Julius Caesar and the Duchess of Sussex. Both look spiffing in a nice flowy white ensemble and both of them failed at conquering Britain their first go round. The second time worked for Caesar so can it for Meghan?
Because she’s going baaaaaack, back to the land of the limp sausage roll and unconscious bias for the first time since 2022.
On Wednesday news.com.au’s Bronte Coy broke the world exclusive that the duchess will be joining husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex when he returns to the UK next month for events marking one year to go until the Birmingham 2027 Invictus Games.
It’s a trip that is going to be heavy on the ‘firsts’ – It will be Meghan’s first time back to not-so-merry England since the late Queen’s passing and the first time their kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet and their iPads have flown to Britain since June 2022. (And it will only be Lili’s second time ever meeting her grandfather King Charles.)
It is not known how long the family could stay but there has been speculation it could for four to five days.
If the $160,000 worth of silver-plated fanfare trumpets that were ordered for the Sussexes’ wedding are still lying about the Ministry of Defence then someone should get to blowing them. This trip is Big Stuff because the Sussexes Take Britain 2.0 will tell us everything we need to know about the direction of the royal family in 2026 and beyond.
Are Harry and Meghan quietly unpicking Megxit? Is King Charles ushering Harry back into the bosomy royal embrace? Would this translate to a demi return to British life for the duke? How much of this whole thing is about re-upping the Sussexes’ royal stardust quotient to help them market themselves in the US where their popularity is slumping like an Old Etonian on his eighth pink gin?
There is undoubtedly the emotional and very human part to this trip, the Occam’s Razor with a serving of lemon drizzle cake – Harry very clearly deeply misses his homeland and wants their kids to know their grandfather and vice versa. The memento mori of the King’s 2024 cancer diagnosis must only have sharpened the Sussexes’ minds to the finite nature of time and the importance of patching things up, even if His Majesty’s long-term prognosis is much much better than previously thought.
So, for Archie and Lili and Charles, a possible July meeting would be about creating precious memories of playing pin the tail on the pliant footman.
For the King, the extent to which he extends the hand of reconciliation will tell us a hell of a lot. A quick 45-minute afternoon tea with polite nodding would signal progress but no dramatic moving of the needle. But the Sussex family being invited for a nice stay at Sandringham or Highgrove? That would translate to Charles clearly welcoming the family back in from the cold.
Similarly, the Sussexes’ schedule will show us their direction of travel in 2026 and beyond.
We can expect to see Harry beaming like a megawatt lighthouse away at Invictus events and those connected with his longtime charities, WellChild and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, but what of Meghan? Will she be doing supporting act, second fiddle, stay-at-home-duchess-ing? Or charity engagements of her own?
What, as Meghan might have purred at a Suits director back in the day is, is her motivation in this July scene? Healing family wounds and some sashimi grade bonding? Reclaiming her place as a duchess and doing a spot of DIY hospital visiting? Finding new backdrops to roll out incredibly chic outfits that will earn her affiliate revenue? All of this, all at once?
The Sussexes’ trip to Australia in April saw them successfully roll out the very half-in, half-out model of royaling that Queen Elizabeth was deadset against, the hotchpotch of visiting sick children and charity outings interspersed with muscular money-making. So are they planning on doing the same song and dance number out in the UK?
More than six years on, the success of Megxit is up for debate. The Sussexes have managed to alienate his family, much of the UK and go from feted on the cover of Time as some of the most influential people in the world to doing paid speaking gigs at Canadian real estate conferences who have reportedly pissed off the Kardashians.
Their Netflix slate features a handful of projects yet to go into production, including the adaptation of Meet Me At The Lake that has no director or cast attached in nearly three years and in March the streamer backed out of being Meghan’s As Ever business partner, hitting return-to-sender, reportedly, on a staggering stockpile of jam.
The bigger picture here is that Harry and Meghan’s USP equals HRH. Sure, they are meant to have mothballed those three letters (Meghan’s stationery notwithstanding) but it’s their membership of a 1,000-year-old institution owns actual gold carriages and all of the dolphins and whales in British territorial waters that translate into eyeballs and clicks and ‘add to carts’ and cheques.
Unfortunately for the Sussexes, having spent the last five years rubbishing his family and thus been firmly cast out into the wilderness by Crown Inc, their royal stardust tank is running on fumes.
Their interviews, TV shows, podcast appearances, and them monotonously drumming the same drum, are proof that familiarity breeds boredom. The novelty of two people telling the British monarchy where they can stick it is now nonexistent and their criminally overquoted Walter Bagehot’s royal “magic” has totally evaporated. Oh, another TV appearance? Another red carpet? Another award? Another Disneyland visit? Another Insta shot of a backwards cap-ed Harry doing [insert regular dad thing here]?
Very little of what Harry and Meghan do or say these days makes any real dent in the news cycle or public consciousness.
But you know what would light up the internet? An Instagram video of Archie and Lili gamboling across the King’s front lawn. Or a close up of a small child’s hand holding a jammy scone with a Reubens in the background or a shot of clouds that could only have been taken from a royal palace.
And you know what would make global headlines? All that Spare-finger pointing and on-camera catharting for the highest bidder being replaced with Harry and Meghan being welcomed back by Charles and some cockle-warming hatchet-burying.
A feel good reunion special could be just the thing to reverse the Sussexes’ sinking US numbers.
In November 2020, YouGov polling showed that the duchess was liked by 57 per cent of Americans and disliked by 30 per cent, thus giving her a net approval rating of +27; Harry was on +40.
In April 2025, Meghan was on +15. (Harry was at plus 35.)
And in the first three months of this year? The Duchess of Sussex was down to plus 2. (The duke’s most recent numbers are not known.)
You don’t need a big piece of graph paper to see the trajectory.
Harry and Meghan have everything to gain from going back to the UK, the same of which cannot be said for Prince William and Kate, The Prince and Princess of Wales. They now face the potentially destabilising gusting tornado of Les Sussexes blowing back into London, distracting the world from their meticulously plotted work on things like the climate crisis, homelessness and mental health.
It’s a pity that Harry and Meghan are done with telling royal tales because TV cameras capturing what is about to come could put Andy Cohen’s best weave-yanking efforts to shame in the drama stakes.
As TV anchors never say any more, stay tuned.
Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with Australia’s leading media titles.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news.com.au ’
