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The Queen opened the first virtual Chelsea Flower Show this week, and explained how the event had long been one of the Royal Family’s favourite engagements. The Queen’s grandmother, Queen Mary, first attended the event in 1916, and it has remained close to the monarch’s heart ever since.  In 2013, Prince Harry set up his own garden in honour of his charity, Sentebale, and invited his whole family to enjoy it.

His father Charles came to inspect the garden, and according to the Daily Mail at the time, “looked proud as punch at his son’s efforts”.

He said to Harry: “This is the great garden is, after all that effort? I was wondering if it didn’t exist.”

The two exchanged several jokes before Harry noticed his grandfather Prince Philip was waiting to come into the garden.

He joked to Charles: “Look, they’re even queuing.”

However, the Daily Mail noted: “When Charles failed to notice the other VIP guest, Harry ribbed him.”

The Duke of Sussex then said: “Err, pa, meet your father!”

This prompted Charles to “look up with an exclamation of surprise”.

Philip and Harry then engaged in some cheerful conversation, with the younger royal commenting: “You were meant to be looking at strimmers and tractors, Grandpa, I didn’t know you were coming. Fantastic!”

Harry continued: “Hopefully you like it. You’ve been coming here for years and your opinion is highly regarded.

“Are we going to see any of this at Sandringham or Balmoral?”

Curiously, the article did not appear to notice any more communication between Philip and Charles, although photographs reveal they did share a brief air kiss.

This could have been the latest indication of tensions between the two senior royals.

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Relations between them have been strained for years, according to royal insiders, as Philip struggled with Charles’ supposed “extravagance”.

In turn, the Prince of Wales was frustrated with his father and his upbringing in childhood.

Philip would often make small jibes towards Charles, who would then take them to heart.

For instance, when writing for Vanity Fair in 2017, royal biography Sally Bedell Smith explained how the heir’s performance in a play when he was still at school strained their relationship even further.

She explained: “In November 1965, [Charles] played the lead in Macbeth.”

She continued: “Charles was excited about the prospect of his parents’ coming to see a performance.

“But as he ‘lay there and thrashed about’ onstage, he wrote in a letter, ‘all I could hear was my father and ha, ha, ha.’”

Philip told his son after the play that his performance “sounded like the Goons”, which the biographer described as a “dagger to the heart of a young man so eager to please”.

The Sun also claimed last year that Philip found his son to be “too political and cerebral to become a successful sovereign”.

The pair have clashed on several constitutional matters over the years, too, particularly regarding Charles’ intention to start a “slimmed-down Royal Family” which would be independent of taxpayers’ support.

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