Prince Harry is desperate for a royal reunion, I understand. Sources tell me he would love nothing better than an invitation from his father, so Charles can see his Sussex grandchildren for the first time in four years.

This July would prove the perfect opportunity as Harry, possibly with Meghan, Archie, seven, and Lili, five, is visiting the UK for the ‘one year to go’ until the Invictus Games in Birmingham.

But there’s one problem: Queen Camilla. It’s thought that she has never really forgiven Harry, 41, for effectively throwing her under the bus in his autobiography Spare and in the TV interviews he gave to publicise it.

Harry described Camilla as ‘the villain’ and the ‘third person’ in his parents’ marriage. He accused her of being ‘dangerous’ and of launching a campaign at his expense to rehabilitate her image in the British tabloids, after Princess Diana appeared to expose her affair with the then Prince Charles.

Harry revealed that he and Prince William pleaded with their father not to marry Camilla, fearing it would cause ‘more harm than good’.

He described, in excruciating detail, the horror he felt in seeing ‘the other woman’ on his own, likening their initial meeting to having an ‘injection’ and writing, ‘Close your eyes, over before you know it.’

Moreover, he accused Camilla of leaking stories about him to the press to smooth her path to becoming queen consort. He claimed she ‘sacrificed me on her personal PR altar’ and ‘left bodies in the street’ by trading stories to secure positive headlines. Ouch! No wonder she doesn’t want to see him.

Indeed, I’m told Camilla joked ‘over my dead body’ to inviting Harry and Meghan to stay with her and the King at Sandringham or Balmoral. It may be a joke (and we now know the King has offered an olive branch in the form of a royal residence for them to stay in) but the sentiment is thought to be real!

Camilla may not, understandably, be keen. If she was to push back, which she won’t because she wants harmony for her husband, it would be yet another new fall-out that no one needs.

When Harry flew to London in February 2024, after the King announced that he was being treated for cancer, I gather he hoped to accompany his father to Sandringham, but it was made very clear that the King and Queen were taking the helicopter to Norfolk without him.

Of course, Charles could decide to see Harry (and Meghan plus the kids if they come) on his own. After Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, they both stayed with Charles at the Castle of Mey (Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother’s favourite home in the far north of Scotland), where Harry later wrote that, in hope of conceiving their first child, he sang to the Scottish mermaids, in the form of seals, on the Caithness coast. (I’m not joking - he did actually write that and, thinking it was a ‘good omen’, he jumped in the sea to swim with them!)

I understand that Camilla, by that point, had tried to befriend Meghan but had been rebuffed (like Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh) so she chose to stay in Gloucestershire.

Harry and Camilla’s relationship had always been slightly uneasy but by the time of his wedding to Meghan it had much improved. So she was staggered when Harry hurled so many hurtful barbs her way - which also angered the King.

A friend told me, ‘The Queen has always appreciated how hard it has been for William and Harry after the death of their mother. She never sought to take her place, and has always tried to remain sensitive. But she has kept her counsel, despite the many slings and arrows of public acrimony, to protect the monarchy. So she found Meghan and Harry’s public rejection and criticism, which caused so much damage, unforgivable.’

I am told Harry is now particularly keen for his children to spend time with King Charles during his July visit. Since Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties and relocated to California in spring 2020, the monarch has had only limited opportunities to see his Sussex grandchildren.

Charles has met Lilibet only once, during the Sussexes’ visit to the UK for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. That same trip also marked the last time that he saw Archie, who was then three years old.

Having the King meet the children would not only allow them to spend time with their grandfather but could also serve as a strategic move for Harry, who has previously raised concerns about not receiving the level of security he feels is necessary.

But the Queen is very protective of her husband and does not want to see him hurt – or used. So despite the reports that Harry and his family have been offered a private residence by the King, I highly doubt Camilla will be anywhere near.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

It's not just the Duke of Sussex's relationship with his father and brother that's suffered since he and Meghan moved to California. According to royal expert Duncan Larcombe, rumours are that Harry has "barely spoken" with Zara Tindall in recent years.

Writing in Woman magazine, Duncan revealed that "sources say the Duke of Sussex has all but lost touch with his one-time playmate Zara". The pair used to be incredibly close and it was partly thanks to Harry that Zara met her husband Mike during the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

"I understand they have barely spoken in the years since the prince, 41, met and married Meghan," the expert said. "Not only are they said to have drifted apart, but the old close friendship they once enjoyed has, I understand, almost entirely evaporated."

Prince Harry and Zara haven't been seen in public together since King Charles's coronation and then only briefly. Meanwhile Mike spoke about how his cousin-in-law had changed at the 2026 Hay Festival during a talk with his The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast co-hosts.

As they joked about people embarrassing themselves at the Tindalls' wedding he quipped, "A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun".

It doesn't just seem to be Zara who Harry has drifted apart from. He was the only cousin not at Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling's wedding on 6th June apart from Lady Louise Windsor, who's studying in her final year at university. We don't know whether Prince Harry and Meghan were invited or if they didn't make the guest list.

In an episode of her and Reverend Richard Coles' podcast Keeping Up With The Royals, woman&home royal correspondent Emily Andrews speculated that Peter thought it would be tricky if he asked them.

"The Sussex's team wouldn't be drawn on whether Harry and Meghan were invited or not," she said. "I suspect that Peter probably didn't invite Harry and Meghan because it's too problematic."

Reports have also alleged that they hadn't spoken for a while either, though he also used to be close with Harry. He was with him and William at Balmoral when they were told Princess Diana had died and royal biographer Hugo Vickers has said Peter Phillips was a "huge help".

It was interesting to see that whilst Harry and Meghan weren't at his wedding, possibly because it would be "problematic", Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice were.

This was their first public appearance since Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest in February. They've not been personally accused of anything and their father continues to deny all allegations of wrongdoing, but there's been a lot of scrutiny of them by association.

Clearly, they are still quite close to Peter and he wanted them there regardless. It's sad to see how Prince Harry's relationship with his cousins appears to have also been affected by everything in recent years.

"I think it's not just William who is upset by what Harry's done," Emily Andrews said, adding. "Let's not forget that [Harry's] talked a lot about how he has felt let down in the royal machinery… I think there are many other members of the family who felt that Harry has behaved badly".

There was an intriguing story about Frogmore Cottage - which is the former home of the Sussexes - recently.

I remember breaking the exclusive story that the late Queen Elizabeth had given the use of the house to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as a wedding present.

Everyone had expected the Sussexes to move into Kensington Palace (a huge building which is split into apartments) as a married couple, upgrading from Harry’s bachelor pad, the two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage in the grounds.

But, as I discovered, things had got so bad between Prince William and Harry, neither brother wanted to live next door to each other.

So Frogmore Cottage, which had previously been split into five staff apartments, had £2.4 million spent on it to convert it back to a single home in 2019.

Now, it’s been reported that three years after the Sussexes vacated the property, any trace of them is to be wiped!

The Crown Estate, who own the property on behalf of the monarch, are looking at plans to reverse the revamp and subdivide the house to let it to royal staff.

Harry and Meghan wanted to keep it as their UK home, but were evicted by the King in 2023, just weeks after the publication of Harry’s vitriolic, tell-all book Spare.

King Charles had wanted his brother Andrew to move there, but he opted instead for Sandringham.

I thought it was very strange that having spent all that money renovating Frogmore (which Harry pointedly paid back after he quit as a working royal) the Crown Estate would potentially rip it all out.

I can understand that it’s a bit tricky (and expensive) to let as one property as it’s within the Windsor security cordon, but surely that’s the purpose of advanced security vetting.

What’s even more bizarre is that I’m told Harry and Meghan are really annoyed about it! They have a lovely home in California - why do they care what happens with Frogmore?

But it’s the symbolism, isn't it?

The fact that not just them but even the very memory of them, and their marital home, is being removed.

First of all they were evicted (and Harry really wanted to keep it as his UK base). Now they are being erased.

Sure, it can be dressed up as ‘repurposing’ for staff accommodation. But it’s a virtual expunging from royal history. As if the ‘Harry and Meghan era’ never existed.

And that’s got to hurt.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Of all the late Queen’s grandchildren, Prince Harry once seemed to have a particular bond with Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Phillips (now Tindall).

The cousins shared a fun-loving and at times rebellious streak that seemed to set them apart from the more stuffy and formal members of the family.

Never was this more evident than when Zara and Harry celebrated watching the England team win the final of the Rugby World Cup in Sydney back in November 2003.

Then third in line to the throne, Harry was on a gap year in the host country Australia, while Zara was letting her hair down with pals.

They were kindred spirits who seemed to have so much in common. And, of course, it was during that trip that Zara would meet her future hubby, hunky World Cup hero Mike Tindall.

Harry had already started to earn the tag of the partying, carefree prince, while his cousin had grabbed the headlines for having her tongue pierced - something seen as an un-royal act of rebellion at the time.

Paradoxically, the cousins enjoyed a particular bond with the late Queen Elizabeth, who seemed to have an unlikely soft spot for them both.

For Harry, Zara was someone who he could be himself with, a family member who shared the same down-to-earth personality, which made her fun to be with.

And for Zara, Harry was someone who she always seemed to gravitate towards as they endured official family gatherings.

How things have changed. Six years after he fled to America, sources say the Duke of Sussex has all but lost touch with his one-time playmate Zara.

In fact, I understand they have barely spoken in the years since the prince, 41, met and married Meghan.

Not only are they said to have drifted apart, but the old close friendship they once enjoyed has, I understand, almost entirely evaporated.

One of the clearest indications of how hard things have become was served up recently by Zara’s husband. Speaking at an event at Hay Festival with his co-hosts from his rugby podcast, Mike hit the headlines for a throwaway comment he made that seemed to sum up Zara’s revised view of Harry in this post-Megxit era.

The former England centre quipped that he knew Harry ‘when he was fun’ – a remark that brought laughter from his fellow broadcaster James Haskell.

On the surface, it may have seemed a fairly harmless remark from someone who was once a drinking buddy of the spare to the heir. But in reality, it could well have hit a sore spot for Harry – after all, Mike, 47, has first-hand experience of what Harry’s cousins really think of him in recent times.

In my opinion, there is no way Mike would have risked incurring the wrath of his wife by making such a comment in public unless it truly reflected how she herself feels.

It suggested something that royal watchers have suspected for several years – that Harry’s cousins feel he has changed a huge amount, and certainly since moving away.

The fun-loving, beer-swilling royal who always managed to ease the tedium of set-piece occasions with his uniquely devil-may-care attitude towards stuffy family gatherings appears to be a thing of the past.

Instead, Harry has, it seems, become an outcast in his own family, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Once the life and soul of the party, he is arguably a shadow of his former self.

Zara is probably far too savvy to risk making such a comment in public. But the fact her husband made it perhaps proves how Harry is viewed by the wider family who once adored him.

There is no doubt that Harry will have been made aware of the comment and it is almost impossible to imagine that it wouldn’t have stung.

Until Mike’s remark, the royals have followed a strict policy of not being drawn into tit-for-tat comments about how Harry is viewed these days. A senior royal source told me, ‘It may have been a throwaway remark, but what Mike said would have really upset Harry.'

'He has been at great pains to convince people he is living the dream since quitting life as a full-time working royal. But it perhaps reveals a lot about how Harry is now perceived by his cousin Zara in the years since he and Meghan cut ties with the family.’

Clearly, and maybe unsurprisingly, Zara seems to have lost touch with the cousin who she once shared so much with. What we don’t know is whether her view comes out of loyalty to William and Kate.

Harry will visit the UK next month, but there are currently no plans for him to see any members of his family, including Zara.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

It’s a question many have been asking for some time, and one that’s more pressing than ever now it’s been reported Prince Harry could return to the UK for a trip soon - can he and Prince William ever truly reconcile?

One of the few people perhaps qualified to speak out on the relationship between the brothers is Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton. He gave decades of service to the royals, as a former secretary to the two princes, and a former equerry to the Queen Mother.

In a revealing new interview with The Times, Jamie shared that he’d "better steer clear of that Harry issue", but he added, "What I would say is that I was, and am, very fond of him. He has huge redeeming features and I’m a perennial optimist."

Jamie has been there for many of the ups and downs of Prince Harry's royal life and referred to both him and his older brother as "brave guys".

"When they were soldiers, it was important that they did it right and properly," he explained. "Harry went on operations in Afghanistan twice and [for William] you can look anybody in the eye if you’re flying a Sea King on a fixed bearing through a force 8, force 9, out in the middle of the Irish Sea or the north Atlantic to pick up a sick crewman or fly up against the cliff face of Snowdonia in gusts."

He always saw Prince William "as the Lion King" - a natural born leader - while he is said to have described Harry as more of a mischievous cub. But the former royal secretary made sure to reiterate, "I loved them both".

For his efforts, the former aide - who served as a full-time principal private secretary to both princes between 2005 and 2013 - earned the respect of the Duke of Sussex. While Harry's memoir Spare was highly critical of courtiers and palace staff described as "men in grey suits", the royal had plenty of praise for Jamie, who he referred to as JLP.

Harry wrote, "Despite his spit and polish, however, his enamelled exterior, JLP was a force, the product of Britain’s finest military training, which meant, among other things, that he didn’t deal in b*******."

"He didn’t give it, didn’t take it and everyone, far and wide, seemed to know," the Prince continued.

Mr Lowther-Pinkerton also earned the respect and trust of Prince William - so much so that he was tasked with overseeing his 2011 wedding to Catherine. He recalls, "The wedding was great. I was petrified because [William] had said to me early on, 'You’re running it.'"

Now trusted with another generation of royals, albeit in a different capacity, Jamie is looking forward to being "a better godfather" to Prince George now he’s almost a teen.

"I’m a better godfather when it comes time to have a bit of fun. I’ve got other godchildren and I have huge fun with them when they reach a certain point, so hopefully that’ll be the time when JLP comes out of the chrysalis," he said.

There has been a lot Prince Harry has lost or given up since he moved to the US, including his honorary military roles and HRH title. However, despite all the changes there's one part of himself he's refused to give up. When he was a working royal the Duke of Sussex was Patron of English rugby and was also a huge supporter of the English football team.

This is something he's carried through into his LA life as despite this summer's FIFA World Cup being co-hosted by the US, Harry's loyalty to England squad is rock solid. So much so that he's inspiring Prince Archie to support his father's home team too.

We saw the seven-year-old proudly wearing a red, white and blue English football shirt in the Father's Day photo Meghan posted on Instagram this year.

The picture showed both Archie and Lilibet hugging Harry tightly, and we got a good glimpse of the rose design on the Prince's shirt. Some people might've expected Archie to support the US football team since it's a home World Cup for them but clearly Prince Harry stepped in to steer his son in another direction.

Sport is one of the ways the King's younger son can show fierce patriotism for his home country despite not living there anymore. It's a connection to the UK for him and now for Archie too, giving father and son something they can enjoy together like Prince William and George when they go to watch England or Aston Villa play.

Archie is getting into playing too, as Meghan recently shared a spring-to-summer photo round-up which included a sweet snap of him and Harry kicking a giant football.

Football isn't the only game Prince Harry is determined to get Archie involved in, though. The Duke of Sussex used to be Patron of the Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football League before his patronages were stripped. Rugby is a big passion of his and even when his son was a toddler, Harry had visions of Archie playing it too.

"What I need is a few mini rugby balls that I can then get Archie involved with the game because at the moment it's impossible to find any," he said in summer 2020. "But I've got a little space outside, which I'm fortunate enough to have so I need to get him playing some Rugby League."

Rugby isn't nearly as popular in the US as it is in the UK, so once again this is Harry introducing his son to part of his heritage. Perhaps they'll both be excitedly cheering England on in their matches throughout the World Cup.

As President of FIFA, Prince William could possibly make the trip to America this summer to watch a game in person. Meanwhile, reports have alleged that a UK visit could be on the cards for the entire Sussex family very soon.

Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet haven't been to the UK since 2022 so this would be a big moment for them. Even though they've spent very little time there, Prince Harry has always tried to give his children an upbringing with British elements.

The Sussex siblings have been raised to call their father "Papa" just like their Wales cousins do, even though "Dad" is far more common, particularly in America. They call Meghan "Mama", though when they've written her a letter before they've addressed it "Mummy". She's said she loves this, adding that it's "very British".

