Harry and Meghan Frozen Out of King Charles’s Christmas, Skewered on ‘Saturday Night Live’ — and Book ‘Royal-Style’ Rollout

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expected to appear at Nottingham on Thursday in what will be their first joint charity event since they returned to Britain over the summer.That return does not include a Christmas invitation to the royal celebration at the Sandringham Estate. The Sunday Times reports that any such reunion “would be too awkward and too difficult. They also know they’re not going to be invited, and they’re not waiting for an invitation.” The Sussexes intend to spend the holiday in California with the duchess’s mother, Doria Ragland. The Windsors have not been together for the holiday since 2018.In August, the Sussexes engineered a “reverse Megxit,” relocating to the rural redoubt of the Cotswolds after six years at Montecito, California. The BBC reports that Nottingham holds “a special place in the hearts of the couple” because it was the site of their first joint appearance after their engagement in 2017. Their return on Thursday will feature visits to various charities.The Sussexes’ return to Nottingham, a city founded in 919 of the Common Era, comes under somewhat fraught circumstances. Their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, have already had to switch schools because of what the couple call “European paparazzi.” The Sussexes are bound by the Sandringham Agreement reached in 2020, which established the terms under which the couple would step back from their duties.King Charles reaffirmed that arrangement, which was reached with Queen Elizabeth II, in a letter sent to his son and daughter-in-law. The king wrote that “there is no change to the current status of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex” and that “their styles as His and Her Royal Highness remain in abeyance and are not used.” He added that “the charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity.”King Charles concluded that “in short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.” Prince Harry was stung by his father’s letter, which he reportedly viewed only an hour before it was released to the press. A Sussex spokesman explained that his client was “a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.” The king’s note, though, makes clear that the Sussexes do not represent the House of Windsor.The insistence that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are “private citizens” sits uneasily alongside what appears to be a ramping up of their public profiles in the realm ruled by King Charles. The Beeb calls Thursday’s engagement a “royal-style” appearance, but the Sussexes’ distance from the Crown means that they appear set to operate in a gray zone. Prince Harry has long insisted, unsuccessfully, that his family is entitled to the comprehensive security afforded to senior members of the royal family.The British Home Office, though, has resisted. Prince Harry lost a lawsuit seeking to compel the restoration of the security he and his wife received before “Megxit,” but the question is reportedly being reopened following the family’s move back to Britain. The ultimate decision will be made by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, a body that decides whether the burden of protecting the Sussexes ought to be borne by British taxpayers.Prince Harry faced some popular discontent this week when he was captured on a video screen drinking a beer and watching a rugby match between Leicester and Gloucester. The crowd jeered lustily, and the commentator, Nick Mullins, observed “some boos there.” That, though, was not the only popular culture mockery the royals received this week. The cold open of “Saturday Night Live UK” on Saturday featured a sketch in which the Prince and Princess of Wales are fooled into reuniting with the Sussexes — the two brothers have not spoken since 2022 — by their uncle, the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The actress playing Kate Middleton, Annabel Marlow, tells her husband, played by Freddie Meredith, “Oh look, William, it’s the woman from ‘Suits.’” That is a reference to the Duchess of Sussex’s regular role on the American television series that ran for eight seasons in the 2010s.To that, Prince Harry, played by Jack Shep, responds, “She’s not on ‘Suits’ anymore. She doesn’t do anything anymore.”

Harry and Meghan Frozen Out of King Charles’s Christmas, Skewered on ‘Saturday Night Live’ — and Book ‘Royal-Style’ Rollout

Harry and Meghan Frozen Out of King Charles’s Christmas, Skewered on ‘Saturday Night Live’ — and Book ‘Royal-Style’ Rollout

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