Prince Harry returned to Britain on Monday and, according to British media reports, visited the grave of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, at St George’s Chapel in Windsor as he began a four-day programme of charity engagements.
The Duke of Sussex flew into Heathrow alone while his wife, Meghan, and their children, Archie and Lilibet, remained in California. The Daily Mail reported that Harry was met at the airport by a serving Metropolitan Police officer from the Royalty and Specialist Protection squad, an appearance that suggested he is receiving bespoke police protection while in the UK.
Harry is due to attend the WellChild Awards in London, where he has been patron for 17 years and will present an award, and to undertake further visits to charities including the Invictus Games and the Diana Award. His team said he will visit the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham on Tuesday and announce a "substantial donation" to Children in Need to support work tackling youth violence.
Buckingham Palace declined to confirm whether the duke would meet King Charles during the visit. The monarch is currently at his Scottish residence, Birkhall, and is due to be in London mid-week for cancer treatment, royal aides have said. The palace has offered no public window for a meeting between father and son.
The Mail on Sunday reported that an invitation to meet the King "is not off the table" and that such plans would be kept closely held by the King, his private secretary Clive Alderton, and Harry. The duke last saw his father in February 2024, when he travelled to the UK after Charles’s cancer diagnosis was announced.
Relations within the royal family have shown signs of easing recently, but the potential for a reconciliation remains the subject of speculation in British media. Prince William, who has taken a more cautious public stance on rebuilding relations with his brother, is scheduled to carry out official engagements on each day of Harry’s visit.
Harry’s arrival follows a legal defeat in April, when a High Court judge dismissed his challenge to the level of publicly funded police protection he receives in the UK. Delivering the ruling, Sir Geoffrey Vos said the duke’s "sense of grievance" did not amount to a legal argument. The case related to arrangements after Harry and Meghan relinquished their roles as working members of the royal family and relocated to California in 2020.
The duke’s current itinerary reflects his continuing involvement with charities he has supported for years and underlines his intent to resume public-facing work in Britain despite the fractured family backdrop. Organisers said the visit would focus on the charities’ beneficiaries and planned donations rather than family matters.
The timing of the trip coincides with the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, an occasion that has drawn heightened attention to Harry’s visits to royal sites. The family’s last major public coming-together around that anniversary took place in 2022, when the queen’s passing prompted a prolonged period of national mourning and significant royal activity.
There was no immediate confirmation from palace officials or Harry’s representatives about any private meetings planned during the visit. The duke’s engagements continue through Thursday, after which he is expected to return to the United States.