The Princess of Wales often sends subtle messages through her outfits and Carole Middleton is surely well aware of how fashion can tell a story. I'd imagine she puts just as much thought into what she wears for big occasions so her dress on Day 3 of Royal Ascot caught my attention.

She and her husband Michael enjoyed a day at the races together and Carole wore a knee-length peppermint-green coat and dress by Kate's go-to designer Catherine Walker. It featured neat lapels and darts running down the jacket to give it extra shaping and volume.

The colour is perfect for a summer capsule wardrobe and Carole Middleton has owned it for years. It's actually the same dress she wore to Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding in May 2018 and it seems to be the first time she's been seen in it since then.

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There's no way that Carole didn't think this connection would be spotted given the amount of press coverage Royal Ascot always gets. She still wore the green two-piece and many people might be surprised to see this throwback link to the Sussexes.

Prince Harry has been very open about wanting to reconcile with the Royal Family, however it's thought that he and Prince William haven't seen each other since 2024. As she's the Princess of Wales's mum, it's natural to see Carole as being aligned with the Waleses instead of Harry and Meghan.

However, the Duke and Duchess's wedding day was a joyful occasion, years before they stepped back as working royals. Perhaps wearing this same coat and dress is a way for Carole to nod back to these happier times and mint green is often associated with tranquillity and healing.

There could also be a much simpler explanation for her choice. How many times does someone get to re-wear something as luxurious and formal as a jacket and dress set? It's not like Carole is a royal herself, so she might not have many opportunities to enjoy this design compared to Kate who goes to a lot of big events.

On Day 2 of Ascot she stepped out in the pink Catherine Walker Mother of the Bride coat dress she wore to Pippa Middleton's wedding in 2017. Wedding re-wears are sensible if she doesn't want these pieces to stay in storage at home.

I think the Princess of Wales's mum probably has a big collection of wedding outfits, though, so she could still have picked others over the mint green one. Maybe this suggests that Carole chose her style for both practical and meaningful reasons.

The colour of her jacket and matching dress is also beautiful for the heatwave, bringing to mind refreshing mint ice cream. This shade of green works well with white and cream for contrast and you can also lean into the pastels and pair it with blush or lilac.

At Ascot we saw Carole Middleton styling her co-ord with neutral accessories, all from British clothing brands. Her raffia top handle bag and suede slingbacks from Emmy London added texture to the look and she also wore a wide-brimmed cream Catherine Walker hat with a mint green flower decoration.

When Prince Harry and Meghan announced they were stepping back as working royals in 2020 the world reacted with dismay and there was speculation over how the Royal Family truly felt about it. Days later Queen Elizabeth declared in a personal message that Harry, Meghan and their son Archie "will always be much loved members of [her] family".

Nevertheless, it's now been suggested that she was slightly "worried" about what the Sussexes would do after their high-profile royal exit. Writing in the latest issue of Woman, royal correspondent Duncan Larcombe alleges that there was a condition set out by the monarch.

"Her Majesty made it clear to Harry that he and Meghan would leave with her blessing as long as they understood leaving royal life meant exactly that," he writes.

Duncan understands that "she was worried the Sussexes would continue with public engagements" but without coordinating their work to "prevent them overshadowing the actual work of the family". This half-in, half-out approach to royal life was something that Prince Harry and Meghan had reportedly hoped for.

However, Queen Elizabeth didn't share this vision for the Sussexes' future and left them in no doubt about her feelings. Writing in The Windsor Legacy, royal author Robert Jobson described a summit held at Sandringham House in January 2020.

"The answer from the top was clear: no halfway role was possible. They were either in or out," he claimed, adding, "Her Majesty's ruling deepened the existing tensions in the family, particularly between Harry and William."

Although the Duke and Duchess of Sussex followed the rules set out for them at first, in recent years the thing Queen Elizabeth was "worried" about is seemingly coming true. The couple's Australia trip in April garnered both praise and criticism, particularly when it came to the elements that were similar to a traditional royal tour.

The visit came just before King Charles and Queen Camilla's US State Visit. Then in May, Meghan visited Switzerland for the inauguration of The Lost Screen Memorial which is dedicated to children who lost their lives as a result of the harm they suffered on social media.

A few days before, the Princess of Wales undertook her first overseas visit since her cancer diagnosis in neighbouring Italy. The working royals coordinate their engagements carefully but since Harry and Meghan stepped back who knows if there's any sort of communication like this between them all.

There's inevitably a lot of direct comparison when Sussex visits and royal engagements occur around the same time. So it's understandable that Queen Elizabeth might have been concerned about the institution's work being "overshadowed" by headlines concerning Harry and Meghan.

Her dedication to the monarchy and the Commonwealth was one of her strongest character traits and her grandson praised it in a statement following her death in 2022.

"In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty the Queen - and in mourning her loss - we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty," he declared.

Read Duncan Larcombe's feature in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

The warring Windsor brothers are heading for another stand-off after Prince William was angered by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s half-in, half-out behaviour.

Sources close to the future king have revealed to me his ‘deep concerns’ that the Sussexes are ignoring the rules set down by the late Queen Elizabeth when they quit royal life for a fresh start in America.

Her Majesty made it clear to Harry that he and Meghan would leave with her blessing as long as they understood leaving royal life meant exactly that. I understand that she was worried the Sussexes would continue with public engagements without their efforts being coordinated to prevent them overshadowing the actual work of the family.

Yet six years after ‘Megxit’ and the couple are increasingly breaking the agreement that was drawn up during crisis talks following Harry’s bombshell decision to spend much of his life abroad.

I believe that William is particularly angered by his brother’s recent foreign visits to Jordan, Australia and Ukraine, which bore all the hallmarks of official royal engagements in all but name.

Meghan’s visit to Switzerland to highlight the dangers of social media is also understood to have upset William as it had the potential to overshadow Kate’s first foreign visit since her cancer diagnosis, as both happened in mid-May.

Kate went to Italy to highlight her interest in early years development, making it her first overseas visit in more than three years.

My royal source told me, ‘William and Kate take a great deal of care and personal interest in the planning of their official engagements. Events including overseas visits are planned months in advance.

'The couple will not want anything to overshadow the roles they play as full-time working royals.

‘There is an increasing view that the King and his heir may well have to try and draw a line in the sand when it comes to Harry and Meghan. They are acting as though the discussions with the late Queen never took place.’

It was reported that William intends to ‘take a much harder line’ with his brother and sister-in-law when he becomes king, meaning the prospect of a bust-up is almost inevitable.

News of the heightening tension between Kensington Palace and the Sussexes comes after William was photographed in Istanbul celebrating Aston Villa’s Europa League victory with pals. These included Thomas van Straubenzee and Edward van Cutsem, who were close to both William and Harry as they were growing up.

It was seen as a sign of how the loyalties of the inner circle have been tested by Harry’s ongoing feud with his brother. In happier times Harry was often photographed at social occasions with the friends who now appear to have sided with William.

If the heir to the throne does confront his brother it would be a high risk strategy. He would be concerned that any private conversations with Harry would be publicised by the couple, who have become outspoken critics of the royal ‘institution’, as Meghan calls it.

So far William and Kate have shown restraint when it comes to the Sussex clan. Bar William’s comment that ‘We are very much not a racist family,’ they have deliberately avoided giving Harry the oxygen of publicity by responding to the Oprah interview, the Netflix documentary and Harry’s bombshell book Spare.

They have maintained a dignified silence and refused to be drawn into tit-for-tat public exchanges with the estranged couple.

William knows that confronting his brother over his behaviour would risk breaking this strategy of never complain, never explain.

Opinion polls provide proof that William and Kate have handled the whole Sussex drama with a dignity that is not wasted on the British public.

William and Kate have continued to ride high in popularity polls in sharp contrast to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have seen their approval ratings plummet.

My source added, ‘It is obvious that William’s strategy of maintaining a silence has gone down well with the public. But there are increasing signs that Harry and his wife are continually crossing red lines laid down when they departed from royal life.

'It is not clear how much longer William and Kate can continue to ignore the elephant in the room.'

In life, there are few things you can count on quite like your friends. But when everyone knows who you are from the moment you’re born, how do you make real, life-long friendships? This was what woman&home’s royal contributor Emily Andrews and Reverend Richard Coles explored on the latest episode of their podcast, Catching Up with the Royals.

Pondering how growing up in the public eye affected Prince William and Prince Harry's friendships, Emily suggested they would test their loyalty.

"I remember in the past, Harry and William feeding erroneous stories out and keeping track of what they told to whom," she claimed. "So they could track what ended up in the press and they’d cut those friends out."

"Anyone who they deemed to be disloyal would be absolutely eviscerated and cut from the social circle," she added.

Delving more into what it means to be friends with one of the brothers, Emily reflected that the Princes' friendship group is largely aristocracy. The Prince of Wales's circle of friends includes Thomas van Straubenzee, who is godfather to Princess Charlotte, and James Meade, who went to Eton with William.

Emily continued, "One of Catherine’s best friends married one of William’s best friends. But I think the key for keeping your friendship with the royals is loyalty… To the extent, I’ve got friends of friends who are friends with the royals and they will not even mention their name in front of me, just in case."

The royal expert added that being royal comes with some notable obstacles when it comes to making friends. She claimed, "You’re always going to be the most important person in the room - it’s quite hard to sustain friendships on those weird, unbalanced dynamics."

While Prince William and Prince Harry might have endured trickier dynamics with their social circles, Emily believes Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis could experience very different friendships. This is all thanks to one important decision William and Catherine have made for them.

Emily suggested that, with the three children attending the same school, "They’re perhaps mingling with different kinds of families, so maybe they’ll have different kinds of friendships."

While Lambrook, an independent prep school in Berkshire for boys and girls aged 3-13 is still, by most standards, a posh school, Emily explained that it isn’t to the same level.

This means that George, Charlotte and Louis are being educated with "the kids of doctors, lawyers, business people, maybe upper middle class”. Emily’s co-host Richard Coles put forward the idea that this upbringing is "more Middleton than Windsor".

"The Middleton way has definitely been the childhood that William and Catherine want for their children," Emily responded. "I think that it’s really important for the 21st century monarchy because I do think monarchy now more than ever has to be relevant to the people."

Prince Harry might not be a working royal anymore, but he's still one of the highest ranking people in the line of succession, following Prince William and his niece and nephews. He grew up being closely focused upon and now royal biographer Andrew Morton believes that public interest is shifting in George, Charlotte and Louis' favour.

Chatting to the Daily Mail's Senior Editor-at-Large Richard Kay on Palace Confidential, Morton suggested that Harry had a long-standing fear of being "overshadowed" by them. Not only that, but the writer thinks it's already starting to happen.

"The issue that always concerned Prince Harry, that he would be overshadowed by his brother's children, is coming to effect," he alleged. "Because George is looking every inch the very handsome young man and so the big debate will be where are they going to send him to school?"

Prince George turns 13 in July and the amount of speculation over his new school from September shows just how much people are interested in him. Morton, who wrote Diana: Her True Story, thinks Oundle would "fit the bill" if the Waleses want a co-educational private school that Charlotte and Louis could later go to.

Harry and William went to Eton, but the Duke of Sussex has said he "didn't enjoy" it and wanted to be "the bad boy". Morton's claim that Harry "always" worried about being eclipsed comes three years after the Prince admitted to having a very different fear for Charlotte and Louis.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he explained that Prince William "has made it very clear" that his children aren't Harry's responsibility. Even so, he said he still feels one "knowing that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare. And that hurts, that worries me."

In his memoir, also titled Spare, Harry wrote that he was 20 when he first learned of a remark King Charles allegedly made to Princess Diana after he was born - "Wonderful. You have given me an heir and a spare. You have done your job."

The sense that he grew up somewhat in his older brother's shadow seems to have sparked his concern for Charlotte and/or Louis feeling a similar way about Prince George one day. However, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond believes that Prince William and Kate are likely doing all they can to avoid this situation.

She said in the past, "They have already shown that they have a different and modern attitude to bringing up royal children and I'm sure they will do everything to make Charlotte and Louis feel every bit as special, loved and valued as George."

The Prince of Wales also divulged in The Reluctant Traveler that he's keen to modernise the monarchy and move away from certain "practices".

"I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do. A world and a job that actually does impact people's lives for the better," he said. "That is caveated with, I hope we don't go back to some of the practices of the past, that Harry and I had to grow up in. And I'll do everything I can to make sure we don't regress in that situation."

Could King Charles's new garden achieve the impossible and reunite Princes William and Harry?

I only ask because I spotted a fascinating detail, which harks back to happier times between the now warring brothers.

The King has collaborated with Sir David Beckham, Alan Titchmarsh and horticulturist Frances Tophill to create the RHS and King's Foundation Curious Garden for the 2026 Chelsea Flower Show, held in London last month.

I was lucky enough to have a guided tour and absolutely loved it (particularly the colourful planting and the delphiniums, which are the King’s favourite).

But inside the oak-framed potting shed at its centre - described as a ‘museum of curiosities’ - was one very famous photograph. In a framed newspaper cutting was the then-Prince of Wales’s Christmas card from 1995.

Taken in his beloved Highgrove garden earlier that summer, it shows a smiling Prince Charles sitting on a bench.

Either side of him are two large terracotta urns - with a teenage William and Harry inside each one. The boys are grinning from ear to ear, and their dad seems to be laughing at their cheeky antics.

Nothing in the Curious Garden (so-called as it aims to spark curiosity in younger people for gardening) is there by accident. A duplicate of the Highgrove terracotta urns stands outside, while a lot of the curios inside speak to the creators’ families.

There’s some homemade Golden Beez honey by Becks and son Cruz, some Posh Pommes apple juice made by Victoria, a handwritten ode by Frances’ young nephew to RHS Chelsea dropping its long-standing gnome ban, a lovely watercolour by another of her nephews, and four gnomes - each one labelled after the collaborative garden family of King Charles III, Sir David, Alan and Frances.

So that happy Wales family picture - of William and Harry as brothers-in-arms before the death of their mum Princess Diana - is there for a reason. It’s a tribute to an earlier time.

I’d like to think it’s a silent wish - a plea, even - from a dad who wants his boys back together.

Wouldn’t it be great if William and Harry could bury the hatchet for the sake of their dad? After all, if the King can forgive and forget, shouldn’t they? Shouldn’t we?

Outside in the garden was a rose named after Sir David, and another after the King. Life is not always coming up roses. But maybe the princes could take a look at the joy in their father’s garden and turn over a new leaf.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Just over a year on from Prince Harry publicly declaring he'd "love" a reconciliation with his family, the Sussex family still hasn't visited the UK all together. However, royal author Ingrid Seward doesn't believe that a royal invite from King Charles is totally off the table for Harry, Meghan and their children this summer.

It would mean going a little further afield than Clarence House, though, as she thinks that Balmoral Castle in Scotland is the "only" place this meeting could happen.

"The only place that really I think they could meet if the King is to get to know or at least see his grandchildren, is at Balmoral," Ingrid claimed to The Mirror. "It's the only time the King has time and the Sussexes could be accommodated there because there's lots of cottages on the Estate."

The last time Archie and Lilibet were in the UK was in 2022 and Lili turned one during the trip. Four years later and that's still the only time she's met King Charles in person, so he'd no doubt be delighted to spend more time with her and Archie if they fly over.

As Ingrid mentioned, His Majesty has more free time than usual when he's at Balmoral as he usually goes there in August for his annual summer break. During this time he carries on with certain royal duties but public engagements are pretty much paused for the whole Royal Family.

Balmoral Castle is set on a 50,000 acre estate and Ingrid explained that Harry and Meghan "don't have to stay in the castle", although they "would expect to, but that's fine". She also believes the couple would "make sure" that their visit wouldn't coincide with the Prince and Princess of Wales going up to Scotland to see the King.

Whilst Charles and Harry have seen each other privately in the past few years, relations between William and his brother are as distant as ever. However, Ingrid thinks it's "not that difficult" for the two families to avoid each other, so a possible Sussex visit "can be done fairly under the radar".

