So — they’re not coming. Meghan, Archie and Lilibet will not be joining Prince Harry when he visits London, later this week. This is according to the latest reports, issued at the time of my writing this very sentence — though it could all change, of course, by the time I’ve written a few more.
To date, and in a little over eight days, the Sussexes have gone from: saying they would definitely visit the UK as a family — their first trip in four years; to then accepting the offer of a palace in which to stay; to then issuing an official schedule for that trip (one which embraced a visit between King Charles and the grandchildren he barely knows, and a trip to Diana’s grave); to Harry re-discovering that he and his family wouldn’t be offered police security while in the UK.
This, by the way, is a situation he has known about for six years, ever since he and Meghan stepped down as working royals, one reinforced by a 2024 High Court ruling, issued after Harry challenged it, and which was in the process of being reassessed yet again, though that process is, apparently, “paused”. But it seemed to surprise and appal Harry anew so, he said, the kids and the Mrs wouldn’t come after all. They couldn’t. Too dangerous.
Then — briefly — it was on again! Flashing an alluring ankle at the press, the King, any other interested parties, via a statement claiming that Harry was still: “explor[ing] every available option to enable the visit to proceed safely and to give his children the opportunity to enjoy the UK”.
Ah, but now? Following the release of a report into six terrorist plots currently threatening the Sussexes, it definitely isn’t.
Probably definitely — for now.
It’s like watching a farce of extremely limited scope. They’re coming! They’re not. But they are! Oh: they’re not. Harry flails about like Basil Fawlty on ice, all perplexed fury, self-pity and increasingly poor judgment. “Throwing his toys out of he pram” falls so short — it’s more as if, having thrown his toys out of the pram, he has lowered himself out of the pram after them, then thrown them a bit further, then, thrown them all back in, only to discover there’s no room for him anymore! Because the pram is filled with toys!
It’s so unfair!
Harry is said to be “distraught” to have re-discovered the security situation — but, how can he be? He knew!
Maybe the Prince believed he could make the King act in his interests — dangle that meeting with Archie and Lilibet before him, then snatch it away, last minute, in the hope that Charles (his appetite for family reconciliation and an audience with the kids whetted) would intervene in the security issue. This the King cannot do without overriding state security, rarely a great look on a monarch.
If Harry honestly thought that’s how it would play out (only, it didn’t) maybe that would have left him “distraught”? I suppose it would be a bit distressing if your best attempts to emotionally manipulate your cancer-stricken father into compromising himself and his office in the vain hope of seeing his grandchildren again fell horribly, obviously, publicly flat?
I’m not sure I’d like it.
But argh, what a mess he’s made — for himself, for Meghan! The Sussexes are on their uppers. All those big deals — Spotify, Netflix — ended. All that unsold jam. America seems to be tiring of them. All the Sussexes ever had going for them as US celebrities was their being royal, or rather, the rejection of that, in the first instance. There was the promise of them eventually reinventing themselves as an entirely new kind of famous: transatlantic, modern, royal-yet-not… But, they didn’t do that. They got stuck. So, what are they, then, to the US? What do they do? What do they mean? It’s unclear.
A rapprochement with the fam in the course of this trip might have served to reboot their American celebrity, to mark the beginning of a new era, forge a new sense of public identity. Coming back together again, despite It All, despite the Tell Alls and the (retracted) accusations of racism? That’s a story worth telling, worth hearing, no? If the UK isn’t up for it — and I don’t think we would be, would we? — America might be…
But even that’s out the window, now.
Meanwhile, Kate is climbing literal mountains for cancer, and tipping up at Wimbledon looking sensational. Camilla is hanging out with JK Rowling in the name of children’s literacy, reportedly not giving a damn about the anti-Rowling trans-activism-related backlash, because, according to sources, the Queen would always rather “be brave than safe”. Edward and Sophie are posing for adorable graduation pics alongside their daughter Lady Louise, as she leaves St Andrews with a degree in English, before heading off on a gap year… while West End star Ruthie Henshall publishes a memoir which details her five-year relationship with Edward, in such a way as to make him seem rather glamorous and sexy. They’re all just doing their thing, being bold and interesting, or just unexpectedly good in bed… While Harry, with every passing press statement, seems more petulant, more clueless, more self-involved, less decisive and in control.
All that attention the Sussexes swore they didn’t want, yet clearly always craved, is theirs now — only, it’s of the very worst kind. They longed, I think, not actually to be private at all, but rather to be mindlessly, endlessly, adored, revered, loved — oh! And definitely paid. Instead, and entirely by their own making, here they are, just irritating everyone, with their indecision, and their ineptitude. If, by the time you read this, it turns out Harry’s changed his mind again, decided to bring Meghan and the children to London after all, I’m not sure anyone, but the King, will care.
Come. Don’t come. Whatever. We’re busy.