Prince Charles and Prince Harry are adjusting to life thousands of kilometres apart. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Charles and Prince Harry are adjusting to life thousands of kilometres apart. Photo / Getty Images
His son is 5400 miles away with a new family and new life. But if anything might have sharpened the pang of separation for Prince Charles still further, it would be hearing that Harry has a new father figure.
So claims the singer and actress Katharine McPhee, 36, an old acquaintance of the Duchess of Sussex who has rekindled their relationship since Meghan and Harry moved to America.
Yet McPhee's friendship with her fellow thespian pales beside the one between her husband — pop mogul David Foster, 70 — and the prince.
"My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry," McPhee gushed to the celebrity gossip TV show Access Hollywood. "They're like, they're so cute. They're like father and son. We just stay in touch with them. But mostly, Meghan and I knew each other from childhood, but really Harry and my husband are friends, so it's really nice."
Leaving aside that McPhee is just six months older than her husband's new "son", her tactless remark about surrogate fathers echoes Harry's own claim in 2017 that the Royal Family provided Meghan with "the family she never had".
According to Meghan's estranged half-sister Samantha, it was that comment that started the feud between the Duchess and her family.
It has to be said, however, that there's nothing extraordinary about having Foster as a father — with five marriages under his belt, he has five biological children and six stepchildren.
This well-connected and charismatic Tinseltown power-player helped the Sussexes find a place to live in British Columbia during their brief Canadian sojourn. He admitted connecting them to the as-yet-unnamed owner of a mansion on Vancouver Island where they and baby son Archie found "respite", said Foster, who added that he felt "honoured" to help Meghan "because I'm a Canadian and we're a Commonwealth country".
The honour continues: asked where the Sussexes may end up living as they house-hunt in Los Angeles, McPhee said that was Foster's department.
Singer and actress Katharine McPhee (right), 36, claims her husband - pop mogul David Foster (left), 70 - has a 'really beautiful relationship' with Prince Harry. Photo / Getty Images
"David is the resource guy. He knows all the places. He loves to help people 'We just want them to end up wherever they feel safest and happiest."
Despite public pronouncements and a forthcoming tell-all book "written with the participation of those closest to the couple", the Sussexes have repeatedly insisted they want to live a private life.
Yet Foster has a uniquely Hollywood notion of privacy — parading his existence for public consumption at every turn.
He has twice allowed cameras into his home to film a reality TV series. In 2005, he and third wife, actress Linda Thompson (longtime girlfriend of Elvis Presley), collaborated in a cheesy show called The Princes Of Malibu. This followed Foster's attempts to put his spoilt-rotten stepsons Brandon and Brody (from Linda's marriage to Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, before he transitioned to become Caitlyn) on the straight and narrow.
In 2012, Foster did it again when he and his fourth wife, Dutch-born model Yolanda Hadid, starred in the equally tacky series Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills. This followed the couple, along with Yolanda's supermodel daughters, Gigi and Bella, at their US$19 million home in Malibu. Foster has also appeared as a judge or mentor in a string of TV music contests, including American Idol and Asia's Got Talent.
He is even welcoming the public into his current home in Malibu during the coronavirus lockdown. He and Katharine, a runner-up in the 2006 season of American Idol and star of the recent West End musical Waitress, have been giving daily concerts on Instagram, taking song requests.
Ms McPhee said she and Meghan know each other from their childhoods. Pictured: The pair together in a photo which Ms McPhee posted on Instagram. Photo / Instagram / @Katharinefoster
In what they call the Kat and Dave Show, she sings (and sometimes tapdances) as he accompanies her on a grand piano on which his 16 Grammy awards are prominently displayed.
"We decided because we're all housebound that we would have a little fun," said Foster, who coincidentally has a new album to promote. They've certainly successfully inserted themselves into the Sussex soap opera.
In January 2019, perfectly timed just a few days before she opened in Waitress in London, McPhee revealed her connection to Meghan when she posted on social media a photo of her and Meghan from their youthful days together, commenting: "Both did musicals together as a kid. One is now the duchess and the other is starring on the west end [sic]. Basically the same life if you ask me".
McPhee has now admitted, however, that she was "never really close friends" with Meghan. When she was in London doing Waitress, she and Foster attended a charity event at which the Sussexes were also present. "Me and David put ourselves in a position where we could at least say hello and they were really gracious," she said.
From that rather tenuous connection, great things have sprung. Some might say it's a mutually beneficial relationship (as they tend to be in Hollywood) in which the Fosters can bask in the reflected glory of the ex-royal Sussexes while the latter acquire friends who know how to grease the wheels in a city that's all about who you know.
But Foster remains an unlikely father figure for Harry.
Born and raised on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, where his father worked in a boatyard, Foster pursued his passion for music from a young age.
He became an influential keyboard player and composer, working with former Beatle George Harrison, Earth, Wind And Fire and Chicago, as well as providing music for films. He also composed the theme song for the 1988 Winter Olympics and has produced for stars including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Madonna.
And he is the uncrowned king of Christmas albums, a much-mocked but lucrative genre, producing four of the biggest-selling 15 ever made. His personal life has been just as busy. He had his first child when he was 20 and placed her up for adoption, reconnecting with her 10 years later. He had a second daughter with his first wife, singer BJ Cook, and three further daughters with second wife, former model Rebecca Dyer.
His four-year marriage to Hadid ended in divorce in May 2017. A year later he became engaged to McPhee, despite the 34-year age gap. He'd produced her first single and even played piano at her previous wedding to actor Nick Cokas.
They married in June last year at an Armenian church in South Kensington while she was still in Waitress. The Duke and Duchess weren't among the guests.
Is Foster really now Harry's father figure or is that just Hollywood gloss? Either way, the Sussexes may find that LA paparazzi aren't the only ones they have to fear when it comes to keeping their new "private" life under wraps.
