Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to stay in US as Queen celebrates first Christmas without Prince Philip

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not be traveling to the UK for the festive season which means the Queen will be without thier support as she celebrates her first Christmas as a widow.

• The Queen's husband the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip died at age 99 in April 2021.
• The Queen is usually surrounded by her family as they celebrate the festive season at Sandringham House.
• In other royal news, see the royal engagement the Cambridge children have been banned from attending.

A royal source has revealed that although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been invited to spend Christmas with the rest of the royal family, the couple has decided to spend the holiday in the US and not return to the UK.

"There’s a lot that goes into the logistics and the planning of the family Christmas, so of course, staff know that Harry and Meghan are not coming,” one royal source told Page Six. “If they were, they would have communicated it to their family by now."

“But this is Her Majesty’s first Christmas without her husband, so one would have hoped they would want to be with her."

Typically the family joins together and spends the festive period in Sandringham. Prince Harry and Meghan have previously attended and have been snapped at the local church service on Christmas Day with other members of the family.

Their absence may be a particular blow to the Queen as she prepares to spend the holiday without her husband of over 70 years.

Prince Philip died earlier this year and although Prince Harry returned to be by his grandmother's side at the funeral, his wife Meghan was heavily pregnant with their youngest daughter Lilibet, so decided to stay in the US.

Since stepping down as senior members of the royal family and moving to the US, Prince Harry has only been back to the UK on a few select occasions. Including his trip to Kensington Palace as he joined Prince William to unveil the Princess Diana memorial statue that celebrated what would have been her 60th birthday.

The source went on to say that Prince Harry and Meghan are reluctant to return to the UK and celebrate Christmas with the newly widowed Queen, because of the British press.

“I think everyone understands there will be a frenzy when they both come back to the UK, but they need to rip the [Band-Aid] off and get on with it.” the source said.

“If that is the first time they are back in the country since Megxit, and they suck all the oxygen from the Queen, that will be just terrible,” the insider added.