The Duke of Sussex will return to the UK next month but unlike his most recent visits home, this time he’s hoping to bring along his wife and two children.
Prince Harry is expected to attend a ‘one year to go’ event for the Invictus Games, which will be held in Birmingham in 2027, as he has done for previous tournaments held around the world.
Prince Harry will return to the UK next month but whether or not he is joined by the Duchess of Sussex, and their two children, will depend on security. Getty
Meghan made her first public appearance with Prince Harry at the Toronto Games in 2017 and has been by his side for every Invictus Games since, including when it came to Sydney in 2018.
The duchess, who was last in the UK in September 2022 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, is hoping to join her husband in the UK for the event on July 10.
Prince Harry also wants Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to make the journey from the United States to Britain.
The Sussex children were last there in June 2022 during the late queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, with Lilibet having her first birthday party at the couple’s former UK home, Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
However, whether Prince Harry’s family will be there with him or not this time around will depend on the outcome of a security review.
Officials from the government are said to be resisting efforts to grant the Duke and Duchess of Sussex taxpayer-funded security.
The group responsible for authorising protection for senior royals, The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec), is deliberating whether to reinstate the couple’s security arrangements.
Prince Harry has previously said he would only bring Meghan, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet to the UK if their security was guaranteed. Instagram/meghan
In 2020, when Prince Harry and Meghan left the UK for the US, and their places as senior working royals, they lost the right to automatic taxpayer-funded security.
Each time the duke returns to the UK, he must apply for security protection 28 days in advance which is then assessed on a case-by-case basis.
The hesitation to reinstate the Sussex security detail is said to be political, despite police warning of an “extant threat”, according to reports in British media earlier this year.
Last year, Prince Harry lost a legal challenge over his security arrangements and told the BBC the outcome was a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up”, blaming the royal household.
He then wrote to Britain’s Home Secretary asking for the decision to be reviewed, pointing out that his last formal risk assessment was done in 2019.
Following Harry’s plea, a review was launched but the process has not yet been resolved.
The duke has previously said the security issue was preventing him from bringing Meghan and their children back to the UK.
In September last year during one of Prince Harry’s visits to the UK, his staff “body-blocked” an alleged stalker who got within metres of him on two occasions.
Last week, Prince Harry and Meghan shared this new photo to make their daughter’s fifth birthday, taken at their home in Montecito in California. Instagram/@meghan
The duke was last in London in January for a privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail.
Prince Harry will only bring Meghan and their children to the UK next month if the duke is satisfied with the police protection offered, it is believed.
Harry is hoping to attend more events on UK soil later this year with the duchess. In April, they travelled to Australia in what was described by their team as a private visit in which they were protected by their own team of bodyguards.
The Invictus Games will return to the UK next year for the first time since 2014. It will take place from July 10-17. On July 17 2027 Queen Camilla will turn 80.
Prince Harry is hoping King Charles will attend the opening ceremony and will extend invitations to other royals, it is believed.
However, it is unlikely Prince William will support his estranged brother’s sporting initiative. In 2014, then-Prince Charles and Prince William attended the tournament alongside Harry.
Last week, Prince Harry and Meghan were not invited to the wedding of the duke’s cousin Peter Phillips when he married British nurse Harriet Sperling.
Prince Harry is hoping King Charles will open the 2027 Invictus Games but its closing ceremony will fall on Queen Camilla’s 80th birthday. Aaron Chown – Pool/ Getty Images
The King and Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, were among the guests as were Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. It was the York sisters’ first event with the royal family since the arrest of their father, the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Prince Harry had been close with his cousin, but it is believed he and Princess Anne’s son had fallen out of contact in recent years.