Meghan Markle is widely expected to join Prince Harry on his trip to the U.K. in the coming days with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, raising the prospect of a meeting between the king and his grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Over the past two weeks, there have been widespread media reports that the Duchess of Sussex and the couple’s children might join Harry during his weeklong trip, potentially allowing their children to see King Charles III for the first time in four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harry landed in London on July 6 before heading to the city of Birmingham to promote the 2027 Invictus Games on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The children were not expected to attend any public events, but Meghan had initially been scheduled to join her husband at the countdown on Friday. However, a dispute with the U.K. government over Harry’s security arrangements<\/a> seemed to suggest the prospect of Meghan coming to the U.K. at all was remote.<\/p>\n The Telegraph<\/a> and the Mirror<\/a> reported that Meghan will come to the U.K. with the two kids but won’t appear in public,\u00a0though that wouldn’t rule out a private meeting with the king. Buckingham Palace and Meghan’s office have both declined to comment on whether a meeting with the king will take place, framing any potential reunion as a private family matter.<\/p>\n The developments follow years of fractured familial relations between the royals. More recently, Harry has spoken more warmly about bridging the divide with his father \u2014 and his children’s grandfather \u2014 the king. So, what’s going on?<\/p>\n Relations between Harry and the royal family have remained poor since he and Meghan stepped back as working royals in 2020 and relocated to California.<\/p>\n The divide was laid bare during the couple’s televised interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, in which Meghan said she had been denied professional help by the palace while feeling suicidal when pregnant with Archie. The couple also said a member of the royal household had asked how dark their unborn son’s skin would be. As damaging racism claims swirled, Queen Elizabeth II released a pointed statement expressing concern for the couple, but adding that “some recollections may vary.”<\/p>\n Harry’s memoir, Spare<\/em>, published in 2023, did little to calm the choppy waters. It contained intimate accounts of family disagreements and criticism of the monarchy’s relationship with the British press, writing that he and his brother, Prince William,\u00a0 asked their father not to marry Camilla, and that they blamed her in part for the breakdown of their parents’ marriage.<\/p>\n Harry also accused William of physically attacking him, writing that William pushed him to the ground during a dispute about Meghan, calling her “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive.” Harry says he did not retaliate and that William later apologized.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he was pressed on whether he regretted sharing his side of the story last September, he told the Guardian<\/a>, “My conscience is clear.”<\/p>\n In recent months, Harry appears to have sought to mend some of the family rift \u2014 with his father at least. Speaking to the BBC last year, the prince said: “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious.”<\/p>\n In September 2025, Harry and Charles held a private tea at Clarence House, their first in\u2011person meeting in 19 months. Reports suggest the frostiness with his father is beginning to thaw. Both sides kept details closely guarded, but Harry later described reports that the reunion was cold as “categorically false,” saying the meeting was warm and emotional.<\/p>\n Any future meetings with the king would be particularly significant as the monarch’s treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer continues.<\/p>\n There has, however, been little public indication of any breakthrough in Harry’s relationship with his brother. The pair were seen together at the funeral for their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, in 2022. But there has been no public interaction since, even at Charles’s coronation in 2023, when Harry left shortly afterward, without any publicly visible interaction with his brother.<\/p>\n But it’s not just familial strains that have proven an obstacle to any thawing of relations. Harry says that practical issues have caused significant problems as well.<\/p>\n One of the biggest issues surrounding any return by the Sussexes to Britain remains a long-running dispute over security.<\/p>\n Since stepping back as a working royal, Harry has argued that he and his family should continue to receive taxpayer-funded police protection when they visit the U.K. British authorities have maintained that because he is no longer a working royal, his security should instead be assessed on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n The Times<\/a> of London reported in 2021 that Harry had been warned that taxpayer-funded security could not be guaranteed if he stepped back from his official royal duties.<\/p>\n The issue became more complicated in 2023 when King Charles asked Harry and Meghan to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their home on the Windsor estate. Yahoo reported<\/a> at the time that losing Frogmore (the family’s only permanent royal residence in Britain) increased their reliance on private accommodation and complicated any ad hoc security arrangements whenever they returned.<\/p>\n The Sussexes were asked to leave Frogmore Cottage.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The disagreement over security has resulted in years of legal action against the U.K. government.<\/p>\n The king has reportedly refused to intervene, classifying it as a matter for the government.<\/p>\n With security issues still up in the air, it also remains unclear just how comfortable the Sussexes are with Meghan, Archie and Lilibet traveling to Britain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Archie and Lilibet may have royal titles, but they are growing up in California with seemingly little connection to the British royal family.\u00a0<\/p>\n They have spent very little time with King Charles since Harry and Meghan relocated to California, and a visit would provide a rare opportunity for them to see their grandfather, who has not seen them since June 2022, during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.<\/p>\n Meghan and Prince Harry leave St. Paul’s Cathedral during the queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\nStrained relations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Long-running security dispute<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What about Archie and Lilibet?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Meghan](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/10\/f029a933-3efc-30cb-b26e-6aab233fa9be\/df78b2f8-0a65-4c8a-920e-49c4f1a8094b.jpg\"\/)
<\/div>