Because Balmoral closes to the public over King Charles's summer break and he's generally not doing engagements, there's a lot more privacy up there for him and photographs are rarely taken. King Charles still has his round-the-clock security too which might give Harry and Meghan reassurance about Archie and Lilibet's safety whilst they're there.

Out of all the royal residences, Balmoral was said to be the late Queen Elizabeth's favourite home and she also spent her summers there, hosting various members of her wider family. Meghan, Archie and Lili have still never been to the castle but Prince Harry considers it a very special place to him.

"To me, Balmoral was always simply Paradise. A cross between Disney World and some sacred Druid grove," he wrote in Spare.

If King Charles does invite the family to join him at the Balmoral estate - and Harry and Meghan accept - then perhaps Archie and Lilibet can experience some of what their dad did as a child. It would also be a massive step for the royals after everything that's happened, so keeping it "under the radar" might be easier said than done.

Can the feud between Prince William and Prince Harry ever be solved? Certainly, it's King Charles’s wish that peace should reign. And now, I understand that he has tasked his right-hand man with trying to broker peace between the warring brothers.

Essentially, he wants what most fathers would want - his sons to be on speaking terms. And if that means asking William to forgive Harry for what he has done, then so be it.

It has been reported that Charles’s deputy private secretary Theo Rycroft has made it his ‘number one mission’ to reunite Harry and William.

Quite how he’s going to do that remains unclear.

But it would certainly make it much easier for the King to see Harry - and, indeed, attend the Invictus Games next year in Birmingham - if his two sons were at least on texting terms. The brothers, once so close, haven’t spoken for years.

I broke the story that they had first fallen out over William's well-meant warning to Harry that he didn't need to rush things with his then-girlfriend Meghan Markle. Harry ignored the advice, and things went from bad to worse, with the result that the Sussexes walked away from royal life, with a lot of public acrimony, in January 2020.

It was just after the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in 2021 that Harry asked William and the then-Prince Charles to meet him privately in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Just a month earlier, Harry and Meghan had given their incendiary interview to Oprah Winfrey, claiming royal ‘concerns’ over their baby Archie’s skin colour, emotional abandonment and that they’d been cut off financially. Harry went on to say that his brother and father were ‘trapped’ within the royal system, unable to leave as he did.

Punchy stuff. Some may say unforgivable. The late Queen memorably responded by saying, ‘recollections may vary.’

So when Harry, William and Charles did meet, in an attempt to clear the air, Harry writes in his autobiography, Spare, that he and William ‘began sniping’ and it got so heated that ‘Pa raised his hands.’ Standing between them, pleading, Charles said, 'Please, boys - don’t make my final years a misery.'

Harry then, in my opinion, frames the whole writing of Spare as a letter to his father and ‘my beloved brother, my arch-nemesis’ on why he left the UK and the Royal Family.

After the book’s publication in 2023, William felt utterly betrayed, as it went much further than Harry and Meghan's Oprah and then Netflix bombshells.

Old scores were rehashed, and a huge amount of new detail was given about William and Catherine's falling-out with Harry and Meghan, along with accusations aplenty that the Sussexes were victims in all of this - hung out to dry by both the establishment and William.

William reportedly banned any mention of Harry and Meghan, not wanting to get involved in their drama. Then the Princess of Wales was diagnosed with cancer in early 2024, meaning both she and William concentrated on their own immediate family to literally survive its devastating effects.

I understand that Harry tried to privately reach out to his brother via text and WhatsApp, but never received any reply. He then stopped trying.

For a period, Charles too didn’t speak to Harry. But then, I understand, conversations resumed last year - and the King invited Harry to tea at Clarence House in September.

Since then, I’m told they speak on the phone every so often. The King also occasionally speaks to and video-calls his Sussex grandchildren Archie, seven, and Lili, four, whom he has only met a couple of times.

So it makes sense that while Charles’s elder son is still holding a massive grudge and has refused his father’s pleading to make up, a diplomat may hold the key.

Theo Rycroft is an Oxford-educated lawyer who joined the Foreign Office in 2005 and has held a string of senior international roles including legal adviser to the Prime Minister, head of international and EU law at the Attorney General’s Office, and deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Paris.

It is understood that Theo has made it his ambition to reunite Princes William and Harry, with a source saying that he believes the situation has become ‘ridiculous’ and is keen to resolve it.

He’s worked with William before, on several high-profile international engagements, including the prince’s hugely scrutinised trip for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral (when he also met Donald Trump).

Certainly, I’ve always thought that William needs, at the very least, a working relationship with his brother by the time he becomes King.

But after all the betrayal, whether Mr Rycroft is the one to achieve William’s forgiveness remains to be seen.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Mike Tindall let loose with some candid comments about Prince Harry and the former Prince Andrew during his appearance at the Hay Festival.

A literature and arts festival that takes place each year in Wales, Mike was there for a special talk alongside his The Good, The Bad and the Rugby podcast co-hosts, James Haskell and Alex Payne.

With the trio joking about guests embarrassing themselves at Mike’s wedding to Zara Tindall, Mike quipped, "A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun".

The off-the-cuff comments could suggest that Zara - Harry’s cousin - and Mike remain distant from the Duke of Sussex after he left life as a working royal and moved to Montecito, California with Meghan Markle and their children.

Harry, Zara and Mike were thought to be close at one point, with Harry made the godfather to the couple’s second child, Lena.

While they’ve never commented on Harry’s comments since leaving the royals, the Tindalls are known to be close to Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales. As well as the children being close in age and often being seen together at events like the Christmas walkabout, Mike has shared insight into his dynamic with the Prince of Wales.

During a previous podcast appearance, he even revealed his hilarious nickname for the future king, dubbing him "One Pint Willy, because he is not the best of drinkers".

Back at the Hay Festival, Mike wasn’t holding back when it came to other members of the family - making a crack about the former Prince Andrew that he knew might have got him in trouble.

When his co-host joked about Mike’s royal connections, saying “he’s got his own bedroom at Buckingham Palace”, Mike replied, "Opposite end to Andrew, though."

He followed that up by admitting, "Backstage, they were like, 'It’s being recorded, maybe stay away from [the subject of] Andrew tonight?'"

There were plenty more jokes about Mike’s royal connections. On his corrective rhinoplasty for his broken nose in 2018, his co-host said, "Taxpayers’ money fixed it. It’s got the royal warrant if you look inside it."

Fortunately, Mike is known to share a great relationship with his wife’s family, including his mother-in-law, Princess Anne.

The former rugby champ revealed how he got to jokingly gloat after England’s 2011 victory over Scotland in the Six Nations tournament. Mike, who played for the England team for 11 years, helped claim victory over Scotland, the team Princess Anne has acted as patron of since 1986.

Mike might be hoping to call in some royal favours in the future. As well as cracking some risque jokes, the trio revealed plans for a new TV show.

Hoping to recreate the success of Ryan Reynolds’s Welcome to Wrexham, Mike, James and Alex have filmed a pilot about trying to run a local London club.

And the big plans for this project? Getting Mike’s relatives involved. Alex said, "We could have Catherine meeting the team, the Princess of Wales. These are all massive pipe dreams".

The Met Gala is fashion's biggest night. Held at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's a red-carpet roll call of who's in (and who's out).

Earlier this month, the A-list turned out in force: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, Zoë Kravitz, Margot Robbie, Blake Lively, Madonna - the list goes on.

But there was one name missing - Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.

It was hugely surprising on two counts. The first because she's just launched herself as a fashion influencer (selling her 'look' online), and the second because two of her besties, Katy Perry and Serena Williams, were also there.

What better way to advertise her brand than by hobnobbing with the great, the good and every fashion designer worth their sequins?

But I believe the reason she wasn't invited is that she's reportedly upset the most powerful woman in fashion: Dame Anna Wintour, Vogue supremo and inspiration for The Devil Wears Prada.

Anna is a huge royalist, supported the King and Queen on their US state visit and was reportedly not amused by Meghan and Harry's bashing of the Royal Family.

It's she who is responsible for the guest list (incidentally, she has invited the Princess of Wales several times, but Kate has always gracefully declined) and she did not extend an invitation to Meghan.

And that's not the only door that's shutting. It was once rumoured that Meghan was hopeful of high-end fashion house Dior signing her (for big bucks) as an ambassador, but that did not happen.

And despite Meghan inviting herself to Balenciaga's Paris show last autumn, with her spokespeople gushing that she was a long-time friend of creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, that brand has not signed her either.

One source said, '[Harry and Meghan] have truly lost the plot. I hear she's spiralling badly because she knows nothing is working. The whole thing about her [As Ever] stuff selling out isn't true any more. I don't think either of them are happy.'

I'm told other high-profile friends who could have helped them have also walked away due to their unfortunate habit of falling out with everyone.

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos was said to have 'grown weary' of the couple and, according to Hollywood bible Variety, reportedly said he would not sit for a call with Meghan without a lawyer on the line (Netflix has denied this).

Even when he and wife Nicole Avant posed for pictures with Meghan at a Netflix event, after the unflattering Variety piece, many of them mysteriously disappeared from the picture agency. Word on the street was that Meghan was unhappy with how she looked.

Pictures, again, were a source of dispute with the über-influential Kardashians.

After Kim and her mum Kris Jenner posted, then deleted, pictures of Harry and Meghan at Kris' 70th birthday party, the Kardashians were said to be furious about the Sussex briefings that they had not agreed to public pictures.

The reality was that Harry was unhappy because it was Remembrance Day weekend in the UK, and he worried that it looked disrespectful to be partying while all the other royals were solemnly remembering our war dead at the Royal Albert Hall.

As if to cement their persona non grata status, the couple were absent from all of King Charles' engagements in America.

President Trump reinforced their unpopularity when he said that there are 'too many things' stopping Harry returning to the family fold, adding, 'That wife of his. Boy, what she's done to that guy.'

Another source in their orbit claims the pair are 'wildly unhappy'. It's clear that many of their projects have not gone to plan. Perhaps they want different things work-wise?

Harry reportedly even wants to move to the solitude of Montana. Meghan is carefully watching their spend, while Harry is thought to lack 'basic awareness' of what things cost, having been brought up in a palace with no bills to pay.

I've reported before on their expensive lifestyle - and how they've recently gutted their Sussex operation. From 16 full-time staff, they are now down to a chief of staff each, a charity consultant, two TV executives, a communications chief in the UK and a press agency, Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, in the USA.

It's ironic that apparently one of the main reasons Meghan wanted to leave the UK was that she discovered that Prince William would ultimately fund them. Once she found out that, as King, William would be responsible for how much money they received, she apparently wanted out.

But Harry clearly misses the UK, his family and being a working royal. As I reported last week, he still thinks he is one, yet is making a buck at the same time. The path appears to be set - 'working royal' engagements plus commercial ventures that will lean on their status.

For, as one associate said, 'They don't have a choice at this point. They really need the money.'

We haven't had a royal wedding for quite some time but Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling's upcoming nuptials are going to look a little different to the Waleses' and Sussexes'. Their ceremony will be private, though we can still expect plenty of royals to be there, including Peter’s mother Princess Anne and sister Zara Tindall.

It's also highly likely that the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children will be there, as well as King Charles and Queen Camilla, but there are some royals who've reportedly been left off the invite list.

As per reports, and discussed on royal expert Emily Andrews’s podcast, Catching Up with the Royals, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan won’t be there - because they allegedly weren’t invited.

According to HELLO!, one reason for the supposed exclusion is that Peter and his cousin Harry "haven’t spoken for several years". Expanding on this, on a recent episode of her and Reverend Richard Coles' royal podcast, expert and woman&home correspondent Emily Andrews claimed Prince Harry and Meghan’s team "confirmed [they] aren’t going".

She asked if the couple had been invited to begin with and remarked, "The Sussex’s team wouldn’t be drawn on whether Harry and Meghan were invited or not. I suspect that Peter probably didn’t invite Harry and Meghan because it’s too problematic."

While many people might think this is just about Prince William and Harry’s strained relationship, Emily suggests it’s bigger than that.

"This is not just a family issue between Harry and William… I think it’s not just William who is upset by what Harry’s done. Many members of the family have been upset", she claimed. "Let’s not forget that [Harry’s] talked a lot about how he has felt let down in the royal machinery… I think there are many other members of the family who felt that Harry has behaved badly and unforgivably".

Prince Harry attended Peter's wedding to his first wife, Autumn, in 2008. The cousins would have last been together during King Charles's coronation in 2023. They weren't seated together, and it's not known if the pair spoke at any point.

Unsurprisingly, Harry and Meghan aren't the only royals who are said to have been left off the invitation list. Peter’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is also reportedly not invited as he would be a "distraction".

A source close to Peter reportedly told HELLO, "When and whether Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson had been invited, it was probably not deemed appropriate to invite them. It’s Peter and Harriet’s special day, and clearly their attendance would cause a distraction to the whole day."

In October 2025, King Charles stripped his brother's Princely title. Then, on Andrew's birthday in February 2026 he was arrested in Sandringham on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew vehemently denies all allegations of wrongdoing against him.

Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling's guests will be celebrating with them on 6th June when they tie the knot in the Cotswolds. The couple are getting married at All Saints Church in Cirencester, rather than a venue traditionally associated with the royals.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven't set foot on UK soil as a couple since Queen Elizabeth's funeral in 2022 but they made sure to include a very British detail in their wedding anniversary celebrations. Harry and Meghan marked their 8 year anniversary at home with Archie and Lilibet and whether they made it themselves or commissioned it, they all enjoyed a special cake.

In her Instagram Stories Meghan confirmed it was elderflower and lemon - the same flavour as the Sussexes' three-tier wedding cake. It even had a fresh flower on top too. The original masterpiece was crafted by Claire Ptak of Violet Bakery, who previously described the flavour of the elderflower buttercream as "quintessentially spring and British".

Elderflower grows wild in the UK and even though the couple broke with royal tradition with their surprising flavour choice, the final cake still paid tribute to Harry's home country. Usually royals go for long-lasting fruit cakes, like the Prince and Princess of Wales's and you save tiers to be used as christening cakes.

Harry and Meghan's children were fully involved in the anniversary celebrations and likely got to enjoy a slice of the new lemon and elderflower cake. We got to see a glimpse of their gifts for their parents and a handwritten card, with the envelope reading "Mama and Papa".

Interestingly, this is a subtle sign that Archie and Lilibet are being raised with little nods to their British heritage. Prince Harry and Prince William both call King Charles "Pa" and he in turn used to call Prince Philip "Papa". We also know that the Wales kids use "Papa" for William.

Harry has kept up the custom with his kids and you'd think that they might use "Dad" instead which is far more popular in America and more casual. Archie and Lilibet also call Meghan "Mama" but they've also called her the "best mummy" before.

The Duchess revealed as much on Jamie Kern Lima's podcast where she read out a letter from her children, with a little help from Prince Harry. Perhaps "mummy" and not "mommy" was used because it was him writing it, although Meghan actually said she loved that they chose this spelling because it was "very British".

Prince Harry appears to have nostalgia for British life too, as he apparently told singer Joss Stone how "wonderful" the schools are in the UK and "how important community is for children". Even though the family are well and truly at home in California, there's still a sense of both worlds.

The couple's wedding anniversary was the perfect opportunity to nod to this with their lemon and elderflower cake and in Meghan's Instagram Stories we also got to see what her husband got her for their bronze anniversary. Appropriately enough, it was a bronze statue of two penguins and the reason for the present was clear.

Beside the gift was a picture of Prince Harry and Meghan wearing penguin onesies at their engagement party back in 2017.

"When Mama and Papa got engaged, we had a party with all of our friends, and we said, 'Everyone wear an animal onesie,'" Meghan told Archie and Lilibet. "We were penguins. Because we're together for life."

The Duchess of Sussex has gone all out for her and Prince Harry's 8th wedding anniversary and shared two posts on Instagram featuring never-before-seen snaps. Taken by the brilliant photographer Chris Allerton, there's so much emotion captured in the pictures, but there's one photo of the Sussexes in St George's Chapel that caught my eye.

It's the second snapshot in the "daytime" post and shows Prince Harry pointing at the flowers in Meghan's bouquet as she beams down at it. It's easy to miss the significance of this moment and it's tricky to make out the exact flower he's gesturing to.

