After the great drama of their royal departure, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a low-key reunion behind the walls of Windsor Castle with the Queen on Thursday.
Prince Harry and Meghan may not have announced their visit in advance, the Duchess’ first visit to Europe in the two years since the couple left the UK in March 2020 and slipped out of formal royal life. But this would have been classified as a family occasion, “like all private gatherings,” rather than an official date, so it would not have been announced in advance, according to Joe Little, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine.
“A very welcome, if long overdue, step on the part of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” he said of the meeting, which came a week before the Queen’s 96th birthday next Thursday.
The couple are also said to have met Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall who were in Windsor for the Maundy Thursday service where Charles interceded for the Queen.
But for a busload of tourists, who saw the Sussexes look “relaxed” and wave happily to visitors to the castle, as one later told the Sun, news of the reunion may not have surfaced until after the Sussexes had left Britain to take on The Hague to attend the Harry founded Invictus Games for wounded service personnel.
Harry, who last saw his grandmother in person at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral a year ago, had been heavily criticized by British tabloids for his absence from Prince Philip’s memorial service last month. His spokesman said at the time he had plans to visit his grandmother in the near future.
Speaking of meeting the Queen on Thursday, the couple’s rep said they “can confirm they have visited the Duke’s grandmother as we had previously said he had hoped to do”. The couple did not bring their children Archie, who will be three next month, and Lilibet, 10 months, who is named after the Queen but whom the monarch is yet to meet.
The visit was hailed by a royal observer as a way Harry slowly began to rebuild some bridges with his father, whom he was critical of in interviews.
It’s also seen as an “olive branch,” said another after the bitterness of the Oprah Winfrey interview the couple gave and the rocky relationship with other members of the royal family since.
For their part, the Queen, Charles and William will remember that Harry’s critically acclaimed memoir is due for publication this autumn.
The Sussexes are said to have lived at their former marital home, Frogmore Cottage, on the Windsor estate, where Princess Eugenie and her family now live. After the visit, they reportedly flew to the Netherlands, where they are set to perform at the Invictus Games, accompanied by a Netflix crew for a documentary, Heart of Invictus, as part of the couple’s $100 million streaming deal Company.
There they are said to have been awarded VVIP status and Dutch police protection. The Duke has cited security concerns in Britain as one reason he was unable to attend Philip’s memorial.
He has filed a High Court case against the Home Office alleging it is too dangerous to bring his family to the UK after he was stripped of his official protection by the Metropolitan Police, despite offering to pay for it privately .
The couple’s brief return to the UK came amid ongoing concerns for the Queen’s health. She is expected to miss Easter services and has also had mobility issues since recovering from Covid in February, which she said “makes you feel very tired and exhausted”.