King Charles made ‘disappointed’ admission after Prince Harry’s birth that floored Diana

King Charles was reportedly “disappointed” at Prince Harry’s arrival for one particular reason, according to claims made by Princess Diana in her tape recordings. Charles and Diana’s youngest child Harry was born in London on September 15 1984, two years and three months after his older brother Prince William.

In tapes recorded by Diana, which were turned into an official biography by Andrew Morton in 1992, she said that her husband’s words had caused real upset in the Spencer family. She said: “At Harry’s christening, Charles went up to Mummy [Queen Elizabeth] and said ‘we’re so disappointed, we wanted a girl’ and Mummy snapped his head off and said ‘you should realise you are lucky to have a child that’s normal’.” Diana added that this exchange impacted the King’s relationship with his mother negatively, explaining: “Ever since that day, the shutters have come down. That’s what he does when he gets somebody answering back at him.”

Mr Morton revealed how taken aback he was by the contents of the tapes, saying: “I felt I’d been transported into a parallel universe. “The Princess was talking about her unhappiness, her sense of betrayal, her suicide attempts — and two things I’d never previously heard of: an eating disorder called bulimia nervosa and a woman called Camilla.” Diana and Charles eventually separated in 1992, the same year the biography was published, with their divorce officially being finalised in 1996. In his memoir Spare, published in 2023, the Duke of Sussex took aim at his father’s parenting style, particularly after the death of Diana in 1997.

He recalled that being a single parent was something Charles was “never made for”, admitting “he tried”, but had ultimately “always given an air of being not quite ready for parenthood – the responsibilities, the patience, the time.” He claimed that even King Charles “would’ve admitted as much”. However royal expert Ingrid Seward later defended the King and his parenting skills, as she told OK! magazine: “He’s really got it in for his father’s parenting. What Harry fails to remember is that Charles had an appointment in his diary every 20 minutes, like the Queen did.

“He scheduled time with his children and he took them to things like the polo and skiing, and he did gardening and taught them all about plants. He did that kind of fathering.” Ms Seward believes the feud between Harry and the rest of the royals would have been upsetting for his mother, adding: “Diana used to say, ‘Harry’s the naughty one just like me’, but Diana was far more sensitive to people’s feelings than Harry is.

“She wouldn’t have been so outspoken because she wouldn’t want to hurt William. I imagine that Diana would be very unhappy with the way Harry has spoken about his brother. “And also I think that Diana felt it was her exclusive right to attack her husband but certainly not her children’s right to attack their father.”