If you feel as though you’ve already heard rather a lot about Prince Harry’s recent arrival on home soil: that’s because you have. Indeed, there have been almost minute-by-minute updates about the details of his trip back to the UK, which is primarily as part of a launch event for his charity project Invictus Games, due to take place in Birmingham this week.
The updates have been centring, mostly, on whether he would be accompanied by his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their two children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five. There has also been varying degrees of speculation over the possibility that Harry and co will be staying at a royal residence, as well as whether there were plans for Harry’s father, King Charles, to meet with them during their stay.
The final decision came last week: Harry would not be bringing his wife and children on the trip to London, who are instead thought to be holidaying on mainland Europe. This was down to the fact that he is no longer afforded the security status of a working royal, with police protection – something the prince has long argued with the government that he needs, particularly if he is to bring his children to this country. It’s even gone through the courts, to no avail. This, then, was said to be behind his decision to leave them behind this week. He is also not staying at Buckingham Palace while he’s here (something about responding too late), which Harry called ‘disappointing’.
At about 9am on Monday, the BBC reported that Harry’s spokesperson had said the prince had accepted an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace during the trip. But within about 15 minutes the broadcaster said the palace had contradicted that.
One report has suggested that senior royals have started to find the endless back and forth about Harry’s trip ‘tiresome’. The report, in the Daily Mail, also claimed that the royals had one plan for the week that Harry is here: ‘shut out the noise’, suggesting that they are filling their calendars with official engagements and meetings, while King Charles is also expected to hold a number of private audiences and meetings that are not listed in the Court Circular ahead of time.
Harry is thought to have engagements in the Midlands on Friday and Saturday this week, but also plans to stay on to visit family and friends – including a trip to his late mother’s family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire to visit her grave, reported the Mail. The report added, ‘Senior working royals have more than 29 official duties already scheduled in their diaries starting today, when the Duke of Sussex arrives in Britain, and Saturday, when his final public appearances conclude. Most of the engagements have been long planned and will see almost all of the senior working royals out on public duty.’
This includes Charles, Camilla, William and Kate. Harry and his brother are not thought to have seen one another since August 2024 when they both attended the memorial service for their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes at St. Mary’s Church in Norfolk, England. They, however, reportedly did not speak or openly interact during the event. The last time they are known to have publicly engaged with one another was during a walkabout outside Windsor Castle following the death of their grandmother. Since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020, it’s thought that Prince William has found it difficult to forgive his brother for ‘airing the family’s dirty laundry’.
It is said to be a source of immense sadness for both Harry and his father that Archie and Lilibet have spent such little time in the UK – and Harry has been open about his regret that his children don’t know the country where he was once such a prominent public figure. Following the loss of his legal appeal over security arrangements last year, he told the BBC that he couldn’t ‘see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point’. He added, ‘The things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything,’ he added of his children. ‘I miss the UK, I miss parts of the UK, of course I do. I think that it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.’
Harry has made several solo trips back, but without security his children have rarely visited, and it is understood that Charles has met Lilibet only once, during what was described as a ‘fantastic visit’ in June 2022.
Although no reunion between Harry and the King has been officially confirmed, it has long been reported that Harry, in particular, is keen to spend time with his father and mend the rift which has caused huge heartache for the Firm. Reports of rare face to face encounters over the years have done little to help so far: a brief private meeting between Harry and Charles in 2025, described as a short tea at the King’s London residence, was seen as cordial but limited, while Harry’s own account of a tense post-funeral walk in 2021, detailed Charles pleading to him and William, ‘Please, boys, don’t make my final years a misery’.
However, one alleged reason that Harry’s invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace was ‘withdrawn’ is that the King did not want to be seen to support his son after his recent legal loss against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
The Duke and six others, including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, sued Associated Newspapers Limited over claims of unlawful information gathering. In his ruling, Mr Justice Nicklin said the allegations were serious and required more convincing evidence before being proven – but the claimants had failed to prove them. ANL called the ruling a ‘magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism’.
It’s already proving to be a big week for the prince. What will happen next? Only time will tell. Harry will certainly be hoping that things begin to improve.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source graziadaily.co.uk ’
