Over the weekend, the Mail decided to push a narrative that Prince Harry is desperate to come back to royal life and he’s begging the Windsors to please let him come back (without Meghan) to do some ribbon-cuttings because he’s so bored with living in a Montecito mansion and banging his hot wife. As you can imagine, “sources close to Harry” shut down the story within 48 hours, insisting that of course Harry has no desire to return to the UK to live and work. People Mag also got calls from the Sussex camp, and they underlined that no, lol, Harry isn’t coming back, but again, he would love to visit every so often so he could do some work with his British charities.
Speculation has grown that the Duke of Sussex is seeking a return to royal life, following a Sept. 1 report by the Mail on Sunday. The report suggested that Harry, who stepped back from royal duties with Meghan Markle in 2020, has been asking former aides and friends to explore ways for a partial reintegration into the royal fold. However, sources who previously worked with Harry tell PEOPLE they were surprised by the claim.
Instead, the Duke of Sussex is happy with his life in California, focused on raising his young family with Meghan and continuing his work there, with an upcoming visit in New York City later this month, PEOPLE understands.
What is clear, as one ally noted, is that Harry is eager to visit friends in the U.K. and work directly, rather than through Zoom, with the charities he remains connected to in his homeland, including WellChild. He also wants to bring his family — Meghan, 43, and their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3 — back to the U.K. for visits. However, he feels that his lack of automatic access to official security, which was lost after he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties, is a significant obstacle.
During his visit to the U.K. for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games in May, including a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Harry was said to have truly enjoyed reconnecting with the community and meeting old friends and supporters. Despite conflicting reports about why he chose not to stay at an offered royal residence, a royal source tells PEOPLE that the trip “went well,” noting that Harry was clearly uplifted by spending time with friends and family.
“Hopefully, he can find it increasingly easy in the future,” a family friend says.
The security issue is fascinating to me because Harry has made it perfectly clear that this is the biggest obstacle. The Windsors always conveniently forget this until the Sussexes travel somewhere else where their security is guaranteed, then suddenly it’s “wHaT abOuT THe sECuriTy.”
Speaking of, from what I can tell, Harry’s visit to the UK last week was done so under-the-radar, he probably did not inform Buckingham Palace OR the Met Police about his visit. The “tell” is that his visit surprised everyone, as evidenced by their hysterical reporting over the course of five days. Harry is not flatly required to inform BP and the Met Police of his visits, he only has to give them 30 days notice if he wants temporary royal protection, which is judged on a case by case basis. It feels like Harry didn’t notify anyone but the Spencer family about his plans to attend Robert Fellowes’ funeral, and Harry reportedly stayed with his uncle, the Earl Spencer, at Althorp. This was too much for Sarah Vine to take. She pissed out this Mail column:
Far from signalling some form of rapprochement with his estranged family, Prince Harry’s visit to the UK last week (to attend a memorial service for his aunt Jane’s late husband, Lord Fellowes) seems to have only widened the abyss. Not only did he and his brother Prince William fail to exchange a single word in church, perhaps more tellingly it has now emerged that he stayed with his uncle, Charles Spencer, at the family’s stately home, Althorp, in Northamptonshire.
You may well ask, why shouldn’t Prince Harry stay with his uncle? After all, his mother is buried at Althorp, which means a part of him will always call it home. That’s true. But the way the information has come to light – via an American publication with established links to the Sussexes – is certainly intriguing.
Prince Harry could easily have been put up at one of the royal residences for this visit. The King has made it clear that his door is always open to his youngest son. But not only did Harry choose not to (in fact, he didn’t see his father at all on this trip, despite the fact that the King is still receiving treatment for cancer), he made a point of staying with Earl Spencer.
It’s fair to say there is no love lost between the monarch and the Earl. Anyone who remembers Earl Spencer’s coruscating speech at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 knows that. He has always held the King – and by extension the Royal Family – responsible for his sister’s agonies, and he’s not entirely wrong. Princess Diana was poorly treated by Charles in some respects; in others, though, she very much gave as good as she got.
Nonetheless, Harry clearly takes a more one-sided view, and has said as much in his various attacks on screen and in print against his father. In fact, many of the Duke’s difficulties, especially over the past few years, arguably stem from what he sees as the ultimate betrayal of his mother by his father. Not only does he need someone to blame for his loss – he also needs someone to punish. To begin with, it was just his father and, in private, Queen Camilla. But now Prince William is being punished, too (along with Kate) for their decision to put duty ahead of anything else.
This snub to his father and brother sends a clear, unequivocal message. Prince Harry is not offering any kind of olive branch; he’s doubling down.
“Princess Diana was poorly treated by Charles in some respects; in others, though, she very much gave as good as she got.” She did not give as good as she got – the woman is dead and Charles is married to one of his many side chicks. They’re trying to say that Harry is absorbed in his mother’s grievances, when really, he’s a man who is simply close to his mother’s family. He wants to be able to freely visit with all sides of his family. As for “Harry should have stayed at a palace instead of Althorp” – the whole point was that he was in stealth-mode for security reasons. The second he informed his father of his plans or asked for a room, Charles would have gone on another briefing spree about how he hates Harry and never wants him to come back. Also: do not underestimate how many of these hissy fits are about Charles’s anger at the Spencers.
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