Prince Harry’s relationship with the royal family has grown increasingly fractured since he and the Duchess of Sussex stepped down as working royals in 2020.
At the time, the couple promised to still “regularly” visit the UK, but after leaving almost four years ago, they have only returned from their new home in California a handful of times.
Meghan has not been in the country since the Queen’s funeral in September 2020 and she chose to skip King Charles’s coronation in May of last year.
She has also skipped the UK celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, which Prince Harry is currently attending, and will instead join him in a few days time for the Nigerian events.
While it was hoped that King Charles’s recent cancer diagnosis would go some way to repairing fractured relations, and this appeared to be the case when Harry flew over after learning of his illness, this now seems unlikely.
Since arriving back in the UK yesterday (7 May), the Duke of Sussex has endured two apparent snubs from his family – with his father claiming that he is too busy to meet him on his current visit and the news today that Prince William is being made colonel-in-chief of Harry’s old military regiment.
This is a timeline of how relations between the couple and the firm have played out following what’s better known as Megxit.
June 2020, The Departure
Following Harry and Meghan’s announcement that they were stepping down as senior royals in January 2020, they left the UK for California that June.
At the time, they cited their reasons for leaving as being press intrusion and a desire to be financially independent. They also believed that they could give their son, Prince Archie, a more peaceful upbringing in the US.
While they lost their HRH titles, they remained the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
March 2021, That interview with Oprah
Harry and Meghan opened up in explicit detail about why they chose to leave the firm almost a year after their departure in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
They cited racism as a reason for leaving, revealing that an unnamed member of the royal family speculated about the colour of Prince Archie’s skin before he was born.
Meghan also revealed for the first time that she suffered from suicidal ideation while working for the royals and did not receive the support she needed to get better.
“I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially because I know how much loss he has suffered. But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it – and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” she said.
June 2022, The Platinum Jubilee
The couple kept a low profile at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, but their presence was considered a move in the right direction as it was their first major event since stepping down in 2020.
It also provided the couple with an opportunity to introduce their then-one-year-old daughter Lilibet to her family, including the Queen, who she had not met until this point.
September 2022, The Queen’s funeral and Meghan’s last time on British soil
The couple returned to the UK later in 2022 to carry out other engagements in the UK and this ended up coinciding with the Queen’s death. Following her passing, they chose to stay in the country until after her state funeral.
Meghan previously spoke about the high regard in which she held the Queen to Oprah.
“The Queen has always been wonderful to me,” she said. “I just really loved being in her company … she’s always been warm and inviting and really welcoming.”
January 2023, Spare
Prince Harry further opened up about his life in the royal family in his memoir Spare, which detailed his life growing up in his brother’s shadow, his mother’s death, and his eventual time in the military.
He also recounted his relationship with Meghan and their ultimate decision to leave the royal life behind.
Harry wrote with the help of a ghostwriter: “The Heir and the Spare – there was no judgment about it, but also no ambiguity. I was the shadow, the support, the Plan B. I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy.
“I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part. Kidney, perhaps. Blood transfusion, Speck of bone marrow. This was all made explicitly clear to me from the start of life’s journey.”
June 2023, The loss of Frogmore Cottage
In June of last year, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan had vacated Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, which had been gifted to the couple by the Queen.
They were asked to leave and their departure left them without an address in the UK.
The home was initially renovated at a cost of £2.4m to the taxpayer, but the couple repaid this sum after choosing to leave previous roles as working royals in 2020.
Sir Michael Stevens, keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have vacated Frogmore Cottage.
“We will not be going into any detail on those arrangements here.
“Safe to say that, as has previously been stated, the Duke and Duchess have paid for the expenditure incurred by the Sovereign Grant in relation to the renovation of Frogmore Cottage, thus leaving the Crown with a greatly enhanced asset.”
Following the loss of the cottage last June, Harry changed his place of typical residence from the UK to the US for the first time.
December 2023, A further race row
The subject of alleged racism within the royal family came up once again in December of last year when an author favoured by the Sussexes appeared to disclose the name of the family member who speculated about the colour of Archie’s skin.
Omid Scobie later claimed he had no idea a Dutch translation of his book Endgame would appear to name King Charles and the Princess of Wales people responsible for the comments.
February 2024, The King’s cancer diagnosis
While the relationship between the Sussexes and their wider family appeared bleak for some time, renewed hope of a true reconciliation came earlier this year when King Charles announced that he has cancer.
Harry told Good Morning America at the time: “I think any illness, any sickness brings families together.”
After learning of his father’s illness, Harry immediately travelled to the UK and the pair spent a reported 45 minutes together.
“The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that,” Harry admitted.
May 2024, The snubs
Despite returning to the UK this week for an event of huge personal importance – the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, which Harry founded in 2014 – Harry will not be joined at the thanksgiving ceremony by any members of his immediate family, it has been confirmed.
While it was expected that he was unlikely to see Prince William and Kate Middleton, who is also battling cancer herself, many believed that Harry would see the King on the trip, who only last week returned to work after making sufficient progress in his own cancer journey.
But it emerged yesterday that the King simply has too many engagements to see his youngest son, despite the Palace announcing that he was undertaking a reduced summer schedule to avoid over-exertion.
This turn of events mirrors the opinion of former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole, who asserted ahead of this week’s trip that a true reconciliation in the near future was unlikely.
“After so much bad blood, it is very difficult indeed to see any sort of reconciliation between the Sussexes and the Royal Family happening [this] week – or for the foreseeable future,” he admitted.
