Prince Harry has appeared in public for the first time since his uncle hit out at King Charles’ ‘giddy’ reaction to the death of Princess Diana.

The Duke of Sussex appeared without his wife Meghan at the Wellchild Awards 2026, which celebrate the achievements and resilience of seriously ill youngsters and their families, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

The Duke looked suave in a smart blue suit and tie as he handed young winner Will Messer – a signed one-off Prince Harry Funko bobblehead toy.

Will Messer, the 10-year-old winner of the Inspirational Child award, asked the duke to sign a Funko Pop “Prince Harry” doll and presented him with a silk scarf from his favourite football team, Sunderland.

The schoolboy’s father Gary Messer, from County Durham, said: ‘Harry said it wasn’t much of a likeness and said he looked like Stewie from Family Guy.’

The back of the box showed other dolls from the royal family series including William, Diana, Kate, the late Queen and the King.

Will, who was born with a leg deformity and a genetic condition affecting his facial development and breathing, is a full-time wheelchair user but chatted about his love of gaming with Harry who said: ‘In my day it was Fifa and Call of Duty.’

Harry also spoke to Margot Jones-Billington, a six-year-old who was left with a brain injury after suffering a bleed on the brain at 10 months old, and told her about his son Archie and daughter Lillibet.

He said: ‘You obviously love sparkles. I have a boy and a girl who are seven and five. My little girl loves sparkles and she loves pink. That’s her favourite colour.’

Margot, winner of the Inspirational Child aged four to six award, was wearing sparkly shoes and a pink dress. The duke asked if he could touch her footwear and said ‘wow’ as he placed his finger on her shoe.

The awards came amid a very public row over Princess Diana’s funeral arrangements outlined in her brother’s upcoming memoir.

Earl Spencer had tried to block Prince Harry and William from following their mother’s casket insisting to then Prince Charles that Diana ‘wouldn’t have wanted that’.

Prince Harry’s uncle Earl Spencer told the BBC on Sunday: ‘(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.

‘And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate’.

‘And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.’

Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row with the earl over whether the then Prince William and Prince Harry should follow Diana’s funeral cortege.

It was thought that William and Harry had not been aware about the explosive contents of Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir to his sister.

But in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, he said: ‘I don’t like to talk about what I’ve been speaking about to William and Harry, but this will not be a surprise to them.’

He clarified: ‘I will tell you that these words will not be a surprise to them.’

Earl Spencer said that then Prince Charles went ‘ballistic’ after he told him that Diana wouldn’t want her young sons making the public walk behind her coffin.

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