As soon as the Duke of Sussex<\/a> lost a legal challenge over his taxpayer-funded security in Britain back in May, he rushed to give a BBC<\/a> interview in which he admitted to being \u2018devastated\u2019 and declared, emotionally: \u2018I can\u2019t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.\u2019<\/p>\n Surely, then, I wasn\u2019t the only one surprised to learn that his wife, Meghan, was in Paris last weekend?<\/p>\n The French capital was, of course, the place where Prince Harry\u2019s mother, Princess Diana<\/a>, was killed in a car crash after she voluntarily gave up her official Metropolitan Police<\/a> protection officers.<\/p>\n So you might have thought Paris would be the last place the Duke would want his wife to be, particularly as he was not with her.<\/p>\n Instead, she was accompanied to Paris Fashion Week<\/a> by loyal friend Markus Anderson. He\u2019s the \u2018chief relationship officer\u2019 at the Soho House global chain of private members\u2019 clubs, whose relationship with the Duchess of Sussex<\/a> is so close that he\u2019s been described as her \u2018second husband\u2019.<\/p>\n Given Harry\u2019s security concerns for his family – which were sufficiently deep that he was prepared to sue his father\u2019s Government at great personal expense – questions have been asked about the real reason for the Duchess of Sussex\u2019s first visit to Europe since she attended the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf more than two years ago.<\/p>\n Now, I can provide some answers.<\/p>\n Meghan\u2019s French sojourn was part of the \u2018Establishment plot\u2019 – backed by some senior politicians and courtiers – that I have written about here in previous weeks. And I\u2019ve even discovered its name.<\/p>\n Meghan Markle at the\u00a0Balenciaga Womenswear Spring\/Summer 2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week last week<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Markus Anderson, Chief Relationship Officer at Soho House. Anderson is so close to the Duchess of Sussex that he has been described as her ‘second husband’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s known as \u2018Project Thaw\u2019 because the aim is to ‘warm up’ the Duke\u2019s and Duchess\u2019s frosty relationships with the rest of the Royal Family and with the British people.<\/p>\n And what could be better than pictures of her being greeted with kisses by the European fashion pack as well as Vogue supremo Dame Anna Wintour?<\/p>\n \u2018This trip is all part of the \u201cthaw\u201d process,\u2019 a friend of the California-based couple tells me.<\/p>\n Things had once been very different of course.<\/p>\n Just as Harry fell head over heels for Meghan, who played a seductive paralegal in cable television drama Suits, the British public embraced the American actress after she moved to London in 2017 and the couple announced their engagement.<\/p>\n On that sunny spring day when they were married the following year, thousands of well-wishers flocked to Windsor to celebrate the royal wedding, with tens of thousands more glued to their TVs.<\/p>\n The Sussexes\u2019 relations with the rest of Harry\u2019s family soon started to cool, however – and the British public was not far behind.<\/p>\n After the couple quit royal duties and moved to North America in 2020, attitudes hardened further.<\/p>\n Prince Harry told the BBC after he lost a legal challenge over his taxpayer-funded security in Britain in May that he ‘can\u2019t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And when Harry and Meghan voiced their public criticism of the Royal Family to Oprah Winfrey, to viewers of their Netflix series and in Harry\u2019s tawdry memoir, Spare, their relationship with Britain iced over completely.<\/p>\n \u2018Project Thaw\u2019 aims to melt that hostility, building on the perceived success of the duke\u2019s visit to Britain last month when he carried out charity engagements and, crucially, was invited to Clarence House for tea with King Charles.<\/p>\n It was the first face-to-face meeting between father and son in 19 months.<\/p>\n That was followed by a visit to Kyiv, where Harry just happened to arrive on the same train to the war-torn Ukrainian capital as the newly appointed Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper.<\/p>\n I understand that Ms Cooper is among the Establishment figures who admire the duke and want him to play a bigger part in public life.<\/p>\n While in Kyiv, Harry told anti-monarchy newspaper The Guardian that he hoped to return to Britain with Meghan and their children, Prince Archie, aged six, and Princess Lilibet, four.<\/p>\n \u2018This week has definitely brought that closer,\u2019 he claimed.<\/p>\n I can disclose that the next planned move in the plot \u2013 or \u2018process\u2019 as their pals prefer to put it, suggesting a natural progression \u2013 is the couple\u2019s first joint visit to Britain since they attended a charity engagement in September 2022, then stayed on for Queen Elizabeth\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n \u2018Meghan will return to Britain before the year is out,\u2019 the friend tells me, adding jokingly that she will be \u2018bearing humble pie\u2019.<\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether \u2018bearing humble pie\u2019 – and eating it, presumably – is sufficient to placate the Royal Family or the British people.<\/p>\n I, for one, won\u2019t be tasting a slice until she apologises to senior royals including the Prince and Princess of Wales for the profound hurt that she and her husband have caused.<\/p>\n![\"Markus](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/10\/09\/12\/102839553-15176853-Markus_Anderson_Chief_Relationship_Officer_at_Soho_House_Anderso-a-17_1760010009769.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>\n![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/10\/09\/11\/102839565-15176853-image-a-3_1760005200268.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>\n