoral Castle will also host a rotating cast of other members of the Royal Family who are also expected to visit in August.

Sophie Bateman