The stage was set for the first reunion between the King and his youngest grandchildren in more than four years as Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, joined their parents, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in the UK.
Despite a week of high drama that is said to have tested the monarch's patience to the very limit, the Sussex family reunited with the King and Queen at Highgrove. HELLO! understands that the family were hosted on Friday afternoon although at time of going to press there was no official statement from either party.
"At the heart of this is a father and grandfather who wanted to see his second son and his grandchildren," a source tells HELLO!.
But with palace politics surrounding the decision not to accommodate the Duke at a royal residence, a devastating ruling in his latest High Court legal action and embarrassing claims about illicit briefings to the media, Prince Harry's homecoming got off to the rockiest of starts.
And after courtiers refused to accommodate Harry at Buckingham Palace on the night he publicly attacked His Majesty's judiciary, narrowly avoiding a situation in which the King's constitutional position could have been jeopardised, there had been doubts that a reunion might take place at all.
However, the royal author Robert Jobson believes that the King's desire to see Archie and Lili prevailed. "The King is a grandfather who wants a relationship with his grandchildren," he says.
Although Harry has seen his father a few times in the past couple of years – most recently last September – Charles had not seen his youngest grandchildren since the summer of 2022, when they visited the UK during Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Archie was just three years old and Lili marked her first birthday at Windsor.
The fact that the King met up with his younger son and his family will naturally spark talk of reconciliation. Despite the complexities of their situation, there has still always been a willingness to meet on both sides, according to a longtime friend of the Duke, who tells HELLO!: "Harry has a relationship with his father and both sides are keen for the families to see each other. It was about making it happen at the right place and at the right time."
© Getty ImagesBack and forth with the palace
But a week of high drama leading up to the highly anticipated reunion raised questions about just how much bridge-building they would be able to achieve.
The Duke had planned to return to the UK with the Duchess at his side to shine a light on the Invictus Games, which remain perhaps his greatest achievement. But days before they were due to arrive, he announced that Meghan and the children would no longer travel with him to London, citing security concerns while suggesting that they might join him later in the week.
The family were thought to be planning to spend time at Althorp – the ancestral home of the late Diana, Princess of Wales and the location of her final resting place. The estate had been closed to the public on 10 and 11 July, raising the prospect that the Sussexes would base themselves there.
Then, before Harry had even touched down on home soil, his spokesman confirmed that he had formally accepted the King's offer of accommodation at Buckingham Palace. Within 15 minutes, the story changed. Harry had, in fact, declined the offer, after weeks of deliberation, only to change his mind a few hours later.
But it was too late. Palace officials told him that the deadline to accept had passed and that the offer was no longer on the table. The official reason given was that staff needed a minimum of 48 hours' notice to prepare hospitality amid the ongoing building work taking place there.
© Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty ImagesBut there was also another complicating factor: the looming verdict in Harry's case against Associated Newspapers Ltd on 7 July – the same date on which that the Duke had requested to stay.
After Harry's camp briefed that he would deliver a statement from an "undisclosed location" once the ruling was handed down, courtiers feared that the palace could become the backdrop for a war of words that might call the King's constitutional position into question. As one source put it, "alarm bells started going off like a klaxon". For all the recent talk of Harry's frequent conversations with his father, it seemed that their communication regarding the visit had been less than seamless.
Harry learnt that all of his claims of unlawful information-gathering had been dismissed by Mr Justice Nicklin moments before his first public engagement of the trip – as had the claims made by other celebrities including Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost. Associated described the ruling as an "overwhelming victory" and a "magnificent vindication" of its journalism.
At Chatham House, where I watched him take part in a conference organised by the Invictus Games Foundation, Harry looked red-faced and, despite joking that everyone had turned up for the air conditioning, did not appear at ease.
Over the years, I've watched him speak passionately about the Invictus Games with a conviction and enthusiasm that was always inspiring. That afternoon, the spark was missing. His voice sounded reedy as he delivered a six-minute speech. After the panel discussions, he spent an hour locked in talks with his lawyer, David Sherborne, before walking out with a smile and a thumbs-up for the cameras.
But Harry could not contain his fury, later decrying the ruling as a "complete and obvious whitewash", adding: "The lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail are as shocking as they are totally unwarranted. When the court says that there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, despite the documents showing otherwise, one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved."
Poor optics
Speaking of a scenario in which the Prince could have spoken out while being hosted at Buckingham Palace, Robert Jobson says: "If Harry had delivered that statement attacking the law courts while staying in the palace, where £369m has been spent on modernising the headquarters of the monarchy, it would have looked totally wrong.
"Consider the pillars of our national life in his father's kingdom: a free press, an independent judiciary, an elected government and a monarchy that stands above the fray. Harry has taken aim at three of them. He sued the King's government over his security. He accused a national newspaper of criminality – and lost, overwhelmingly. Now he has cast doubt on the court itself."
Robert, the author of Our King: Charles III – The Man and the Monarch Revealed, adds: "For a man in the King's position, of his age, and with his health, he doesn't need added stress. He wanted to meet and see his grandchildren, but it doesn't take away the fact that his son has questioned the judgment of a High Court judge, and that puts him in an invidious position."