However, the bouquet was something he was personally involved in and it paid tribute to his late mother. At the time of Harry and Meghan's wedding Kensington Palace confirmed that he "handpicked several flowers" from their "private garden".

These were added to the bouquet designed by Philippa Craddock. The statement also announced that the spring blooms "include Forget-Me-Nots which were Diana, Princess of Wales' favourite flower" and "the couple specifically chose them".

Although blue Forget-Me-Nots are most common, the flowers also come in white and these ones fitted in beautifully with the rest of Meghan's all-white bouquet. Other flowers in the arrangement were sweet peas, jasmine, lily of the valley, astrantia and astilbe, as well as the traditional sprig of myrtle that royal brides have had since Queen Victoria's reign.

It's possible that any of these were the blooms Harry picked in their garden, though I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to pick Forget-Me-Nots because of how sentimental they are to him. This would also make sense that they're grown there because of Diana's connection to Kensington Palace, her former home.

Perhaps it was these flowers that Harry was specifically pointing to in the Chris Allerton picture shared by Meghan, as the others are pretty but don't necessarily have that emotional pull to them. This quiet moment at St George's Chapel would also have been an opportunity for the groom to properly look at the finished bouquet in all its glory.

The Forget-Me-Nots weren't the only way Princess Diana was included in the wedding day. Meghan's engagement ring features diamonds from her collection and for the evening reception, the Duchess of Sussex wore one of her late mother-in-law's rings.

The emerald-cut aquamarine ring is stunning and Meghan's gone on to wear it several times since her wedding day, including in December 2022 for the Ripple of Hope Gala.

It's clear how much thought went into the smallest details at the Sussexes' wedding and we got to see so many other special moments in Meghan's posts too, including the couple kissing on the dance floor at the reception and boogieing up a storm.

Their first dance was to Land of a Thousand Dances and in their Harry & Meghan Netflix series the Duchess described it as a "whirlwind".

"I just really wanted the music to be fun. Even our first dance," Meghan said, adding, "It was like a whirlwind, it was so great."

Another day, another word salad from Prince Harry... It’s almost as if he’s desperate to reassure us and remind us that he’s still relevant...

This time was an interview with ITV News on a whistle-stop tour to Ukraine. He said, 'I will always be part of the Royal Family and I’m here working, doing the very thing I was born to do and I enjoy doing it. I enjoy being able to do these trips and support the people that I’ve met before and the friends that I’ve made.'

My good chum, ITV’s royal editor Chris Ship, asked him if he recognised the phrase ‘not a working royal’, to which he responded, 'No.'

Harry went on to speak of the ongoing humanitarian challenges in Ukraine and express his hope that world leaders would show ‘proper leadership’ to find peace there and in the Middle East.

Which loosely translates as ‘I matter! I’m still royal, royal blood still runs through my veins and therefore what I say is important, people!’

Oh, Harry...

To be fair, he was also there to highlight the excellent work of the HALO Trust, the landmine-clearing organisation whose profile Princess Diana transformed in her 1997 trip to Angola.

But also, striding in a blue vest, reminiscent of those famous images, is it horribly cynical to think that is as much reminding us of his connection to her as it is the cause itself.

Harry, 41, often wants to remind us so desperately of his mum, and his family.

Only a few days prior to his trip, we found out he’d sent a tribute to his late grandmother (a floral wreath sent to her grave in St George’s Chapel inside Windsor castle on what would have been her 100th birthday).

A gesture made ‘privately’ and ‘quietly’ except we knew about it practically the moment it happened through an exclusive with the US magazine People.

He talked about Princess Diana in Australia - saying the royal role 'killed my mum' and so he didn’t want it.

He also talked about her in his autobiography Spare - that a visit to a psychic convinced him he was living the life she had wanted for him.

I feel sorry for him. He’s tried so hard to matter in his own right. He left the Royal Family, said it was awful, tried to find paying gigs, boldly shared HIS TRUTH.

But Hollywood and everyone else got a bit bored of the victimhood and repetitive self-pity. And now? Missing the UK, estranged from his family, he still thinks of himself as a working royal.

Except he’s very far from that.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

It was a state banquet fit for a king and the great and the good of American high society. Donald Trump was determined to show King Charles that the special relationship between the UK and USA was alive and kicking.

The guest list included golfer Rory McIlroy, Apple boss Tim Cook and the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as well as several of Trump’s own family. What was the highlight of Charles and Camilla’s four-day visit to the United States only showed, in my opinion, once again the chasm that exists between the monarch and his second son.

It seems Harry and Meghan were flatly not invited, despite the fact they have now lived in America for the bulk of their married life. What more could symbolise the diplomatic ties between two nations better than a British royal and his Californian wife? How easy it would have been for them to hop on a private jet and join the glitterati paying homage to the royal guests?

Of course Trump has his own beef with the Sussexes and has mocked them on more than one occasion. But that would all be overlooked if the King was determined to see Harry during his journey across the Atlantic.

If some of the ice between father and son had thawed, Harry would surely have been warmly embraced by the event’s organisers. Away from the pomp and ceremony of the White House dinner, it would have once been unthinkable that His Majesty would visit America without making the effort to at least see his son privately.

After all, Charles has reportedly not seen Harry’s children Archie and Lilibet since the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

When Harry was growing up he was close to his father, famously joining him on a visit to South Africa in the wake of Diana’s tragic death.

What this latest failure to meet tells us is that the duke and duchess appear to remain on the outside as far as the Royal Family is concerned. I imagine that Charles feels he cannot bring his son back into the fold as things currently stand.

For his part, Harry seems to want to be seen as someone who has shrugged off the need to be endorsed by his family and continues to act like a royal without a portfolio.

His visits this year to Jordan, Australia and Ukraine were a sign he has no intention of obeying the late Queen’s insistence that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could not be half in, half out of the family. 'I will always be part of the Royal Family, and I’m here working and doing the very thing that I was born to do,' he said.

But is there any glimmer of hope things might change in the long term?

Palace sources are gloomy when it comes to Harry’s chances of being brought in from the cold. However, one source did reveal the King has made efforts behind the scenes to ease the distrust between father and son.

They said, 'Harry may have only had a brief face to face with His Majesty last year but there remains some kind of contact. This is not a healing of the relationship but the King is keen to try to find a way to start the long slow process of making things right with Harry.'

Charles, I’m sure, knows how damaging it is for the rift between Harry and in particular his brother William to linger on unresolved.

I am told that Charles and Harry have been in contact since last September’s brief encounter and there were even private talks about the prospect of Charles meeting Harry in private, away from the media spotlight, while he was in America.

A secret meeting would have been an ideal opportunity to move things forward. But that was always going to be tricky - it would have been a huge distraction and sadly a mile away from where their relationship is currently.

The communications between father and son have been strictly confidential but they may at least give Charles some glimmer of hope.

The source added, ‘The King sees the breakdown in relations between the Sussexes and the Prince and Princess of Wales as one of the most distressing aspects of his short reign. And what father wants to be estranged from his own son?’

As Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the monarch is aware of the importance of forgiveness, and the optics of the ‘Megxit’ situation do not look good.

But for now - as their official visit to the States has demonstrated - the King and Queen are a long way from finding a breakthrough to heal the rift that has blighted the Royal Family for far too long.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

The Princess of Wales cleverly uses her clothing and jewellery to send subtle messages and we've come to expect and eagerly look out for these details. At her first Trooping the Colour as Colonel of the Irish Guards in 2023 Kate's emerald green coat dress and glimmering shamrock brooch spoke loud and clear.

What we didn't know at the time was that she reportedly decided against a ceremonial uniform or similar look - out of consideration for Prince Harry. In his new biography, Kate!, royal author Christopher Andersen has claimed that when it was "suggested she wear a military-inspired outfit like the one Camilla wore as honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Kate declined."

"'No,' she replied, 'I wouldn't feel right . . . not if Harry can't do it,'" the author continues. "Instead, Kate opted for a green outfit, matching broad-brimmed hat, and her signature gold-and-emerald shamrock brooch."

As the honorary Colonel of the regiment she was entitled to wear a ceremonial uniform, which Andersen notes "Harry, who served for ten years in the British Army and fought in Afghanistan, was now banned from doing". The Duke of Sussex lost his military patronages and honorary titles when he and Meghan stepped back as senior royals in 2020.

Since then he's not been permitted to wear uniform at major ceremonial occasions, though he can wear his medals. An exception was made for the vigil held by Queen Elizabeth's grandchildren after her death, when Harry and William both wore uniforms.

Sources close to Harry previously described how he was "disappointed" to have lost his military titles and it's very thoughtful of Kate to have chosen not to wear something similar to a military uniform herself, even though she was entitled to do so. It shows compassion for her brother-in-law and her understanding of how much wearing the uniform and what it represents means to him and the royals who've served.

Her green outfit and brooch proudly showed her connection to the Irish Guards in her own way instead. She and Harry were once incredibly close and were frequently seen laughing and chatting together during visits or events.

In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex described feeling Kate was "more sister than in-law, the sister [he's] never had and always wanted". He thought she was a "good match" for his brother and "they made each other visibly happy".

She was also said to have played a key role as "peacemaker" between him and Prince William after recognising their "competitive" natures. Royal biographer Russell Myers alleged in William & Catherine that her "upbringing in a close-knit, loving family environment, where supporting each other was almost an unofficial family motto, spurred her actions."

"Whether counselling William or having a quiet word in Harry's ear, she saw it as her duty to keep the two brothers on the same team, as did their senior aides," he added.

By the time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back, things had evolved and sources claimed to Myers that she had "less interest" than William in persuading Harry to stay in his role. Since then the Sussexes and Waleses have only reunited publicly a few times and Kate has continued to choose alternative meaningful outfits over military uniform.

Born just weeks after Prince Harry's beloved 'Granny' Queen Elizabeth in 1926, Sir David Attenborough has a long history with the royals and his 100th birthday has been honoured by the Duke of Sussex in an unexpected way. Rather than sharing a picture or message via a spokesperson, Harry has written a personal essay for Time.

From the outset there's an underlying sense of nostalgia and patriotism that struck me. It shows he still feels intrinsically connected to his birth country, its people and culture - including it's national treasures like David.

He began by declaring that, "For almost anyone who grew up in the United Kingdom, Sir David Attenborough is more than a broadcaster; he is a secular saint. He is an institutional pillar as essential to the national fabric as a cup of tea."

Prince Harry described how the conservationist's "almost-whispers have been the soft soundtrack of the home" and a "shared experience that turned the weekend nature documentary into a national ritual". For Americans, he imagines that Sir David is "not as a personality so much as a standard", known for his narration of programmes like Blue Planet.

The Duke of Sussex's words are heartfelt and as someone who grew up in the UK himself, he clearly feels connected to David as an "institutional pillar" too. It's also hard to be reminded of how Prince Harry has spoken about Queen Elizabeth before when he remarks on "[David's] flashes of amusement when things went wrong".

That ability to adapt and find humour in these moments is something Her Majesty and David Attenborough had in common, and the Duke of Sussex suspects these moments might be some of the broadcaster's favourites.

"The unmistakable delight when an animal treated him not as a presenter, but as part of the environment itself- catching him off guard, interrupting the perfect narration, reminding us that nature cannot be scripted," he shares. "Those moments always felt important, because they revealed something deeper than expertise: genuine reverence and curiosity. And I suspect they brought him the greatest joy of all."

Elsewhere in the essay, Harry spoke about how Sir David "has earned the world's trust by simply showing us that our environment is worth appreciating".

"At 100, Sir David Attenborough has spent a lifetime delivering us the facts with patience, honesty, and wonder. He has shown us the world in all its brilliance and fragility, and in doing so has left humanity with both a gift and a responsibility. The question now is whether those with the power to act will choose to lead before more of our world - our life support system - is lost."

With this essay, Prince Harry has paid tribute to David Attenborough on a personal and professional level and - the greatest hat tip of all - used it as a platform to advocate for the protection of our natural world. That is, after all, the conservationist's key focus and message in all he does so it's lovely to see this come through so strongly.

The distinct British perspective is a subtle but meaningful detail for the California-based Prince too. He and David have met multiple times over the years, including at the premiere of Our Planet in 2019 which he attended with King Charles and Prince William.

Prince Harry and Meghan's 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview sent shockwaves across the globe and their revelations and claims about the Royal Family are still often talked about to this day. Now a new royal biography of the Princess of Wales has delved into how she and Prince William reacted to the tell-all exclusive.

In Kate! The Courage, Grace and Power of the Woman who will be Queen, Christopher Andersen claims that Prince William was perhaps hardest hit by his brother’s unprecedented move. So much so he was reportedly left "literally sick with worry" and "too distracted to think of food".

Andersen also suggests that the Princess of Wales "could hear her husband retching in the bathroom" for the week leading up to the interview.

Over 85 minutes Harry and Meghan shared their version of events, including their suggestion that a member of the Royal Family questioned what their first baby's skin colour might be, and the Prince called his older brother "trapped" in the institution.

At the time, the late Queen Elizabeth II issued a rare public statement in response instead of sticking by her age-old "never complain, never explain" ethos.

She declared, "The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."

As well as witnessing the toll her brother-in-law’s comments had on her family, Andersen’s new book alleges that there was a specific moment years later where Kate - who had previously been quietly trying to act as peacemaker - reached her limits.

In a May last year, the Duke of Sussex told the BBC about his wish to reconcile with his family, saying “life is precious" and he didn’t "know how much longer [his] father has".

King Charles made his cancer diagnosis public in 2024 and his younger son's comments were met with outrage by some at the time. There were suggestions he had somewhat sensationalised the King’s illness and caused alarm for his health.

In an excerpt from the book, Andersen writes, "The damage was done: seeds of doubt concerning the King’s chances for a full recovery had been sown."

He also suggested that Prince Harry’s remarks left Kate "more disappointed than angry", whilst her husband was supposedly enraged.

"William, who had already slammed the door shut on his brother over what Harry wrote in Spare, was, in the words of a courtier, 'apoplectic' with rage," Andersen alleged. "Now it was time to nail the door shut once and for all, and for the first time Kate, who had worked harder than anyone to mend the rift between the brothers, willingly handed her husband a hammer."

A Sandringham staffer also told the author "Princess Catherine is 'the sweetest, most loving person you could ever know... but like everyone else, she has her limits".

Was it all just one long 'Yah boo sucks' to the actual working royals? Or was it to show them that, actually, despite being denied the option of being 'half in, half out' at the Sandringham Summit six years ago in January 2020, Meghan and Harry have got exactly what they wanted?

For their ‘royal tour’ to Australia two weeks ago looked, well… extremely royal. And while they have denied that the trip was to seek publicity, they certainly found it.

They were feted at a children’s hospital in Melbourne, Meghan served lunch at a women’s refuge, Harry talked about fatherhood and mental health at an Australian rules football club, they sailed round iconic Sydney Harbour and Harry donned his medals for a sombre Last Post ceremony and wreath-laying at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

It was a veritable royal-tour bingo full house. Except there was also money to be made.

Ahead of the tour, much was made of their paid-for speaking engagements - Harry at a mental-health summit (although aides later insisted he didn’t receive a fee) and Meghan at a women’s retreat, earning her an estimated £130,000.

But, as became clear, this was the tip of the iceberg for Meghan’s money-making plan - perhaps explaining why she changed clothes so many times, had so many photo opportunities and was even a guest judge on MasterChef Australia.

Hours after she was meeting cancer sufferers and serving food to homeless women, it was revealed that Meghan was ‘merching’ the very clothes off her back via a new AI celebrity fashion portal that she is now investing in. Not just her £660 Karen Gee dress (an Australian designer, of course), but her £575 Real Fine Studio earrings and even her Christian Dior shoes.

Every time someone buys an item, the site gets a 10-25% cut - with Meghan receiving half. I’m not sure ‘tacky’ even begins to cover it. And it certainly explains why this initially ‘private’ and ‘low-key’ visit turned into a media circus. Meghan had to be seen to be believed - and sell her clothes!

