With King Charles and Prince Harry seemingly taking their first steps to reconciliation after their long-awaited reunion, Jennie Bond reveals what it might mean for Harry’s wife Meghan
With King Charles and Prince Harry finally having a face-to-face meeting after months of speculation – attention has turned to what will happen next.
The Duke of Sussex reunited with the King for the first time in 19 months, revealing his father was “great” shortly after their private tea at Clarence House. Harry spent 55 minutes at the London residence, with hopes growing that it will mark a turn in relations between father and son, after Harry claimed his father was not speaking to him.
The rift, exacerbated by Harry and wife Meghan railing against the royals in their Netflix documentary and Harry’s book, Spare, means that Charles has barely seen his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Six-year-old Archie has only seen his grandfather a handful of times, while four-year-old Lilibet has only met him once, three years ago.
And according to former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, the big question is will Harry bring his children to see his UK-based relatives.
She told the Mirror: “I’m sure it’s something that Charles would love, and Harry wants them to know and understand their heritage. But how can he square it with his complaints about the UK being unsafe unless he has full protection?”
One of the stumbling blocks that has prevent Harry from bringing his whole family to the UK in recent years is a change to his security arrangements while here.
In May, he lost his appeal over the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office for the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the UK.
After the defeat of his Court of Appeal challenge, he told the BBC that he “can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK” as they would not automatically be entitled to police protection.
Harry’s level of security changed in 2020 when he and Meghan stepped down as working royals and moved to California for financial and personal freedom.
But Jennie added: “An invitation to stay at a royal residence would solve it. But would that work? And would Meghan be welcome? Would she want to come? I rather doubt it. She’s happy doing her ‘thing’ in the States.
“Harry’s relationship with Charles has been scarred, deeply scarred, by all of this. But now they have stated talking again, it makes you think: was it all really necessary?”