Prince Harry is reportedly looking to reset relations with the Royal Family in an upcoming visit to the UK alongside wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who moved to California after stepping down as senior royals in January 2020, are set be in Britain in July to attend celebrations marking the one-year countdown to Harry’s Invictus Games in Birmingham.
Harry is also set to attend events with WellChild and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, charities he supports. Speculation has swirled that the visit could mark a long awaited reunion for the King and his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet after the Sussexes confirmed they had taken up the offer of royal accommodation for the visit.
Relations between Harry and Meghan and the Palace have reportedly been frosty in the wake of Prince Harry‘s tell-all memoir Spare, in which he wrote about tensions between himself and members of The Firm – including heir to the throne and older brother Prince William.
An interview with American TV legend Oprah drew further focus onto the royal family, known for its tightly guarded privacy.
It has been four years since Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, last saw the King in person during his late mother’s Queen Elizabeth II’s 2022 Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Meghan hasn’t been in the UK since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September of that year. Harry has previously insisted it isn’t safe for her to return to the UK due to the threats made against her by right-wing extremists.
A source has told the Daily Mail that the Sussexes’ trip is the first step in Harry’s efforts to lower the temperature and repair relations between him and the Royal Family, especially with his father.
Meanwhile, a friend of Harry’s reportedly said the decision to come back to his country of birth with Meghan and the children was made months ago, and had raised the idea of the Palace supporting them.
They suggested that the view from the palace was that the duke needed to make sure that meetings with the family stayed private, something which the source said Harry readily agreed to.
Friends of the prince also suggest Harry believes it could mark the start of a new understanding between Harry and the Palace, that would see Royal Family accepting the Sussexes’ free reign to pursue their various lucrative ventures in the US whilst allowing them closer into the fold, the outlet reports.
A source close to him said there is “some acceptance that in the UK he can act as a semi-working royal as long as there is nothing commercial going on here”.
The Mail says insiders indicate that Harry believes it might allow the Sussexes to the opportunity move past the strict terms of the famous “Sandringham summit” that marked their exit from senior royal duties, with the Palace making clear that they could not be “half-in and half-out” of the royal family.