Her page on the OneOff platform, where she is billed as 'Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’, features dozens of pictures of her in recent months, many pointedly showing her hand-in-hand with the late Queen’s grandson (still fifth in line to the throne), and all with links to buy her outfits.

Lest we forget (and, of course, recollections do vary), the late Queen said the Sussexes could not be ‘half in, half out’ royals because working royals cannot earn their own money (or merch their status), in order to preserve the clear blue water between public service and personal gain.

Despite the couple’s denial that the trip was for publicity, at Buckingham Palace there were eye-rolls and heavy sighs about the predictability of it all.

One Palace source said, "It’s pretty outrageous behaviour, particularly in a realm where the King is Head of State, to drum up all this publicity for their commercial endeavours with royal-tour choreography.

"The whole point about being a working royal is that they do it for others and for public service, not their bank balance."

So is it time they were stripped of their royal titles?

After all, in the giddy MasterChef Australia introduction, Meghan can be seen beaming from ear to ear after being introduced as ‘royalty’ and ‘the Duchess of Sussex’.

The only reason the Sussexes are famous is their relationship with the Royal Family - a relationship they have continued to monetise and, in my opinion, trash for five years, ever since they hung out their dirty laundry for Oprah Winfrey in 2021. No wonder the real royals are wary of seeing them.

Their former biggest paymasters - Netflix and Spotify - seem to have tired of them. So now, they are reduced to hawking their titles to anyone who will pay - rehashing the sob stories of ‘I was the most trolled person in the entire world’ (Meghan) and ‘I didn’t want this job, it killed my mum’ (Harry).

Which begs the question: Harry, what are you doing? The titles you insist broke you, the titles you refuse to relinquish and demand for your kids, are the titles that booked you those lucrative conference spots!

Certainly, the Aussie media were pretty hostile. One Melbourne newspaper ran a headline that read, ‘No One Cares About Sussexes’ “Faux” Tour’, while The Sydney Morning Herald put it more bluntly: ‘Australia was good to Harry and Meghan. Now they want to use us as an ATM. Does anyone seriously believe they are coming to our shores for reasons other than financial and reputational?’

And a comment piece in Melbourne’s Herald Sun described the couple as ‘grifters’ and criticised their ‘preachy brand of empowerment’.

One furious Australian told Woman, "They have no shame. They’re definitely not getting the same kind of welcome as last time. She went on MasterChef… they must be desperate. No half in, half out. He behaves as if he’s a working royal and he wants what Granny said wasn’t allowed.”

An online petition calling for no official support or taxpayer funding for the couple’s visit attracted over 45,000 signatures. The trip was privately funded, but police in Victoria and New South Wales confirmed they provided security as part of their “core policing business” and to ensure public safety.

It all looked very ‘half in, half out’ by stealth. Whether Harry and Meghan have the last laugh, with it providing wealth, remains to be seen.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Prince Harry has let it be known he’d 'love' to bring his family to Sandringham this summer. Those close to Team Sussex also say he believes an invitation from the King would allow him to bring Meghan, Archie and Lili with him to 'spend some time with the family' at the King’s private estate.

It’s thought the visit could coincide with an Invictus Games one-year-countdown event in Birmingham on 10 July, ahead of next year’s competition in the city.

So many questions... My first thought was why was Harry allowing his people to brief the The Sunday Times about his wishes, instead of calling his father himself? After all, the King may not have a mobile phone but the Buckingham Palace switchboard can put him through any time, anywhere. Why say anything at all publicly?

Harry has only seen his father twice since the coronation three years ago, Meghan hasn’t seen him since the late Queen’s funeral in 2022, while Archie and Lili have barely seen their grandfather at all. Why would Harry use the court of public opinion (again) to try and tug at the emotional heartstrings?

Of course the Palace is wary, and after all that’s happened could this be Meghan’s sweet revenge?

With their careers, credibility and collateral collapsing in the US, what are the Sussexes really after? Their partnership with streaming giant Netflix has all but come to an end, but would they still hope to turn up with a camera crew in tow for their big UK return?

Although the King and Harry are now talking, there is still a huge issue of trust (or lack of it). But the King has not seen Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, for four years, since they visited the UK during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. He is still receiving treatment for cancer and is not expected see them on his official three-day tour to America next week.

The King is known to be a doting grandfather to William and Kate’s kids - George, 12, Charlotte, 10, and Louis, eight this week - and I’m sure would want to know his Sussex grandchildren better.

But one of the key sticking points for Harry is, and has always been, the issue of safety.

Harry, 41, is waiting for a decision on his security in the UK from the Home Office and has repeatedly said he doesn’t feel it is safe to bring his family into the country unless he is reinstated with armed police protection.

The Sussexes had their security downgraded after stepping down from royal duties and moving to America in 2020. It’s thought an invitation to the huge and private Sandringham estate would come with a royal security package from the King.

Meghan is also said to be keen to come to the UK this summer for the one-year-to-go Invictus event and potentially bring their children, too. Though not long ago it was reported that she 'never wants to set foot' in her husband’s homeland again. She has attended similar events previously in Canada and Germany, and sources have said she wishes to do the same in the UK, provided safety concerns are handled.

The couple do have private security (led by a former Metropolitan police detective) but Harry wants armed cops protecting his family while they’re here.

But I did wonder whether the Invictus Games - and indeed the King’s health - have prompted the Sussexes to be more conciliatory.

To me, it’s obvious that King William will, at the very least, strip Archie and Lili of their prince/princess titles. And given William can bear a grudge and also, in my opinion, be utterly ruthless, he could also strip Harry and Meghan of their titles under the guise of a more modern and streamlined monarchy.

Far easier, then, for Harry to heal the rift while his beloved, forgiving Pa is still alive.

So imagine the Sussexes' disappointment when a source close to the King bluntly replied, 'If Harry truly wishes to see his father, he would do well to encourage his supporters to allow such matters to be discussed privately, since low trust and bitter experience in this regard remains one of the principal barriers to progress.' Ouch.

With no other welcoming words from the King, it’s looking a lot like a non-starter, especially if William and Kate have anything to do with it, since they spend much of their summer holidays with the kids at their Anmer Hall home on the Sandringham estate.

Having said that, the King is a softie at heart. And wouldn’t he - and us all, really - like to see the rift with Harry and Meghan mended?

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

It’s easy to look at the photographs of Prince Harry and Meghan’s Australia visit and think that they were met with excitement by the Australian public. They certainly made an impression and were greeted positively by so many people, yet there are also other factors when it comes to measuring the trip's success.

Unlike the last time the Sussexes were Down Under in 2018, this time the couple undertook no walkabouts. These occasions are usually an excellent indication of public interest and mood, and an associate professor at Flinders University believes Prince Harry and Meghan’s itinerary "minimise[d] the risk" of negativity.

Giselle Bastin, who has a research interest in the relationship between Australia and the monarchy claimed to the BBC, "They didn't turn up at great big advertised opportunities to see them, at least not in the form of walkabouts".

"So they've managed to minimise the risk of people having a negative reaction, or hecklers calling out or booing them or anything like that," she continued.

Giselle expressed her belief that the visit was "very carefully controlled so that they just sort of spontaneously appear at places". In her view, "If they think it's gone well, it's because nothing has gone wrong."

Whilst they didn’t engage with giant crowds, they still made an impact and Michael Hartung, chief executive of Invictus Australia praised how much Harry and Meghan do for charitable causes.

"A lot of criticism is thrown their way and what we've seen this past week is they do a hell of a lot for charity and organisations like us, where their presence here in Australia has made a significant impact on our work," he said, adding, "It really does make a difference."

Like is so often the case where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are concerned, this four-day visit appears to have divided people. Like Giselle mentioned, large-scale walkabouts would definitely have opened them up to more potential criticism, not least because these are a hallmark of any royal tour.

The Australia trip raised eyebrows with how similar certain aspects were to an official royal visit despite Harry and Meghan stepping back as working royals in 2020. In Woman magazine, a senior source based at Buckingham Palace alleged to royal expert Duncan Larcombe that the Sussexes are "acting outside the rules" Queen Elizabeth set for them then.

Meanwhile Duncan himself wrote that his sources believe "King Charles and William feel very strongly that Harry and Meghan need to be reined in" and that "their 'royal visits' could pose a possible problem for the rest of the family".

Royal tours are high-profile diplomatic trips and are carried out at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

The working royals are representing the UK abroad and their engagements aren’t blended with private, paid events. The same is true of State Visits like the King Charles and Queen Camilla will undertake to the US from 27th April-30th April, followed by His Majesty’s royal visit to Bermuda from 1st-2nd May.

King Charles and Prince Harry aren’t expected to meet during this time and this makes sense as the monarch’s recently-released schedule is packed. Traditional walkabouts apparently aren’t featured in the programme, but this is allegedly on the advice of the security services.

From the moment Prince Harry and Meghan confirmed their four-day Australia trip people couldn’t help but compare what they had planned with a traditional royal tour. Perhaps it didn’t help that the last time they were Down Under as a couple was when they were working royals on this kind of official overseas visit.

This time around the Sussexes aren’t representing the monarch and their itinerary is a mix of supporting charitable causes and private, paid events. This combination has raised eyebrows and in the latest issue of Woman, a senior source based at Buckingham Palace claimed, "Harry and Meghan are now acting outside the rules set down for them by Queen Elizabeth".

The late Queen apparently set these down "when they first chose to give up royal duties" in 2020. At the time, it was confirmed in a statement that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would not use their HRH titles as they weren’t working royals any longer.

Buckingham Palace also made it clear that with the Queen’s "blessing" the Sussexes would continue to "maintain their private patronages and associations", but could "no longer formally represent" her. Beyond this, it’s not clear which "rules" Queen Elizabeth set, however the statement makes a distinction between what they *used* to do and what they are going to do now.

Prince Harry and Meghan’s Australia trip isn’t a royal tour but it does bear some resemblance to one and this hasn’t gone uncommented upon. It’s also been widely reported over the years that the couple initially hoped to have a half-in, half-out arrangement rather than stepping back as working royals entirely.

Their four-day trip is a mix of royal-esque visits and business which is perhaps similar to how they might’ve imagined this working. Queen Elizabeth is said to have been very much against the idea of anyone being half-in The Firm and made her feelings plain at a summit held at Sandringham House in January 2020.

"The answer from the top was clear: no halfway role was possible. They were either in or out," claims royal author Robert Jobson in The Windsor Legacy. "Her Majesty’s ruling deepened the existing tensions in the family, particularly between Harry and William."

No other working member of the Royal Family maintains separate careers alongside their duties. The Duchess of Edinburgh used to have her own PR company and Prince Edward had been head of his own production company at one point.

Neither have these businesses now and although Sophie says she did "miss it very badly for a while", she later put her experience to good use as a senior royal. She told Harper’s Bazaar that she tries to use her skills "without overburdening the organisations [she’s] involved with – because [her] opinion is only one opinion".

The Edinburghs play a key role in supporting King Charles and Queen Camilla and go on plenty of royal visits overseas as part of this. Prince Harry and Meghan’s time in Australia will culminate with the Duchess speaking at a women’s retreat.

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It’s been reported that King Charles isn’t happy with the Sussexes’ pseudo-royal engagements, including the recent visit to Jordan and their Australian tour.

The late Queen Elizabeth II made it clear that when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle gave up their royal duties for a new life in America, they couldn’t have their cake and eat it.

The couple were left in no doubt that they should not use their titles to trade off the royal brand. However, several years on, the Sussexes appear to be acting like royals once again, while focusing on promoting themselves as global philanthropists.

Sources at Buckingham Palace tell me that King Charles is 'very uneasy' about the way Harry and Meghan have blurred the lines between what is and isn’t official royal work.

A particular fear for His Majesty is their current visit Down Under. While there, Harry is due to deliver a keynote speech about mental health in the workplace, and a number of other engagements are planned.

So why is this of such concern to the King?

The Royal Diary of engagements is carefully managed, particularly when it comes to visits to Commonwealth countries, which are carried out at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. The royals work as ambassadors, effectively providing the UK government with a trump card in its diplomatic work.

The fear is that Harry and Meghan are acting as though they’re making an official visit, when in fact they’re ploughing their own furrow.

As one senior source based at Buckingham Palace put it, 'Harry and Meghan are now acting outside the rules set down for them by Queen Elizabeth when they first chose to give up royal duties.

'They are not accountable, it seems, to anyone. They just simply do what they want, when they want to do it.'

'Royal visits are about the people and the public. In contrast, Harry and Meghan's engagements are all about them and their profile, and creating their own brand.'

The Australia visit is by no means devoid of potential headaches for King Charles, either. A large part of the Australian public are republicans, and even die-hard royal fans may not approve of the way Harry and Meghan appear to have cashed in on their status as royals.

The visit is full of potential stumbling blocks and there have already been signs that the Australian public don’t want to foot the bill for policing the visit. This is an issue that’s been simmering away for a number of years.

It’s been claimed that when Prince William becomes King, he may well strip his brother of the title of Prince. The precedent set by King Charles’ actions over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor means that Harry will have to tread carefully if he wishes to remain a member of the Royal Family.

King Charles's reported need to issue a warning may come as a surprise to many, who believe that he’s keen to see his wayward son back in his life, despite the allegations levelled against the Royal Family.

But my sources tell me that there have been conversations about where the lines are being crossed and why it is important that Harry, and indeed Meghan, stay in their 'lane'.

Given that the King rarely steps in, I think Harry will have to take it seriously.

My sources believe that King Charles and William feel very strongly that Harry and Meghan need to be reined in, and that their 'royal visits' could pose a possible problem for the rest of the family.

When Harry and Meghan quit royal life, it was assumed they would fade away into the background. Yet the opposite seems to have happened, with them not only courting publicity, but actively selling themselves on a global stage.

The couple have staff whose job it is to promote them, and in many ways they seem to have dropped their desire to find a 'normal life'. Harry in particular must find this difficult. He dreamed of enjoying a down-to-earth existence. But that hasn’t been the case as he and Meghan continue to plan visits, make headlines and appear to sell off their royal connections to the highest bidder.

The late Queen would be horrified by how this has all panned out, and it comes as no surprise that there are reports that the King would feel the need to intervene.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

This week the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited Australia. It was the first time since their hugely popular - and successful - visit in 2018.

During their four-day visit, the pair made headlines, with Harry candidly addressing his "disconnection" when Meghan was pregnant and Meghan revealing some of the private struggles she faces every day.

I was there when they headed Down Under as working royals and it was announced on their arrival that they were having their first child.

On the surface, it was a great trip.

Crowds came out in their thousands; Meghan baked banana bread for their hosts; they even brought much-needed rain to the Outback, and I remember chatting to Aboriginal girls who said that a woman of Meghan’s colour was an inspiration to them all.

But behind the scenes it was a different story.

Palace staff had scrambled to try to cover the trip after relations had broken down with some senior courtiers. The staff who did come seemed stressed, overworked and never entirely sure whether or where Meghan would turn up.

There were apocryphal stories of late arrivals for engagements due to the duchess not being happy with her hair or wardrobe; of fallings-out with Sir David Beckham and Harry refusing to be pictured with him at the Invictus Games (from memory, this was never actually communicated to poor Becks, so he was left to wonder what was up with Harry), and the initial rumblings that Harry had seriously fallen out with his brother, Prince William.

The tour can probably be summed up in a line Meghan was alleged to have said when she spotted the cheering crowds. According to author Valentine Low, she was heard to quip, "I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this." (You were, Meghan, BTW, via the UK and Australian taxpayer!)

This time, their tour is purely personal, taking in 'private, business and philanthropic' engagements. The financial highlights (for the couple, at least) include a weekend women’s 'retreat' to be held in a Sydney hotel where the duchess is the guest speaker and VIP tickets cost around £1,700 a head.

This reportedly led one royal insider to comment acidly, "She’s basically Fergie now."

Harry spoke at a mental-health event in Melbourne. Crisis support service Lifeline Narrm announced that he was to be a speaker at its InterEdge Psychosocial Workplace Safety Summit, which took place on 15th and 16th April.

It’s been suggested that Harry will pocket £30,000 for his gig, while Meghan’s, hosted by Aussie podcast, Her Best Life, is likely to pay less.

