Reports suggest that King Charles has invited Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to stay at one of his most treasured private estates should they return to the UK in the coming months via Sky News.
The 77-year-old monarch is battling an undisclosed form of cancer and is said to have offered the Sussexes use of Highgrove House, a secluded country retreat in Gloucestershire, according to a now-deleted report by the Mail UK.
Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle, are tipped to make a joint comeback to Britain in July for an Invictus Games event.
“There’s a good chance that they will stay at a royal residence during a U.K. stay that includes Invictus events if the current thaw in family relations continues,” an insider told the Mail, referring to Highgrove.
Since Harry and Meghan moved to the US in 2020 and stepped back from royal duties, Harry has visited his home country multiple times, but Meghan has not returned since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022. Their children, six-year-old Prince Archie and four-year-old Princess Lilibet, have also not been to the UK during this period.
It is believed Archie has seen his grandfather several times, while Lilibet has met the King only once, amid ongoing family estrangement. Harry explains that the main reason for their limited visits is security concerns, as they lost taxpayer-funded protection when they left royal life.
However, with a review into Harry’s security arrangements now granted, sources close to the Sussexes say he is “hopeful” Meghan will join him for the one-year-to-go Invictus event in Birmingham on July 10.
It is also understood Harry has asked his father to open the 2027 Games with him- a request an insider claimed would be “difficult for the King to refuse”.
Highgrove House, which played a significant role in Harry’s childhood, sits within a “permanent security bubble”, featuring a “no-fly zone, armed police, and even a steel-lined panic room”, according to respected royal reporter Tom Sykes.
In his latest The Royalist Substack, Sykes said the 18th-century estate would be an ideal base for the Sussexes, given Harry “has made the restoration of armed protection a red line for any full family return to the UK”.
However, relations between Charles and Harry appear to be thawing. Sykes suggested the same cannot be said for the Duke’s relationship with his brother, Prince William, 43.
“Friends of William (and much of the British public) will be aghast,” Sykes wrote.
“They see that the Sussexes have extracted concessions from the King without apology or contrition.
“From that perspective, offering Highgrove looks like capitulation to Harry and Meghan’s original ask to be half-in, half-out of the royal family, which the late Queen Elizabeth explicitly rejected.”
