Prince Harry arrived in the United Kingdom on Monday for a four-day visit that coincides with the third anniversary of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s death, carrying out a series of public engagements while it remained unclear whether he would meet his father, King Charles.
The Duke of Sussex is scheduled to appear at the WellChild Awards in London on Monday evening and to visit a community recording studio in Nottingham on Tuesday. He travelled from his home in California without his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.
Buckingham Palace declined to confirm whether a private meeting with King Charles would take place. The king is in Scotland at his residence, Birkhall in Aberdeenshire, where he is marking the anniversary privately and has no public engagements scheduled for the week, aides said. Royal aides have not provided a window for a potential audience, and palace officials said they would not comment on private family arrangements.
Harry and Charles last met in person in February of last year, when the duke made a brief transatlantic visit after learning of the king’s cancer diagnosis. The meeting lasted just over half an hour as the king prepared to travel to Sandringham to recuperate, according to prior reporting.
The current visit is the duke’s longest trip to Britain since the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 and his first return in five months. It follows a period of bitter public and legal disputes between the duke and parts of the royal establishment, most notably a failed legal challenge over taxpayer-funded security arrangements that concluded in May. Harry was in London in April for a High Court hearing related to that case.
A friend of the duke told The Times that Harry hopes, at some point, to bring his family back to Britain so his children can see where he grew up. The friend said Harry had not given up hope of a return with Archie and Lilibet but provided no timetable. The duke’s recent legal losses and his relocation to the United States in 2020 after stepping back as a senior working royal have complicated arrangements for official security and royal engagements.
WellChild, a charity that supports seriously ill children and their families, has long counted the duke among its patrons; the award ceremony on Monday is described by organisers as an annual highlight. The Nottingham visit will include a stop at the Community Recording Studio in the city’s St Ann’s area, a location the duke last visited with Meghan Markle in October 2019.
A spokesperson for the duke did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether any private family meetings have been arranged. Senior royal officials have generally avoided public discussion of the family’s private interactions since Harry and Meghan’s move to North America and the subsequent disclosures and interviews in which they criticised parts of the royal household.
Observers note that formal audiences or meetings with the king typically are arranged privately through the royal household, and any decision to meet would likely be announced only after both parties agreed. A report in The Mail on Sunday said that, if an invitation were extended, the duke would accept and make time to attend; the palace has not confirmed such an invitation.
The visit comes amid ongoing public interest in the state of relations within the royal family, including Harry’s relationship with his elder brother, the Prince of Wales, with whom he remains estranged. The duke’s scheduled engagements during this trip are focused on charitable work and local community projects, according to event organisers.
The duke’s movements during the visit are expected to be limited to scheduled public appearances. Security arrangements for members of the royal family and others who travel to the United Kingdom have been the subject of legal and political debate since Harry’s relocation, and any future visits involving his immediate family would need to address those issues.
Harry’s return on a day of remembrance for the late queen adds a symbolic dimension to the trip, though the palace has emphasised that the king’s commemorations of the anniversary will be private. The duke’s presence in Britain will be watched closely for any sign of progress or contact between him and the monarch, but as of Monday afternoon no meeting had been announced.