It’s a long way from those crowds I saw on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Prince Harry and Meghan's romance first became public in 2016 and since then, the Duchess of Sussex said she has faced an onslaught of online abuse every single day. She opened up about her private struggles with trolling during a visit to Batyr, a mental health engagement programme at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Prince Harry joined his wife for this visit, where Meghan discussed the realisation she came to after being the "most trolled person" in the world. In a conversation with young advocates she declared, "Every day for ten years, I've been bullied and attacked, and I was the most trolled person in the entire world. Man or woman. But I'm still here."

Whilst the Duchess was a public figure before her relationship with Harry thanks to her role on hit show Suits, her profile and the scrutiny of her every move skyrocketed when they were linked. After their marriage things only increased and Megan described a heart-breaking realisation she had about the way things stand with the "

"When I think of all of you and what you're experiencing, I think so much of that is having to realise that, no, that industry, that billion dollar industry, is completely anchored and predicated on cruelty to get clicks," she shared. "That's not going to change."

Her advice to the advocates was that "you have to be stronger than that" and spoke of how she'd been given a gift that helps her navigate life as someone targeted by trolls. A friend gave her a little bag with a quote on it that the Duchess of Sussex looks at "every single day".

It says, 'My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are and how you are to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness and to allow humour to lighten the burden of your tender heart.'

Duchess Meghan declared that this is her wish for all of the advocates too, encouraging them that they can do it. Given everything she’s experienced for a decade, she knows this could be easier said than done, saying, "I will personally tell you it's not easy, but you can do it."

She and Harry have been incredibly open about their mental health over the years and advocate for online safety, frequently talking about the impact social media can have particularly on young people. The Duchess of Sussex only returned to social media herself last year and her posts have comments turned off, likely to keep any potential bullying off her page and protect her wellbeing.

In December 2025 Australia restricted social media use for under-16s and during Meghan and Harry’s visit to Batyr, the Prince praised the country for doing so. He also lamented that it had come to this.

"Australia took the lead," he said. "Your government was the first country in the world to bring about a ban… from a responsibility and leadership standpoint - epic."

"It should have never, ever got to a ban," Prince Harry added. "Because the companies themselves have to be accountable, and there’s no way that young people should be punished by being banned from something that should be safe to use."

Whether you are excitedly following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s trip to Australia or believe it’s a little too similar to a royal tour, there’s no denying that the couple haven’t been shying away from discussing deeply personal matters. A day after Prince Harry described the "disconnection" he felt when Meghan was first pregnant with Archie, he got just as candid about loss.

"In my experience, loss is disorienting at any age," he declared in a keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne. "Grief does not disappear because we ignore it."

Prince Harry was weeks away from turning 13 when Princess Diana died in 1997 and he went on to specifically reflect on his experience of grieving whilst under "constant surveillance" as a royal.

"Experiencing that as a kid while in a goldfish bowl under constant surveillance, yes, that will have its challenges," he declared. "And without purpose, it can break you."

It does seem to be his mother’s passing and the devastating impact her loss had on his life at an early age that the Duke of Sussex was referring to here. He also confessed that there have been "many times" where he’s felt overwhelmed.

"Times when I’ve felt lost, betrayed, or completely powerless," Harry continued. "Times when the pressure - externally and internally - felt constant."

These remarks might well have been more general, though we know just how "powerless" he felt as a child when Princess Diana was being chased by the paparazzi.

"One of the feelings that comes up with me always is the helplessness. Being too young. Being a guy but too young to be able to help a woman, in this case your mother. And that happened every single day," he told Oprah Winfrey in their The Me You Can’t See mental health series.

In an interview with Tom Bradby in 2023, the Duke of Sussex recalled the day of Princess Diana’s funeral and explained that "everyone thought and felt" like they knew her. But the "two closest people to her", her sons, "were unable to show any emotion in that moment".

He said that he only cried once after her death - at her burial. In his keynote speech in Australia, Harry admitted that for years he was "numb" to intense and difficult moments, as he didn’t have the tools to help himself, but then he reached a turning point.

"When a parent is overwhelmed, children feel it. When someone is supported, families feel it," he explained. "For me, one of the biggest shifts came when I realised that asking for help isn’t a weakness. It’s very much a form of strength."

Elsewhere in his speech, the Duke of Sussex described how when he lost his mother, it made him doubt his royal role. Over the years, things changed for him, leading to him re-focusing on how he wished to use his public platform for good.

"I was like: ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role - wherever this is headed, I don’t like it," he said, before adding, "Eventually I realised - well, hang on, if there was somebody else in this position, how would they be making the most of this platform and this ability and the resources that come with it to make a difference in the world? And also, what would my mum want me to do? And that really changed my own perspective."

Prince Harry has admitted to feeling a sense of "disconnection" when Meghan was pregnant with their first child, Prince Archie. The Duke of Sussex wasn’t afraid to delve into the most personal feelings and aspects of his life as he spoke at an event focused on fatherhood, hosted by men’s health charity, Movember.

Harry explained there could be a sense of detachment for dads in the early days and confirmed that he "certainly" felt "a disconnection because [his] wife was the one creating life and [he] was there to witness it". The King’s son added that he thinks for many men "you try to think about what service can I provide at this point, because my work here is done to some extent".

These feelings can shift and the "biggest tip" he was given came from his therapist in the UK and it was to "just be aware of how you feel once the baby is born".

Prince Harry and Meghan welcomed Archie in May 2019 and not only were they negotiating life as new parents, but doing so in front of the world’s media and as the parents of a baby in the royal line of succession. The Prince described how every time he came back from work if he was stressed, when he held Archie "he would start crying".

"Fatherhood is the most important and sort of transformational role that a guy can ever, can ever move into," he added, as per Hello!.

Prince Archie is now weeks away from turning seven and his sister Princess Lilibet will be five this June. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have amassed plenty of experience over the years and at the event, Harry revealed that he sees "parenting evolving over time".

"Our kids are our upgrade. Not to say that I upgraded my dad or that my kids upgraded me, but the kids that we bring up in today’s world need to be upgraded," he declared. "There’s no judgment, there’s no blame, there’s no pointing the finger. The reality is that - however you are parenting - that is a personal experience to you, you are going to want to improve on that."

Archie and Lilibet are arguably being raised differently from how the Prince and Princess of Wales’s children are growing up. However, William has expressed a desire to do things a little differently compared to how he and Harry were raised as royals, especially with regards to fellow future King, Prince George.

During his appearance on Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler last year, William shared, "I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do. A world and a job that actually does impact people’s lives for the better."

"That is caveated with, I hope we don’t go back to some of the practices of the past, that Harry and I had to grow up in. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure we don’t regress in that situation," he said.

Prince Harry and Meghan are currently undertaking a four-day trip to Australia and the Movember event took place at the HQ of the Australian Rules football team, the Western Bulldogs. As a lovely surprise tied into the focus of the event, Harry received customised Bulldogs jerseys for Archie and Lilibet to enjoy when Harry and Meghan get home to California.

Prince Harry and Meghan are in Australia for four days on a visit some have likened to a royal tour. The couple, who stepped back as working royals in 2020, last went to the country together in 2018 and this time their itinerary is packed with everything from visits to charitable causes to private, paid visits.

They could've chosen to start off anywhere, but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent a powerful statement when they began their tour in Melbourne. They headed to the Royal Children’s Hospital on the morning of Day 1 - a hospital which Princess Diana and the then-Prince Charles visited during their royal tour back in 1985.

The medical centre is one of the country's foremost children’s hospitals. Other royals who have visited before include the late Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, who toured the paediatric care hub and officially opened it in 2011.

With so many different places the couple could have visited on Day 1, it’s perhaps not a coincidence that they followed in the footsteps of Harry’s late mother and his father. In a podcast interview in 2022, Harry told retired rugby player Gareth Thomas of his intentional decision to continue the legacy and work of Princess Diana, even after stepping back from royal duties.

He explained, "I think once you get to meet people and you see the suffering around the world, I can't turn my back on that. Then add in the fact that my mum's work was unfinished, I feel obligated to try and continue that as much as possible."

The Duke and Duchess's visit came 41 years after Diana's and was declared a major success by the Board Chair of the hospital, Professor Christine Kilpatrick AO, who told People, "Look around and you can see the crowds of people, the smiles on their faces and what it means to them."

"Everyone is absolutely delighted. You can’t measure the morale boost, but it is palpable," she continued.

The Sussexes will also travel to Canberra and Sydney during their time in Australia and all eyes are on the couple right now, with a lot of scrutiny over the schedule. Emily Andrews, woman&home's royal correspondent, thinks it's "quite confusing" that they're doing public visits "as this is categorically not a royal tour" and they're not representing King Charles or the Royal Family.

Harry and Meghan are said to have hoped to take a half-in, half-out approach before they stepped back as working royals. Queen Elizabeth, it is claimed, was not a fan of this idea, which royal historian Hugo Vickers explores in his biography of the late monarch.

"[Harry] wanted a half-in, half-out arrangement, whereby he would be self-financing but could still work for the royal family," alleged Vickers in Queen Elizabeth II. "In the new year of 2020, the three private secretaries, Sir Edward Young, Sir Clive Alderton, and Simon Case, went into summit mode on the Sandringham estate and drafted their proposal."

"[Harry] went to Sandringham for the meeting and was told it was either all in or all out. He returned to Canada - reluctantly out," the author added.

This week the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are visiting Australia. Initially I was told by their people that this was NOT a tour; rather a series of 'private business meetings', looking at 'potential supply partners and chains' for Meghan's As Ever brand with 'not much media'.

When I asked if Harry was even going to do anything (aside from a corporate speaking engagement at a mental health summit), we both joked that he could do some surfing or maybe something with Invictus. So imagine my surprise, when I was sent their four day public itinerary last week, to see it looked like a carbon copy of the royal tour playbook.

And far from 'not much media', the couple are taking a reporter and photographer from the Press Association (which files to all national and international media) to provide ample coverage of their four days in three cities (Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney).

Engagements such as visiting Canberra's national war memorial complete with last post ceremony, a children's hospital, a women's refuge, sailing around Sydney harbour and watching a rugby match easily tick off a royal tour bingo full house.

I was with Harry and Meghan the last time they visited Australia - in 2018 when they were still working royals. But this time they're combining money-making speaking engagements.

So I do think it's quite confusing for them to do these public visits (the Melbourne hospital is even called the Royal Children's Hospital) as this is categorially not a royal tour as they are not representing the Royal Family, nor Australia's monarch. I wondered why they've suddenly decided to do so many royal-type public engagements.

Is it in the quest for more (and frankly better than they've had recently) PR? Back in 2018 they travelled Down Under as working royals, having just announced that they were having their first child. On the surface it was a great trip.

Crowds came out in their thousands; Meghan baked banana bread for their hosts; they even brought much-needed rain to the Outback and I remember chatting to Aboriginal girls who told me a woman of Meghan's colour was an inspiration to them all. But behind the scenes was a different story.

Palace staff had been scrambled to try and cover the trip after relations had broken down with some senior courtiers. The staff that did come seemed stressed, over-worked and never entirely sure whether or where Meghan would turn up.

There were apocryphal stories of late arrivals for engagements due to the Duchess not being happy with her hair or wardrobe; of fallings-out with David Beckham and Harry refusing to be pictured with him at the Invictus Games (from memory this was never actually communicated to poor Becks so he was left to wonder what was up with Harry) and the initial rumblings that Harry had seriously fallen out with brother William.

In fact, the tour can probably be summed up in the quite amazing line from Meghan (according to the author Valentine Low) that when she stepped out onto the Sydney Opera House steps and saw the cheering crowds, she quipped to an aide: 'I can't believe I'm not getting paid for this.' Well…. Now she is.

This weekend is a 'Meet Meghan' three day wellness event hosted by popular Aussie podcast Her Best Life at a Sydney hotel where the Duchess is the guest speaker (VIP tickets cost £1705 a head). This led one well-placed royal insider to acidly comment: 'She's basically Fergie now' - a reference to the former Duchess of York's insatiable chasing of money after she left the Royal Family.

It's not known how much she's being paid, although Aussie media suggest that her involvement is also to promote the new Soho House Sydney, set to open in the coming months. So I do think the Sussexes need to stick to their lane. If they want to make money, make private visits.

If they want splashy positive PR, visiting a royal hospital last visited by the then Prince and Princess of Wales, return as working royals. But they shouldn't try to do both. Will the Aussies love them or loathe them? We'll find out this week!

A royal reunion looks to be on the cards for Prince William and Prince Harry this June as there are some family occasions you just don’t miss - and a wedding is surely one of them. Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips and his NHS nurse fiancée Harriet Sperling have finally confirmed the date for their nuptials as Saturday 6th June 2026.

Unlike both William and Kate and Harry and Meghan’s weddings, this will be a "private ceremony", taking place at All Saints Church in Cirencester. A spokesperson confirmed that "both families" have been informed jointly of the wedding date by invitation.

This is a second marriage for both Peter and Harriet and will be a more low-key wedding. Even so, I’d expect both the Waleses and Sussexes to make the guest-list.

Peter is close to his cousins and walked between William and Harry at Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021, just days after Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview sent scrutiny of the brothers’ bond sky-high. As children William and Peter got up to mischief together - leading to their "almighty telling off" by Queen Elizabeth - and Harry has openly talked of wanting a "reconciliation" with his family.

What better opportunity is there than a private family wedding? Although there will inevitably be a lot of press attention on Peter and Harriet’s big day, the royals will largely be celebrating and spending time together away from the public eye.

Meghan could perhaps choose to stay with Archie and Lilibet in California whilst Harry flies over, but I do think if he’s invited, he will come.

He attended Peter’s wedding to his ex-wife Autumn in 2008 and his cousin was a "huge" source of support after the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

"Peter Phillips was good with William and Harry," said royal biographer Hugo Vickers back in 2021. "He was up at Balmoral and he was a huge help to them."

He was there for them at this dark time and so they’ll no doubt want to be there for him at one of his happiest moments this summer. Whether or not William and Harry’s face-to-face meeting ends up with them properly chatting is another matter entirely.

The King’s sons were last together in person for an altogether sadder family occasion in August 2024. They attended a memorial for their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, and reports claimed that Prince William and Prince Harry kept their distance and weren’t seen speaking to each other.

Even if Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling’s June ceremony has a small guest list there’ll probably be enough people there that the brothers can stay out of each other’s way if they wanted to. This would be a sad state of affairs for the first royal wedding since Princess Beatrice’s 2020 nuptials where everything was scaled-back due to the pandemic.

Peter and Prince William both just attended the royals’ Easter Sunday service with King Charles and Queen Camilla. Harriet came for the first time, as did her daughter Georgina, who walked side by side with their soon-to-be stepsisters Savannah and Isla Phillips.

On the day Queen Elizabeth passed away in 2022 the world looked on as her nearest and dearest made the trip north to Balmoral to her bedside. King Charles is understood to have called Princes William and Harry and asked them to head to Northolt Airport to travel to Scotland.

However, according to Tom Bower’s biography, Betrayal, Meghan’s plan to accompany her husband was deemed "unacceptable" by Charles. So much so that he allegedly phoned Harry again, unable to stop thinking about the Queen’s "disappointment".

"When Charles heard that Meghan intended to come, he called Harry. That was unacceptable, said Charles," Bower claims, adding, "Underlying Charles’s anger that fateful morning was his mother’s disappointment that the Sussexes had attacked the very institution which gave them so much."

The royal biographer suggests that "since Meghan had refused the Queen’s invitations to Balmoral" extended during Her Majesty’s lifetime, she was apparently "unwelcome at her death".

"Sharing his grief with Meghan, who maligned the monarchy, was unthinkable, said Charles. He believed that, to her dying day, his mother was shocked by Harry’s disloyalty," adds Bower.

The Sussexes’ spokesperson has already responded to the release of Bower’s biography, stating that the claims are "deranged conspiracy and melodrama" and that the author has "long crossed the line from criticism into fixation". Nonetheless, in his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry also describes the call with King Charles over Meghan’s intention to come to Balmoral with him.

He remarks that his father started to explain his reasons for the Duchess staying behind "but they didn’t make any sense at all" and were "disrespectful". It was also revealed to him that the Princess of Wales would not be coming, so Meghan wouldn’t be the only royal wife absent.

