After the great drama of their royal departure, it was a tailor-made meeting behind the walls of Windsor Castle for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with the Queen on Thursday.
Prince Harry and Megan may not have announced their visit in advance, the first by the Duchess in Europe in two years since the couple left the United Kingdom in March 2020 and ended their official royal life. But that would be classified as a family occasion, “like all private gatherings,” not an official engagement, so it wouldn’t be announced in advance, according to Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine.
“A very welcome but long overdue move by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” he said of the meeting, which took place a week before the Queen’s 96th birthday next Thursday.
The couple also reportedly met with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, who were in Windsor for Holy Thursday’s service, at which Charles replaced the Queen.
But for a bus carrying tourists who saw Sussex looking “relaxed” and happily waving back to castle visitors, as one later told the Sun, news of the gathering may not have come until Sussex left the United Kingdom of The Hague to attend the Invictus Games for early service personnel founded by Harry.
Harry, who last saw his grandmother in person at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral a year ago, has faced harsh criticism from British tabloids over his absence from the Prince Philip Memorial Service last month. Then his spokesman said he planned to visit his grandmother in the near future.
Speaking at the meeting with the Queen on Thursday, the couple’s spokesman said that “they can confirm that they have visited the Duke’s grandmother, as we said earlier that he hoped to do”. The couple did not bring their children Archie, who will turn three next month, and Lilibet, 10 months old, who was named after the queen, but with whom the monarch is yet to meet.
The visit was hailed by a royal observer as a way for Harry to slowly begin rebuilding some bridges with his father, to whom he was critical in interviews.
She is also seen as an “olive branch,” said another, after the bitterness of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the couple and the instability of their relationship with other members of the royal family since then.
For their part, the Queen, Charles and William will keep in mind that Harry’s widely publicized memoirs are due out this fall.
Sussex is believed to have stayed at their former marriage home, Frogmore Cottage, at Windsor Mansion, where Princess Eugenie and her family now live. They reportedly flew to the Netherlands after a visit to the Invictus Games, accompanied by Netflix’s documentary team, Heart of Invictus, as part of the couple’s $ 100 million deal (£ 76.5 million). ) for a streaming company.
While there, they are said to have received VVIP status and protection from the Dutch police. The duke cited fears of security in the United Kingdom as one of the reasons he was unable to attend the Philip Memorial.
He has filed a lawsuit in the High Court against the Home Office, arguing that it is too dangerous to bring his family to the UK after being deprived of his official police protection, although he offers to pay privately for it.
The couple’s brief return to the UK has come as concerns about the queen’s health continue. She is expected to miss the Easter service, and after recovering from Covid in February, which she said left “feeling very tired and exhausted”, she is also experiencing mobility problems.
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