CAN THEY HEAL THEIR ROYAL RIFT ?

KING CHARLES AND PRINCE HARRY STAND AT A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN THEIR FRACTURED RELATIONSHIP, AS THE KING'S CANCER DIAGNOSIS ADDS URGENCY TO THE POSSIBILITY OF RECONCILIATION BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

- By SIMON PERRY

At the state opening of Canada's Parliament in Ottawa on May 27, King Charles sat on a throne carved from Windsor trees, medals gleaming over his suit. His visit came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.

But Charles, sovereign of the Commonwealth nation, stayed above the fray. "The True North is indeed strong and free," he declared, earning praise for his statesmanship. "He could give a master class in diplomatic relations," says Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth.

But for Charles, 76, another challenge looms-one no speech can solve: his relationship with his son Prince Harry, 40. As the King reaffirmed his bond with Canada, Harry was thousands of miles away in Shanghai before returning home to California. Though they were briefly on the same continent, they remained as distant as ever. The rift between father and son, five years deep, remains one of the most painful fractures in Charles's reign. Amid the King's cancer diagnosis and Harry's increasingly candid public pleas, the silence between them speaks volumes. "I don't know how much longer my father has," Harry told the BBC on May 2 after a court upheld the removal of his automatic police protection in the U.K. But it was a more personal admission that landed harder: "He won't speak to me."