In Kate’s case, royal expert Russell Myers claims in William & Catherine that she stayed behind in Windsor to be there when Prince George, Charlotte and Louis got home from their first day at their new school and to tell them the sad news.

The King’s supposed "anger" that day the Queen died perhaps makes sense given how much scrutiny the royals had been under in general since Harry and Meghan’s departure and Oprah Winfrey interview. The prospect of losing his beloved mother likely only increased the sense of pressure and reflectiveness.

It’s thought that Meghan has still never been to Balmoral and there are various reasons why she and Harry might not have gone during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, including the distance after they relocated to the US. She attended the Queen’s funeral and has always been full of admiration when she talks about her husband’s grandmother.

"There’s been such an outpouring of love and support," Meghan said to Variety a month after the Queen’s death. "I’m really grateful that I was able to be with my husband to support him, especially during that time."

"Certainly, in terms of female leadership, she is the most shining example of what that looks like. I feel deep gratitude to have been able to spend time with her and get to know her," the Duchess declared.

The Princess of Wales apparently felt it was her "duty" to help keep Prince William and Prince Harry "on the same team" - at least in the early days. Her approach towards the "competitive" brothers is said to have been inspired by her own tight-knit family upbringing, according to royal author and expert Russell Myers.

He claims in his biography, William & Catherine, that although the "true disintegration" of William and Harry’s bond "would not occur until many years later", Kate took a key role and "often acted as a peacemaker". She’s said to have "witnessed their competitive nature" and tried to help.

"Her upbringing in a close-knit, loving family environment, where supporting each other was almost an unofficial family motto, spurred her actions," the author alleges. "Whether counselling William or having a quiet word in Harry's ear, she saw it as her duty to keep the two brothers on the same team, as did their senior aides."

By the time Prince Harry and Meghan announced their intention to step back as senior royals in early 2020, things had changed significantly. Despite all her peace-making efforts, sources alleged to Myers that Kate got to a point where she "had less interest" than her husband in persuading Harry to remain in his role.

Even so, the biography suggests that Kate was "left so personally affected" by the death of Prince Philip a year later that it encouraged her "to encourage William to talk to his brother" after the funeral.

In Spare, Harry recalled the meeting at Windsor Castle and his and William’s "flushed faces" as they argued. The once-close Princes ended up taking very different paths and they haven’t seen each other in person since 2024.

This rift might have initially been difficult for Kate to understand, as her own family has always stayed incredibly close. Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond previously declared, "When you come from a happy, united family - as Catherine does - it’s incredibly hard to understand how people can become estranged. I think she believed the rift could be fixed and, after Prince Philip’s funeral, we saw her talking with Harry and obviously encouraging William to do the same."

"But we now know that it didn’t work. In fact, William and Harry had a blazing row right after the funeral. There comes a point when you just have to accept that happy families are not a game that everyone can play," she said.

Instead of brooding over what could have been, the Prince and Princess of Wales have been focusing on their own roles and family. Myers thinks that "shutting Harry and Meghan out" has been a key decision the couple has made with their well-being and the "protection and prosperity" of the Royal Family in mind.

Prince William and Kate have gone through unimaginably difficult times in recent years and there’s been a notable shift since the Princess resumed royal duties following her cancer diagnosis. Family comes first more than ever and they seem determined to give their children a strong foundation in life, reminiscent of the one Kate had.

Prince Harry might have been back to the UK on multiple occasions in recent years, but the entire Sussex family haven’t set foot on British soil since 2022. Every rumour of a potential trip across the pond with Archie and Lilibet has come to nothing so far. However, this could all change in 2026 and I’m cautiously optimistic this time…

A friend of the Duke of Sussex has suggested that Harry would "love" an invitation to bring the family over this summer. Speaking to The Times, they claimed, "If he was invited by the King, he would get a package of security that automatically kicks in. He’d like an invite to Sandringham. Would he go? It would depend who was there."

"If the King was to say, ‘Come up and spend some time with the family’, he’d love that," they said.

One specific detail in this report makes me think that this might actually be possible - or at least the closest we’ve come to a trip happening. The King usually spends a lot of time in Scotland over the summer and hosts plenty of family members.

Sandringham House is not only nearer to London, where Harry, Meghan and Archie and Lilibet would probably fly into, but might also be a quieter venue for a family reunion. As the friend stated, for Harry it "would depend who was there" and perhaps a gathering could be smaller if King Charles invited the Sussexes to Norfolk instead.

It would put less pressure on things and although Prince Harry said last year he’d love a reconciliation with his "family", it’s only King Charles that he’s known to have met face-to-face with recently. He and Prince William last crossed paths at a family funeral in August 2024 and it’s believed Lilibet has still never met her Wales cousins.

The brothers didn’t see each other during Harry’s trip to the UK in September when the Prince and King had a "private tea" at Clarence House together. William, Kate and their children often go to Scotland in the summer and there’s been nothing to suggest the Prince of Wales is looking for a reconciliation right now.

A potential separate gathering at Sandringham for the Sussexes and whoever they feel most comfortable seeing might be a good way of encouraging a visit. Princess Lilibet, who will turn four this June, has only been to her father’s home country once since she was born.

The Sussexes returned as a family in 2022 during the Platinum Jubilee weekend and she met King Charles and great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth for the first time.

A source described the moment between the King and Princess as "very emotional" and added that His Majesty was "absolutely thrilled" by their visit. Regardless of what’s gone on between the Sussexes and the royals in recent years, they are, after all, a family and Harry seems to want Archie and Lilibet to connect with their UK relatives.

"He's not given up hope on bringing his family back to the UK," a source alleged to The Sunday Times last year. "He wants to be able to show his children where he grew up. He wants them to know their family here."

Whether an invite will be forthcoming remains unclear right now. For once, I can fully believe that Harry and Meghan will consider accepting if King Charles does issue one - and it will be momentous if they come this summer.

Looking at pictures of Harry and Meghan’s recent visit to Jordan (just before Israel and the US started bombing nearby Iran), I was reminded how good they are at (that bit of) being royal.

Invited by the World Health Organization, they radiated sympathy and good cheer with a dose of Hollywood glamour.

Playing football with kids: check. Holding hands with victims: check. Visiting a refugee camp for displaced Syrians, supporting a centre for recovering addicts and writing Post-it messages of encouragement: check, check, check.

Meghan channelled some of her 'dress-down, caring Princess Diana' wardrobe in khaki, beige and black.

Yes, I know they’re no longer working royals, so this was not an official trip. But it’s undeniable that Harry, especially, is very good at this.

He connects with new people quickly, empathises consistently and finds it easy to communicate with those who’ve suffered great pain - authentically.

I know Harry and Meghan rather sold their family down the river with Oprah, Netflix and Spare, but it’s hard to deny that they are great in this kind of public tour.

After Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s fall from grace and the tarnishing effect on his poor daughters, royals outside the scandal have never felt so welcome.

While the King, Queen, William and Catherine were forced to stop much of their royal travel (and engagements) due to cancer and ill health, Harry and Meghan visited Colombia, Nigeria and Canada - and they’re off to Australia next month.

Their Jordan trip drew attention to the WHO’s work in helping refugees - as well as the non-profit World Central Kitchen, where they’ve donated their own money.

We can all scoff that it’s about them - but Harry does want to use their platform for good. I’m told he wakes up every morning and says: ‘What can I do to help?’

If they were still part of the Firm, they could visit women’s shelters and charities that combat sex trafficking - which would garner far more column inches than poor Camilla, who’s been working in this area for ages. (Her recent speech on the abhorrent violence against women for International Women’s Day was seen as a thinly veiled attempt to show the Crown is taking all this seriously.)

I have an idea. Meghan clearly wants to do the ‘girl boss’ thing, sell her flower sprinkles to the world, and never return to royal life (while keeping the titles, naturally…). But why can’t we have Harry back? He would be given a new lease of life and be utterly brilliant, just when the royals need it.

More from the palace

Preparations are under way for the King and Queen’s state visit to the US in April - but should they go? The King seems to be our only 'Trump card' with the US president in what feels like an increasingly fragile and insecure world.

Some politicians have called for the visit to be cancelled, but I think they have to go - even if the visit is to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Americans getting rid of the Royal Family to become a republic.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Not a year goes by without something sparking renewed scrutiny over the relationship between once-close Prince William and Harry. Despite the Duke of Sussex stating adamantly last year that he’d love a "reconciliation" with the Royal Family, he hasn’t met with William personally for years.

According to Tom Bower’s new biography, Betrayal, Harry is set to be excluded from one of his brother’s most important life milestones. This intriguing revelation was made by a "guest" who attended King Charles’s coronation reception, who claims, "William had decided that afternoon not to invite Harry to his coronation".

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s spokesperson has already responded to the book and author, stating that those "interested in facts will look elsewhere" whilst "those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him". They described Bower as someone who has "long crossed the line from criticism to fixation".

It’s undeniable, though, that William and Harry haven't been seen publicly together since August 2024. Elsewhere in Betrayal, Bower suggests the "unprecedented sanctions" against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor "must have shocked Harry".

Andrew was stripped of his Princely title in October and was later arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office in February 2026, though he’s always vehemently denied allegations of wrongdoing. Prince Harry didn’t respond publicly, but Bower alleges that privately "he realised that his own royal status was no longer invincible".

"Clearly, William was taking no prisoners. Once he was crowned as king, his brother might well show no mercy to him and Meghan," the royal biographer continues. "Insulted by all the criticism targeted from Montecito, Harry could anticipate that the Prince and Princess of Wales’s anger about Meghan’s misuse of her royal title for profit would tip the balance."

Although it was King Charles who announced he was stripping his brother’s title, it was widely reported that William was involved in the discussions. At the time, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond expressed her opinion that "this line had to be drawn and William was probably pushing for the King to do so".

In Bowers’ view, the Prince of Wales might not shy away from considering who has what title when he’s King. The author claims, "William would undoubtedly rail against [Meghan’s] disloyalty. He might even strip Archie and Lilibet of their titles."

When they were born, both of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children were given the royals’ surname Mountbatten-Windsor and didn’t have Prince and Princess titles. This changed when King Charles ascended the throne, as the grandchildren of a monarch - via a son - are automatically entitled to be referred to like this.

They now appear officially in the royal line of succession as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex. In theory, Prince William could take steps to remove his nephew, niece, brother or sister-in-law’s titles once he’s King if he really wanted to. This would make serious waves, though, and I would think that something relatively major would have to happen involving the Sussexes to prompt such a move.

We’ve arguably seen more of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet over the last year than at any other point in their lives. They're often in adorable snaps and videos on the Duchess of Sussex’s Instagram account, including recently-shared behind-the-scenes clips of Meghan’s As Ever brand shoot with "Mama’s little helpers".

Whilst their faces are still angled away from the camera, it’s a notable change from the approach Meghan and Prince Harry used to take. According to Tom Bower’s new book, Betrayal, insiders have suggested that there have been "arguments" over Archie and Lili’s exposure to the media.

"Insiders spoke about tensions between them and arguments about their children," the book claims. "Harry was reportedly irritated that Meghan used their children to promote herself. He believed they should remain shielded from the media to avoid the exposure he had suffered as a child."

Meghan had begun her speech after arriving on Day 3 of the Invictus Games Dusseldorf in 2023 by explaining she "had to spend a little more time getting [their] little ones settled at home" before making the trip from California. Reflecting upon the insider reports of "arguments", Tom writes that she and Harry had "opposite" views about Archie and Lili being photographed.

"Worried about security, Harry insisted that their children should not be photographed. Meghan argued the opposite. The children, she believed, were important for her brand. She spoke of them living as normal Californian children," the royal author alleges.

The Duchess reportedly also "demanded that in time, her little prince and princess should have the same exposure as William and Kate's children". They're all the King's grandchildren, but Prince George, Charlotte and Louis are significantly higher in the royal line of succession and have grown up as some of the most-photographed kids in the world.

Their public presence will only increase as they get older and Prince William ascends the throne. Comparatively, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are able to lead much more private lives in California, as Harry and Meghan aren’t working for The Firm and aren’t often at royal occasions.

Tom Bower suggests that "eyewitnesses speculated that the tension between the couple was resolved, or perhaps not" in their hotel suite. Since then, the Sussexes’ allegedly very different views over their children being photographed seem to have aligned. There’s surely no way that Meghan would feature Archie and Lilibet as often as she does on Instagram - minus their faces - if Harry were still "insisting" otherwise.

In a recent edition of her Royal Insider column, Woman’s Royal Editor Emily Andrews expressed her belief that the children "are part of Meghan’s 'perfect family' brand".

"Their team would argue that carefully controlled images of their children are totally compatible with both Harry’s campaigning (and wish for privacy) and Meghan’s quest for sales," she stated. "I would say that’s for the birds. Many celebrities rarely mention their children, let alone post pictures of them."

The publication of Betrayal has already attracted a considerable amount of attention, including from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex themselves. Responding after the release of extracts in recent weeks, their spokesperson stated their belief that investigative biographer Bower had "long crossed the line from criticism into fixation".

"This is someone who has publicly stated, 'the monarchy in fact depends on actually obliterating the Sussexes from our state of life,' language that speaks for itself," they said. "He has made a career out of constructing ever more elaborate theories about people he does not know and has never met. Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him."

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have an extremely expensive life. Their annual cost of living in America is estimated to be around £5 million a year, when mortgage repayments for their Montecito mansion, security, staff and estate maintenance are added up.

Meanwhile, it's suggested Meghan's As Ever lifestyle range is in trouble, being given away for free at Netflix headquarters after a huge unsold stockpile was revealed in January, despite the gifting period over Christmas and New Year.

Prince Harry has spent millions on court cases - the bill for his failed attempt to get the Home Office to pay for his security in the UK was estimated at £1.5 million. And the ongoing court case in London’s High Court against the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday is estimated to run to £38 million in costs.

Although the Sussexes netted a deal with Netflix thought to be worth £74 million, they were let go last year. With their costs soaring, would Harry now be tempted (or forced) to write Spare 2?

After all, his initial biography netted him a cool £16 million as part of a potential four-book deal with Penguin Random House. It did sell extremely well - royalties were reportedly around £4 to £5 million.

But given that the Sussexes have spent roughly £30 million, so far, funding their lives in America, I could foresee the necessity of another big deal. Particularly after Meghan's cookery and lifestyle show was dropped after just two series.

She had high hopes that her As Ever brand would include the Netflix show, cookery books, a podcast and a lifestyle range (everything imaginable has been patented, from garden tools to tableware to pet accessories) - much like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.

But in the end, she has been left with her online sales of jam, candles, wine, and her famous flower sprinkles.

There has long been debate about how well the brand is selling. Meghan, perhaps conveniently, has never released any sales data, but has said that the first two 'drops' of fruit spread sold out last year.

But then, in January, the As Ever website accidentally revealed the unsold stock totals, which added up to £16.3 million ($21.7 million). This included a staggering £900,000 ($1.2 million) worth of edible (and much-derided) flower sprinkles.

Although the issue has now been resolved, the website briefly displayed inventory that included approximately 220,000 jars of jam, 30,000 jars of honey, almost 90,000 candles, 80,000 tins of flower sprinkles and roughly 70,000 bottles of wine, including Sauvignon Blanc, rosé and brut sparkling wine.

It was also revealed in a snarky piece by the New York Post that countless products were 'being given away for free' to Netflix employees at the company’s LA headquarters. This and the overstock, along with the fact that Meghan currently only sells her products in the US and not worldwide, suggests that her As Ever sales are not going to put even a tiny dent in the Sussex costs.

The couple seemingly have no media deals left - after they were dumped by Spotify and branded 'grifters' by one of the top executives - despite the gloss applied by Team Sussex that this allows them to do other things (Meghan has reportedly starred as herself in an upcoming Amazon MGM film).

And although the Sussexes have cut costs by letting several of their Archewell staff go and effectively shutting the charity arm of their organisation, the couple’s super-rich Californian lifestyle does not come cheap.

Indeed, they are said to have mortgage payments of around £350,000 a year, while staffing costs come to an estimated £180,000 and estate maintenance upwards of £75,000.

