London —
Prince Harry and Meghan will remain at the royal residence next month on their first trip to the United Kingdom in four years, raising hopes of a potential rapprochement with the rest of the royal family.
According to CNN, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be joined by their children, seven-year-old Prince Archie and five-year-old Princess Lilibet. This will be their first family trip to the UK since 2022, when the Sussexes attended the late Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.
A palace source previously told CNN that the Sussexes had previously been offered accommodation at the royal estate for any potential visits, but this is the first time the family has accepted an invitation.
CNN understands that the family plans to stay at both the royal residence and private accommodation during the trip.
Harry and Meghan took the shock step of stepping away from royal life in 2020, deciding to move their family from the UK to California to lead a “financially independent” life.
The departure marked the beginning of a long-running, public rift with the royal family. The couple, in television interviews and Harry’s memoirs, cited the tabloid incursion, complex family dynamics and entrenched racism in British institutions as key factors in their decision to leave Britain.
Harry has made several trips to the UK, and Meghan joined him for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022. Harry traveled alone to the coronation of his father, King Charles III, in 2023.
The prince was reunited with his father for the first time in 19 months last September when Charles and Harry had tea at Clarence House. The face-to-face meeting came as King Charles was undergoing treatment for cancer and sparked speculation that a long-running rift in the royal family may be coming to an end. The pair have reportedly remained in contact since then, although Harry still appears to be estranged from his brother Prince William.
Most recently, Harry returned to London in January to attend court in a lawsuit he and others brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail over allegations of illegal data collection and phone hacking.
After Britain’s Home Office scrapped Harry’s taxpayer-funded security measures when he stepped down from royal duties, the prince told the BBC last year: “I can’t see a world in which I would now bring his wife and children back to the UK.” Security measures for the family’s upcoming trip have not been disclosed, but the family will be protected by existing security measures during their stay at the royal residence.
During the July trip, Prince Harry will mark a year until the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, a sporting event for service-injured military personnel that he founded more than a decade ago.
He will have other business in the Midlands related to other causes he supports. The visit will begin with Invictus-related events in London, where he will also be joined by Meghan. Their children are not expected to attend any public events and details about their private time are not disclosed.