It's a sentiment with which fellow royal author Robert Hardman agrees. "Harry's obsessive fight through the courts has made it difficult, if not impossible, for the King – as head of the judiciary – to have any sort of meaningful contact with his son, given Harry's well-known propensity to regurgitate everything in public.
"Of course he wants to see his grandchildren, but while they may be meeting for the children's sake, there is no prospect of any meaningful reconciliation. You can't have the King's son criticising a judge and the judicial process and then, a few days later, have happy family chit-chats."
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesHarry's legal battle is far from over, with decisions to be made about who will foot the bill for the reported £50m in legal fees. And although it wasn't the outcome he was hoping for, those close to him say that it won't change his stance on why he did it in the first place.
"This has been a long road for him, but he's always believed in accountability and wanted to put his head above the parapet on behalf of others who felt a sense of injustice," says a source close to Harry. "But there's also been a lot of positivity and a lot of focus on what he was here to do, so it wasn't the only thing preoccupying him at all."
Another source close to the Duke said that he had put the case out of his head to focus on the Invictus Games events and other engagements with his patronages, including Wellchild, a national charity for seriously ill children. "There will be lots of time to worry about all that, but this was not the week," they said.
Harry's challenging week continued, however. Media access to his visit to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the day after the court ruling – a trip on which Meghan had been due to join him – had already been cancelled. But even in the absence of a public appearance, the drama rolled on. This time, the journalist Charlotte Griffiths, whom Harry had accused of wrongdoing, revealed her connections to the Duke's friends and his team, saying that they had leaked information to her even while he was preparing to sue her employers.
Business as usual
As Harry grappled with the fallout, it was business as usual for the rest of the royal family. William visited the London Welsh School in Hanwell to meet pupils, as well as athletes set to compete at this summer's Commonwealth Games, before spending a day in Hastings – almost 1,000 years after his famous namesake defeated a certain Harold in battle.
The King, in turn, was riding a tank in Bovington, Dorset, meeting British Transport Police officers in central London and, along with the Queen, visiting London Zoo to spend time with its penguins and giant tortoises.
Harry, meanwhile, reappeared for the cameras at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Thursday, celebrating 20 years of WellChild's specialist nursing programme, which helps to move seriously ill children and their families from hospital to their homes. He was mobbed by nurses and spent time with young patients, revealing to one that his son Archie is "obsessed with Lego" and a "master builder".
© AFP via Getty ImagesA day later, Harry played pickleball and wheelchair rugby with Invictus competitors at the NEC in Birmingham, marking the start of a one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games in the city. Meanwhile, Meghan stayed out of the public eye. She had been due to attend to help promote the event, but hours earlier, her team had confirmed that she would be making no public appearances in the UK.
When asked at the event if the Duchess and their children were proud of him, Harry said: "They don't tell me every day that they're proud of me, but I'm proud of them, they're proud of me. I love my family." Speaking to Alison Hammond, co-host of The Great British Bake Off, he added that "my kids love Junior Bake Off, absolutely love it – I love it as well".
More than 100 miles away at Windsor, Prince William was joined by his wife, the Princess, as he saddled up for the DMMI Royal Charity Polo Cup at Guards Polo Club – an annual event in which he and Harry used to play together and which has raised more than £15m for charity over the years.
© UK Press via Getty ImagesCatherine presented the trophy to William on the podium, kissing him on both cheeks, after his US Polo Association team claimed victory at the club in Windsor, which is a stone's throw from their home, First Lodge. Wearing a black-and-white checked sleeveless sundress, she applauded and smiled as he made his way over to her to accept his prize. She presented prizes to all the players, as well as the umpires, having watched the match with members of the couple's staff, including the Prince's equerry, Squadron Leader Mike Reynolds.
The future King played four chukkas for the US Polo Association team, alongside former England captain Mark Tomlinson, who co-owns Beaufort Polo Club with his brother and fellow former England captain Luke. His other teammates were US-born Saudi businessman Amr Zedan and Aiyawatt "Top" Srivaddhanaprabha, owner of Leicester City and the KingPower Polo team. They came out on top after a six chukka event featuring The Mirror and Manta Marine teams.
© UK Press via Getty ImagesBut there was absolutely no plan for the royal brothers to meet. They have had no contact for several years and the door is said to be "firmly closed", as far as William is concerned, following Harry's public comments about him and his family.
Whatever the outcome of his private weekend with Meghan, Archie and Lili in the UK, Harry will be back on these shores after the summer for the annual Wellchild Awards and the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards, both in September. In the meantime, he will have plenty of opportunities to consider his next move, but whether the reunion between his family and his father proves to be the tentative first step towards rebuilding trust remains to be seen.
For all the palace politics, legal drama and family tensions, at the heart of this visit was a chance for a grandfather to spend precious time with the grandchildren he has not seen for four years. As Harry himself said last year, "there's no point in fighting any more".
