Transylvania-bound King Charles will miss Harry’s London return after car chase drama

Once again, King Charles has a reason for not spending time with his renegade son Prince Harry, who returns to London next week to testify in one of his court cases — two weeks after he and his wife Meghan Markle were embroiled in a PR controversy when they were accused of exaggerating the danger they were in when paparazzi followed them around New York City.

Charles will be hiking in Transylvania next week during the same period that Harry will be in London to testify against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in his lawsuit over phone hacking, The Telegraph reported.

It turns out that Charles has property in Transylvania, a mountainous region of Romania that’s steeped in the lore of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Charles, in fact, owns a picturesque nature retreat that has been transformed into a guest house for travelers. In line with Charles’ known interests, the guest house promotes traditional crafts and architecture and sustainable food practices.

But the king’s solo, five-day trip to Romania coincides with his California-based son’s trip to the U.K., meaning the estranged father and son are unlikely to see each other or work on mending their family rift, as The Telegraph reported.

Charles may or may not have seen the Duke of Sussex in the audience of the some 2,000 people in Westminster Abbey at his May 6 coronation. It’s not believed that father and son enjoyed any private time together during the coronation weekend as Harry only stayed the Friday night at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, then rushed away from the ceremony on Saturday to catch a flight back to California.

Charles also didn’t see Harry in late March when the Duke of Sussex paid a visit to the U.K. for another of his phone hacking lawsuits, this one against the Daily Mail, the Telegraph also reported. While Harry was in London, the king was off at Highgrove, his country estate.

Apparently, Charles will use his trip to Transylvania to recuperate from his coronation. His wife, Queen Camilla, won’t accompany him, as he reportedly will spend his days hiking in the hills and his evenings reading. The Telegraph said Charles owns at least 10 properties in Romania, having purchased his first, an 18th-century house in the village of Viscri, in 2006. At this retreat, there is no Wi-Fi, TV or radio.

Perhaps in this solitude, Charles will try to ignore the media noise that is expected to come from his second son Harry being in London. It’s been an eventful month for Harry, mostly notably in the way he and Meghan sparked global uproar by claiming that they were involved in a “near-catastrophic car chase” with “relentless” paparazzi the night of May 17 in New York City.

Harry, Meghan, and her mother, Doria Ragland, were leaving a gala for the Ms. Foundation, during which the former TV actor was honored for her work on behalf of empowering women. Harry and Meghan received considerable pushback for their effort to make their encounter with tabloid photographers that night sound as if they faced similar circumstances to the paparazzi pursuit that ended with the death of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

The pushback and skepticism came from multiple quarters, including New York City authorities, major news outlets, security experts, other New York-based celebrities and a taxi driver who was briefly enlisted to help them evade photographers. Since then, the couple have been mired in questions and debate about their credibility and whether they inflicted serious reputational damage on themselves.

The controversy will no doubt follow Harry when he appears in London next week to testify — the first member of the royal family to testify in a court case in 130 years.

Harry is suing the Mirror Group of newspapers in the U.K., claiming they performed unlawful activities — including phone hacking — to report some 140 stories about him between 1991 and 2011. The publisher has denied the allegations.

The case pits Harry directly against former Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who has become one of the most vocal critics of Harry and his American wife. Harry’s attorneys have alleged that Morgan “lies at the heart” of illegal reporting practices at the Mirror Group newspapers, which also includes the Sunday Mirror and People. But Morgan has long denied hacking anyone’s phone — which involves intercepting mobile phone messages — or directing others to do so.