King Charles hosted Harry and Meghan news at Highgrove House on Friday afternoon, bringing Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet into the same private meeting for the first time in four years. The reunion included Prince Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet, and it came after a week of separate legal and security developments around Harry.
Archie is seven and Lilibet is five. Charles last saw them during the late queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations in 2022, which makes the private meeting at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire the clearest sign of renewed contact between the king and Harry’s children.
Highgrove House in Gloucestershire
Charles and Queen Camilla hosted The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children at the king’s private residence. Harry was in the UK this week to promote his Invictus Games, while Meghan was expected to join him at some public engagements in Birmingham but pulled out at the last minute.
The meeting took place after Harry and Charles had regularly spoken on the phone in recent months. That does not tell the public what was discussed at Highgrove House, but it does show the reunion was not an isolated contact after years of distance.
Harry and Charles
The family gathering also followed a week that made Harry’s trip more complicated. On Tuesday, a High Court judge dismissed his claim against Associated Newspapers Ltd over unlawful information gathering, and his arrival had already been preceded by a row over the refusal of taxpayer-funded security for the family while in the UK.
An offer of accommodation at a royal residence was withdrawn, and Harry’s request to stay one night at Buckingham Palace was refused. Meghan has not visited the UK since September 2022, when the couple flew in for charity engagements that coincided with the death of Elizabeth II.
Harry’s last visit to Britain in February 2024 came after the king’s cancer diagnosis, when he made a transatlantic dash from his California home to see his father. Friday’s meeting leaves the main open question with the private dinner table itself: what was discussed during the reunion at Highgrove House.
