Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Their Children Finally Meet King Charles as Royals Look To Mend ‘Broken’ Family

The meeting on Friday between Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and King Charles III and Queen Camilla is a stunning 11th hour reconciliation between the Crown and the Sussexes. Buckingham Palace confirms that the meeting, which it calls a “private family occasion,” took place at Highgrove House at Gloucester, at a private residence of the king. King Charles has not seen his grandchildren in four years. While the monarch was meeting with the Sussexes the heir to the throne, Prince William, was playing in a charity polo match at Windsor. The BBC refers to the relationship between the brothers as “broken.” Earlier in the day Prince Harry picked up a pickleball racquet amid non-stop speculation whether his wife and their children would join a homecoming trip that has become fraught. In the end, all the Sussexes were reunited in England for the first time since 2022.The Duke of Sussex tried his hand at the booming sport while at Birmingham to promote the Invictus Games, a competition for injured military veterans that will be held at that city next year. The games will feature 550 competitors from 25 nations. Prince Harry served in the British Army for 10 years, attaining the rank of captain and undertaking two tours of duty in Afghanistan. On Friday the prince also played wheelchair rugby and tried his hand at laser target shooting. There had been speculation that Ms. Markle would join her husband at the Invictus Games event, which is being held about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from London. That did not happen, but the meeting at Highgrove confirms that she and her two children were in the country while her husband was appearing in public. It is not known when they arrived, or where they are staying. Prince Harry last saw his father for a brief private meeting in 2025, at London’s Clarence House, the traditional home to the prince of Wales since 1301, when a Plantagenet king, Edward I, gave it to his son. Located near The Mall at Westminster, Clarence House has been King Charles’ primary London residence since 2003, when he was still Prince of Wales. The current holder of that title, Prince William, was like Prince Harry at London on Wednesday but the two sons of Princess Diana did not cross paths.King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the State Opening of Parliament at London, July 17, 2024. AP/Alberto Pezzali, poolThe deterioration of the dynamic between the Sussexes and the rest of “the Firm,” as the royal family nicknamed, has only accelerated in recent years. Elizabeth II disapproved of Prince Harry’s departure from the obligations that she bore for nearly a century. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s television show in 2021 and alleged racism within the House of Windsor, an allegation that Prince William denies. Disclosures in Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” — including one of an altercation with his brother — further embarrassed his family. King Charles did not see Prince Harry when the monarch visited America in April to mark the 250th anniversary of the independence of the former colonies of the Crown. That trip took the king and Queen Camilla to New York City, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. The Sussexes live at Montecito, an affluent enclave in California that sits between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Ms. Markle and her children were originally slated to join Prince Harry on his return to Britain, the first since he attended the funeral of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. A row, though, broke out over security arrangements for the Sussexes, which has long been a point of contention between the prince and the Crown. The Home Office takes the position that once the Sussexes ceased being working royals in 2020, they are entitled to security on only a contingent rather than a comprehensive basis. Prince Harry maintains that the approach puts his family at risk. Prince Harry’s sojourn has suffered other setbacks. He initially disclosed that he would spend his first night back in Britain at Buckingham Palace, the 755-room pile that serves as the administrative nerve center for the monarchy. Just 15 minutes after that intention was announced, the Crown issued a statement that staffing and other logistical considerations meant there was no place for Prince Harry at the palace. He reckoned that his invitation had been “withdrawn” in a “disappointing” turn of events.Prince Harry’s fraught homecoming also featured a legal defeat when Justice Matthew Nicklin of the English High Court ruled against him in a $67 million dollar suit launched by the prince and a handful of other celebrities against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail. Justice Nicklin “rejected the argument that, simply because information was private, and because Associated could not positively explain how it had been sourced, the relevant article must have been unlawfully sourced.”Now Prince Harry and his co-claimants could be on the hook for some $50 million in attorneys’ fees. Prince Harry declared in a statement that the ruling was a “complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected. However, the lengths to which the Court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted.” Associated Newspapers calls it a “magnificent vindication” and “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists.”This article has been updated from the bulldog edition.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Their Children Finally Meet King Charles as Royals Look To Mend ‘Broken’ Family

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