I was thinking about how life might pan out for them, back in the Cotswolds, if that’s where they are. We heard (via sources) that apparently Harry had been nostalgic for the life in the Cotswolds that he enjoyed growing up. The thing is, just rocking up back here won’t bring that life back for him. Polo, pubs, partying with his friends, shagging girl grooms in fields behind the pub, weekend shooting parties and movie snuggles. Those days are over and I think he will have difficulty recreating them for Archie and Lily.
His friends have grown up and I wonder how many he has left nowadays.
Growing up there was a tight circle of friends who were the children of longstanding family friends of Charles, and some of Diana’s. People like the Grosvenor family, The Van Cutsem family (Edward VC is married to Lady Tamara Grosvenor, daughter of the late Duke), the Van Straubenzee family (Harry was friends with the younger son, Henry who died in a car crash. Both William and Harry were Patrons of The Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund. The family closed the charity at the end of 2024, I think they felt they had done enough and were getting older and the time was right.) So Harry lost that particular friend and the mother, Claire, is rumoured to have written to Harry to say how disappointed she was in him following his various attacks on the Royal family. So not too many invitations coming from any of those old friends I would think. Then there are the friends that Meghan took against - how many of those are still waiting for a telephone call from Harry?
William and Harry were able to turn a bomb shelter in the basement of Highgrove House into a private teenage hangout known as "Club H” where they could party in privacy and have fun with their friends. William and Catherine’s new home Forest Lodge has a ballroom! So plenty of opportunities for parties with friends and cousins, away from prying eyes and strangers with mobile phones. I imagine Catherine is a great hostess to friends and relatives, and their children, making opportunities for the children to build their own tight social circle.
Harry wants all that for his own children, but he doesn’t have that wide circle of trusted friends, with children of similar ages to A&L to provide that social circle. I could be wrong but I don’t have the impression Meghan is the type of mother to make her home a place where school friends will want to congregate for fun times (and a rainbow fruit platter). Plus she is very transactional with her friends - I suspect the children will be encouraged to be friendly with the children of parents Meghan sees as useful, whilst lesser friends, perhaps the scholarship child with parents of more meagre means, will be ignored.
I foresee a lonely childhood for A&L unfortunately, with friendships discarded by their mother, just as Archie’s chickens have been discarded back in Montecito. I highly doubt that they will spend the next fifteen years in the same house wherever they end up buying, or the same schools for long term (prep then senior/boarding school). I hope they don’t grow up learning to pick up and drop friends the way Meghan does but it will be difficult for them to grow a tight social circle of friends and relatives the way William and Harry were able to, the way the Wales children are able to, especially if they move around. I suspect at least one of them is likely to grow into a Saffy character as per Ab Fab. I rather hope so. I have observed that children of selfish parents who neglect their children whilst pursuing their own lives are often very polite children who are very grateful when invited over for the day, for a trip out or some other treat that they never get with their own parents. Unfortunately I’m not sure even that option will be open to A&L as Meghan won’t want them socialising with anyone not on her approved list, and then there are issues around security etc, so I doubt their new friends will be inviting them over for a day trip to Burford Wildlife park or a day at the local horse trials or whatever any time soon.
These are realities that Harry just doesn’t understand (I don’t include Meghan there as she obviously didn’t have a childhood like that) and certainly never thought about when he was busy letting Meghan dispose of his friends, and then flouncing to California. I think he is going to be disappointed when he finds his old life is unattainable.