Prince Charles remains "completely bewildered" by son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle as they return to the UK, a friend close to the heir apparent claims.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are believed to have landed today for their fleeting visit before the pair jet off to Germany.
They will attend a series of official engagements while reportedly playing "royal hide and seek" with the Firm.
The Sussexes are not expected to visit the Queen in Scotland during their visit, but it remains to be seen if Harry will take the couple's two children, Archie and Lilibet, to see their grandfather.
But, according to The Times, Charles is finding the situation "difficult".
A friend says: “For two years, there has been a steady stream of really challenging things said about a man who cannot publicly defend himself to a couple he obviously loves and misses.
"That is incredibly difficult on a personal level. He is completely bewildered by why his son, whom he loves deeply, feels this is the way to go about managing family relationships.”
The Sussex couple will attend a youth summit in Manchester on Monday before the WellChild awards in London on Thursday.
They will then visit Germany on Tuesday for an Invictus Games event.
Their return comes just days after Meghan gave an explosive and wide-ranging interview to The Cut in which she said it takes "a lot of effort" to forgive and hinted that she can "say anything".
It is believed the couple will be staying at their former £2.4m home, Frogmore Cottage, after Harry renewed the lease earlier this year.
The Royal Family are braced for further revelations from Meghan's with the imminent release of more episodes of her lucrative Spotify podcast Archetypes.
These revelations could be "more damaging" than her infamous interview with American chat show queen Oprah Winfrey, a leading royal author fears.
She has already told of how son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom when he was meant to be sleeping, during the Sussexes' tour of South Africa in 2019.
Meghan included a dig at royal protocols when she recalled having to do an official engagement just hours after the blaze.
In last week's episode, she told legendary diva Mariah Carey how wasn't treated like a black woman until she first met Prince Harry.
Respected Mr Larcombe, who wrote Prince Harry: The Inside Story, fears the monarchy could be in for another rough ride over the next few months.
"This was the opening salvo in Meghan's 12-week war," the author told The Daily Beast.
"It has the potential to be even more damaging than the Oprah interview because it is Meghan, in her own words, on her own show, doing exactly what she wants, and the fact is she took the first opportunity to plunge the knife in."
