In what appears to be a bid to fix a broken familial relationship, King Charles III hosted Prince Harry and his family for the first time in years on July 10, according to the Associated Press.
At a country estate called Highgrove House, Harry, Meghan Markle, and their two kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, linked up with the King and Queen Camilla. The significance of the reunion lies in the fact that there’d been a rift in the family ever since Harry moved to America in 2020 and left royal life.
The reunion marked Archie and Lilbet’s first in-person time with their grandfather in more than four years. The previous visit came during Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, when Archie was 3 and Lilibet, who was born in California in June 2021, was meeting her grandfather for the very first time.
Charles, 77, is currently receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. Harry spoke openly about the urgency of repairing the relationship in a 2025 BBC interview, saying, "I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point in continuing to fight anymore. I don't know how much longer my father has."
Sources told BBC News that father and son had been eager to find time together during the week, and that the King was particularly keen to see his two young grandchildren.
The path to the reunion was complicated. Harry arrived in the UK solo on July 6 for charity engagements, including a one-year countdown event to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, while a dispute over security arrangements initially held back Meghan and the children.
The week carried additional turbulence for the royal family. A judge ruled against Harry in his lawsuit against the Daily Mail's publisher, finding he had not proven privacy invasion claims. A separate accommodation dispute also arose when Harry's team announced he had accepted an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace, only for the Palace to reject the claim and say he had already been informed that this was not an option.
A source on Harry's side said he had been "looking at every option to try and get" Meghan and the kids to England "safely and keep them safe when they're on the ground."
