King Charles′ long-awaited reunion with Prince Harry and his family brought three generations together for the first time in four years, but there was a glaring absence.
While as King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed Harry, Meghan Markle and their children to Highgrove House on Friday, Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight, were not there.
Archie and Lilibet reunited with King Charles for the first time since the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Twitter / @ClarenceHouse
There are no known plans for Harry and Prince William to meet during the Duke of Sussex’s visit to Britain, despite the estranged brothers being in the country at the same time.
William instead spent Friday playing in a charity polo match in Windsor, where he was supported by Kate.
The cousins also missed what would have been a rare opportunity to spend time together.
The reunion stopped well short of bringing the wider family back together. Getty
Archie, seven and Lilibet, five, are being raised in California and have had little contact with George, Charlotte and Louis since ‘Megxit’ , when Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020.
Royal commentator Victoria Arbiter told nine.com.au the brothers are not expected to meet anytime soon.
“With Charles and with William, we’ve got two very different situations,” Arbiter said.
“Charles is a man with cancer. He’s a father, and as any parent will know, a child is much faster to forgive a child for an indiscretion than a sibling would be.”
Arbiter said William had fiercely protected his family’s privacy throughout his marriage to Catherine and regarded Harry’s public commentary as a deep betrayal.
There were no known plans for Harry and William to meet despite being in England at the same time. AP/AAP
“Harry betrayed him in the worst possible way at a time when his wife was sick. Now, Harry didn’t know that, but that adds another element to it as well.
“I think William has chosen the drama-free route. He has seen at this point that Harry and Meghan, forgive the phrase, but they are rather agents of chaos, and they have bulldozed their way into every situation. There is drama that follows them.”
Harry last met Charles in September 2025, when he spent almost an hour at Clarence House. Before that, the pair held a brief meeting in February 2024 following the King’s cancer diagnosis.
The royal family have not been photographed together in years. AP
Archie and Lilibet had not seen their grandfather since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022.
Harry has spoken about wanting to repair his relationship with his family.
In a BBC interview last year, the prince said he “would love reconciliation” and acknowledged that whether that happened was “entirely up to” his family.
Friday’s gathering suggests the door between the father and son may no longer be completely closed. His relationship with William, however, appears to remain frozen.
That absence was made more notable by the choice of venue.
King Charles could have chosen to welcome Prince Harry at any number of royal residences, but instead chose Highgrove House, his private Gloucestershire retreat and a poignant place in both Harry and William’s childhoods.
Highgrove House in Tetbury, England, where the reunion occurred. Getty
Charles bought the estate in 1980 and raised his sons there with Princess Diana.
In his memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex described weekends at Highgrove with William, revealing the brothers created their own teenage hideaway in the property’s converted bomb shelter, affectionately nicknamed “Club H”.
“When I wanted peace, Club H provided,” Harry wrote, “When I wanted mischief, it was the safest place to act out.”