In a step toward mending one of the world’s most-followed family feuds, Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their two children met for the first time in years with Harry’s father, King Charles III, and Queen Camilla, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.
The meeting answered questions that had been swirling all week about a potential reunion between the British king and his estranged second son. In 2020, Harry and his American-born wife, Meghan, renounced their royal titles and moved to the United States.
Friday’s visit was a sign of a détente between Harry and his father. Harry had not returned to Britain with his family since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. Harry had visited his father in Britain by himself last fall.
The visit this week, officially to promote Harry’s charity competition for military veterans, had been shrouded in confusion, as efforts to mend family relations appeared to exacerbate them instead. Rifts emerged over where the family would stay and who would pay for their security.
The prince has been embroiled in a yearslong battle with the British authorities since they ruled that he and Meghan, after stepping down from royal duties, no longer qualified for publicly financed protection in Britain.
Harry, 41, who arrived in Britain Monday evening, lives in California with Meghan, 44, and their children, Archie and Lilibet. It was the first time in several years that Charles, 77, and his grandchildren, aged 7 and 5, met in person.
Buckingham Palace said there would be no images released of the family visit at Highgrove House, a country estate that is one of the king and queen’s residences.
Harry and his brother, William, had spent considerable time at Highgrove House, in the Cotswolds region west of London, when they were children. If offers a measure of privacy, far from the eyes of the London-based press corps. Earlier in the week, Harry’s team said that Meghan and the couple’s children, who were originally planning to accompany Harry for the whole visit, would not be going to London, citing security concerns.
Highgrove House is also located nearer to Birmingham, where Harry had taken part earlier on Friday in an event to begin a countdown to the Invictus Games, a competition he founded for wounded veterans, which is due to be held in Birmingham in 2027. He played pickleball, took part in wheelchair rugby and gave an interview to a British news outlet, speaking glowingly of his wife and children.
The meeting with his father was a decidedly more private affair. The palace confirmed the meeting only after it had taken place.
The reunion came shortly after a judge in Britain ruled against Harry and other celebrities earlier this week in a lawsuit that accused the publisher of The Daily Mail of targeting them with unlawful information gathering.
The prince’s legal battles against the tabloid press marked a departure from the royal family’s tradition of ignoring unfavorable press coverage. Harry and Meghan have been open about their differences with the rest of the family, including in an Oprah interview, a tell-all memoir and a documentary, even as they repeatedly voiced a need for privacy.