That’s even before their private security, which would likely cost £1.5 million to £2.25 million, property taxes of approximately £110,000 and private school fees of more than £70,000.

Yet Sussex supporters maintain that As Ever is set for global expansion - hence the huge overstock as it prepares to meet future demand.

"While it’s normal for a business not to talk about sales data, I think it’s fair to say that the glitch that led to this data being revealed points to a business that isn’t just successful - it’s flying, literally off the shelf," one told People magazine.

Meanwhile, Harry’s paying job with coaching company BetterUp, and his fees from speaking at conferences with sustainable tourism firm Travalyst, don’t pay enough to cover the couple’s costs, and he seems most passionate when he is undertaking his charitable endeavours.

But trips to meet with World Health Organisation teams in Jordan, which the couple visited last month, are hardly going to fill the Sussex coffers.

Maybe it’s time for another book, Harry... But he knows that if he does write another, he can kiss goodbye forever to family reconciliation.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

Prince Philip’s funeral during the pandemic was like no other in recent royal history as his grieving family - sitting distanced from each other - paid tribute to Britain’s longest-serving royal consort. In line with guidelines at the time, only 30 people were there and this of course included the Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Harry.

Kate’s relationship with her late grandfather-in-law isn’t something we often hear about, but in Russell Myers’ biography William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, a source suggests that his death hit her hard and prompted a big decision. Myers writes, "Another source told how Catherine was left so personally affected by the Duke of Edinburgh’s death that it spurred her decision to encourage William to talk to his brother following the funeral at Windsor."

The funeral was the first time Prince Harry had returned to the UK since his and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview aired. This sent reports of a rift between the Sussexes and the Waleses, and particularly between the brothers, into overdrive.

All eyes were on Prince William and Harry as they walked in the royal procession to St George’s Chapel and after the service they went back to Windsor Castle together. The Princess of Wales chatted with both and then stepped away to walk with Duchess Sophie, seemingly giving her husband and brother-in-law some time together.

The loss of the Royal Family’s patriarch seemingly put family squarely back as the main priority in Kate’s mind, with the source claiming, "Catherine believed the family should come first". Secondly, it was alleged that if there was an "opportunity" to find out what was motivating Harry’s approach to the royals, it "should be taken".

According to the Duke of Sussex himself, a meeting did take place back at the castle between himself, William and King Charles. Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite as Kate might have hoped when she supposedly "encouraged" talks.

The Duke of Sussex wrote in his memoir, Spare, that the King stood between his sons "looking up at [their] flushed faces" and declared, "Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery."

Regardless of this, it’s certainly interesting that the Princess of Wales seemingly did what she could to bring the family closer together in the wake of Prince Philip’s passing. The Duke was said to have been "incredibly fond" of her and they "enjoyed a close relationship".

Myers notes that they wrote letters to one another for years. Philip sympathised with her "plight as an outsider coming into a family dynamic like no other". Although he was born a royal, unlike Kate, he gave up his Greek and Danish titles and became a British citizen and life as the husband of Queen Elizabeth was still very different to what he was used to.

He is understood to have acted as a mentor figure to the younger generations of his family and Prince William has spoken of how kind he was to the Princess. Three days after Prince Philip passed away at Windsor Castle, his grandson posted a private photograph of him and Prince George riding in a carriage, taken by Kate.

"I will always be grateful that my wife had so many years to get to know my grandfather and for the kindness he showed her," Prince William stated.

It’s clear that the Duchess of Sussex has put all her organic free range eggs in one proverbial money-making basket. Her jam, wine and homeware line ‘As Ever’ launched with huge fanfare last year and was to be the golden egg (if you’ll excuse the continued fowl puns) in the Sussexes' commercial schemes.

Their exclusive Netflix deal was over, Spotify had dumped them, the two books signed up to the Archewell media slate had no producers with no signs of filming starting soon and it was clear that With Love Meghan was not going to be recommissioned.

Added to this was the ‘restructuring’ of their Archewell charity, which essentially meant letting staff go to save costs. Selling her As Ever products depended on her restoring her status in America and making repeated appearances at star-studded events.

This she did all through last autumn and winter. Engagements in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and Paris (remember that front row appearance for Balenciaga?) culminated with the Christmas cover of Harper’s Bazaar.

Or, as she would call her make-or-break-bid for commercial success, ‘her own next chapter.’

So imagine how flabbergasted I was to receive a Whats-App from Team Sussex telling me that As Ever and Netflix were breaking up.

And the reason? Because Meghan was being ‘held back’ by ‘cautious’ Netflix (who had invested a whole load of money in the brand). I think I was cooking my kids’ tea and I literally dropped the fish fingers when I saw that.

Alongside a breathless statement from the Duchess saying she was thrilled to now ‘stand on her own’ while Netflix had an even stranger claim that ‘it was always intended’ that Meghan would ‘continue independently’. Right….

Let’s remind ourselves of what Meghan said just last February when she announced the rebrand from American Riviera Orchard and said Netflix was ‘not just’ her show partner but also ‘partner in my business, which is huge.’

The idea that Netflix would pull out of a soaraway successful business feels…. Unlikely.

This, coupled with the fact that a website glitch in January revealed unsold stock totalling £16.3million including 220,000 jars of jam, makes me think As Ever could be struggling. Sure - I could be completely wrong.

But what’s also strange is Harry and Meghan’s upcoming visit to Australia. I assumed she was going to launch As Ever, given that currently it’s only sold in the USA. But while she may be having ‘meetings with potential partners and supply chains’ (says her spokesman), the focus of the trip seems to be a speaker’s event at Sydney’s Coogee Beach.

I’m assuming the Aussie podcast hosting the £1,705 a ticket three-day event where Meghan will be the guest speaker is paying for her airfare and expenses. Harry is also doing a speaking event in Melbourne - rumoured to be earning him £30,000.

I know that launching a business takes a huge amount of time and effort, with many bumps in the road along the way. But it does rather feel as if the Sussexes are a long way from where they wanted to be when they left as working royals six years ago.

I confess I’m confused. One of the reasons the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they were walking away from royal life in 2020 was their right to privacy.

I remember when Meghan was pregnant (with Archie). The Sussex’s office refused to say where, how or when they had their first baby. It was only after they’d got back home to Windsor that it was announced Meghan had even gone into labour - and it didn’t name the private Portland Hospital where she’d already given birth.

Which, frankly, I completely understood. Why on earth should Harry and Meghan make their kids public property?

The modern-day 'custom', started by Princess Diana, of posing on the steps of the Lindo Wing just a day after what could have been a complicated labour seemed utterly bizarre to me. (After the births of both my children, I was in no position to even walk, let alone pose in heels and a full blow-dry.)

So I just don’t understand why Meghan is now posting pictures of her kids on Instagram. The latest was a Valentine’s Day picture of Harry holding five-year-old Lilibet - with her face clearly visible.

The photo came in the same week as Harry hitting out (again) against the evils of social media for kids. He was in Los Angeles, offering emotional support to parents at the heart of a landmark California trial in which Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube are accused of designing 'addiction machines' that harm children’s mental health.

At times near tears, Harry’s sincerity is not in doubt, and as I’ve said here before, I salute him for his stand, which makes it even more inexplicable that he’s tacitly supporting his wife’s use of their children on social media.

Make no mistake, Archie and Lili are part of Meghan’s 'perfect family' brand - their baking, crafting and even just their faces being used on platforms to sell her As Ever products.

Meghan’s entire ecosystem is being sold through her personal and As Ever channels on Instagram - a platform that her husband must surely loathe.

Their team would argue that carefully controlled images of their children are totally compatible with both Harry’s campaigning (and wish for privacy) and Meghan’s quest for sales.

I would say that’s for the birds. Many celebrities rarely mention their children, let alone post pictures of them. We don’t even know the names of our Prime Minister’s kids, let alone what they look like.

This feels like complete hypocrisy to me - just another example of the Sussexes having their cake and eating it.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

I do feel for King Charles. Prince Harry is bringing his Invictus Games to Birmingham in July next year and will invite his father to attend. There’s even some suggestion Harry will ask the King to open the eight-day Paralympic-style games for service personnel.

As head of state and head of the UK armed forces it makes perfect sense.

As Harry’s father, now on seemingly better terms with his younger son, it marks another potential step on the road to reconciliation after the very public family pain and blood-letting of Oprah, the Netflix documentary and Spare.

I’m told by a close Sussex source that the pair 'speak regularly' and that ‘Harry often rings his dad’.

But while it appears the King has softened in his attitude to the Duke of Sussex and would like to see his grandchildren, Prince William’s position has not changed.

He hasn’t spoken to his brother for a long time - I’m told that texts and emails go unanswered, there is no communication with his Kensington Palace office and both sides now accept the stalemate. It is officially 'no speaks'.

Moreover, the Prince of Wales is not keen on the King being seen to give Harry any kind of formal public legitimacy back in the UK.

Were he to appear onstage in Birmingham with his 'darling boy', opening what is Harry’s defining legacy on its return to the UK, it would certainly be a PR coup for Team Sussex (it rather reminds me of the ‘King in the North’ storyline in Game of Thrones - although as a proud Brummie I’d never say we’re the North!).

This then sets up a very difficult decision for the King. Whose side does he take between his warring sons?

For this is both a personal and very political decision. And it encapsulates one of the enduring problems of the King’s reign - how to deal with Harry.

Taking Harry’s 'side' means effectively welcoming his wayward younger son back into the royal fold. The Duke of Sussex may not be a working royal, having ejected himself so vehemently, but most people will not make that distinction if pictures of the pair side by side are beamed around the world.

It’s one thing inviting Harry to a private tea at Clarence House as the King did last autumn - a meeting I’m told that was set up by the two men themselves, not their aides.

But it’s quite another to give Harry such a show of public support after the poisonous brickbats he’s hurled against both the institution and his family. For much of the British public, it will be the fact that Harry has spent years monetising those attacks on the institution his father embodies that will have gone down so badly.

And thus Prince William understands that for the monarchy’s preservation Harry must be kept at arm’s length. It’s a clean break - you’re either in or you’re out (as the late Queen so perceptively dictated).

Moreover, every time the King either sees Harry, or lets it be known that he won’t (as he did earlier this year when Harry was in London for his court case against the Daily Mail) a flurry of briefings ensue.

Either from the Duke’s aides who tell me, 'Obviously the institution doesn’t want him to make up with his father. It makes it more difficult for them.' Or from Harry himself, who recently implied his father’s courtiers were trying to 'sabotage' their relationship.

Certainly those whose job it is to protect the institution fear the King’s potential reconciliation with his younger son makes him look weak after Harry’s repeated public lashing-out.

Friends of William are concerned that Charles is yet again allowing Harry and Meghan to set the narrative.

They say it’s unlikely that the Prince of Wales will ever reconcile with his younger brother, particularly given Harry’s refusal to apologise for his repeated slurs against the family, including accusation of racism.

If the King were to open the Invictus Games, he, in effect, would be choosing Harry’s side after previously indicating a tougher stance when he refused to meet Harry for 19 months before last September.

Yet picking William’s 'side' and not showing up to Brum next year would be hugely disrespectful to the valour and self-sacrifice of the UK’s armed forces, not to mention the amazing resilience and spirit of the Invictus Games.

Fortunately, I may have found the King a get-out. The games run from 10 to 17 July and it is Queen Camilla’s 80th birthday on 17 July. Perhaps they can both be away on a celebratory cruise that week…

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.

In March it will be six years since Prince Harry and Meghan undertook their final engagement as working royals. So much has changed since then and before they announced their intention to step back, the couple were reportedly hoping for a hybrid half-in, half-out position.

This wasn’t to be and now a new biography has suggested that Kate thought there was an "inevitability" about her brother-in-law "wanting more" from his role. Because of this, it’s alleged that she had "less interest" in trying to change Harry’s mind.

"As an ‘outsider’, Catherine had witnessed the deterioration of William and Harry’s relationship," claims Russell Myers in William & Catherine, before adding. "Sources suggest Catherine had less interest than her husband in trying to persuade Harry to stay in his current role."

The author went on, "She believed William and Harry’s fundamental differences as ‘heir and the spare’ had created the inevitability of Harry wanting more from his role than being a bit-part player."

The Duke of Sussex has been incredibly candid about how he feels about being the "spare" to his brother the "heir" and how this shaped his life. In an interview with The Telegraph in 2023 he expressed fears about Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis going through what he experienced as the sibling of a future King.

"[T]hough William and I have talked about it once or twice, and he has made it very clear to me that his kids are not my responsibility, I still feel a responsibility knowing that out of those three children, at least one will end up like me, the spare," he said. "And that hurts, that worries me."

Prince Harry grew up one place behind Prince William in the royal line of succession, though he’s now below his nephews and niece. It’s clear how being the "spare" has affected him and a former senior courtier told Myers, "If you’re born first there’s a path set out for you, and if you’re born in any order after that, you’re on a different path and it is almost impossible, barring family tragedy, to change those dynamics."

Perhaps, as the author claims, Kate saw William and Harry’s "fundamental differences" and recognised that trying to convince the Duke of Sussex to stay would be futile. When it comes to her children, she and William are predicted to be doing "everything" they can to prevent Charlotte and Louis feeling secondary and tertiary to George.

"They have already shown that they have a different and modern attitude to bringing up royal children and I’m sure they will do everything to make Charlotte and Louis feel every bit as special, loved and valued as George," Jennie Bond, former BBC royal correspondent, has said in the past.

They will surely be eager to avoid their own family facing a similar situation to Princes William and Harry. According to Myers, "William was intensely saddened at his brother’s decision to quit" as a working royal and "knew deep down that there would be no turning back".

"Fond memories of their childhood, from helping each other through the tragedy of their mother’s death to growing up in the public eye, were now tarnished by the division at the heart of the family," the author declared.

Every year that goes by without a public, joyful reunion between Prince William and Prince Harry leads to renewed speculation over when and if this could happen. In September 2025, Harry had tea with King Charles at Clarence House, prompting many to wonder if a similar meeting could be on the cards for the brothers during his UK visit. None was forthcoming, but 2026 could see William and Harry come together at an event that neither will want to miss.

Last August, their cousin Peter Phillips announced he was engaged to his partner, NHS nurse Harriet Sperling, in a statement released alongside a picture of the happy couple. No wedding date was set, yet royal weddings rarely take place more than a year after the engagement, suggesting summer 2026 could be a reasonable guess.

Although Peter isn’t a working royal, he’s still the King’s nephew and the statement was officially worded, stating that, "Both families were informed jointly of the announcement and were delighted with the wonderful news of their engagement."

This will be the second marriage for both Peter and Harriet, so it’s thought that the wedding won’t be a grand or very public event. However, I would be absolutely astonished if Prince William and Prince Harry weren’t both there to celebrate.

Peter Phillips, who is Princess Anne’s son and the oldest of Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren, has always been close to both brothers. He walked between William and Harry at Prince Philip’s funeral and it’s been suggested he’s been "ever more" of an "older brother" figure to the Prince of Wales since the Duke of Sussex moved to the US.

A family wedding isn’t an event you can easily get out of and it’s about celebrating the couple, so surely William and Harry would put their personal differences aside to enjoy Peter and Harriet’s big day. It’s also likely to be relatively private - we’re not talking about Harry and Meghan or William and Kate levels of royal wedding - so that might help make a face-to-face reunion of the brothers a little easier.

Of course, this might not be the only time that the King’s sons are brought together in 2026. We might not know for sure whether Peter and Harriet will be tying the knot this year (although I do think it’s highly likely), but the FIFA World Cup is taking place from June-July 2026.

The Prince of Wales is the President of the Football Association and is expected to attend at least some of the matches, which will take place across America, Canada and Mexico. His younger brother is also a big football fan and will surely want to go too.

This doesn’t guarantee any kind of meeting, though the potential is there as at least they’d be on the same side of the Atlantic. Peter and Harriet’s wedding is more of a safe bet for a reunion, though, as the last handful of times Prince William and Prince Harry were together it was linked to a family occasion.

They’re understood to have both attended their uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’ funeral in August 2024, and were both at King Charles’s coronation, Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and the unveiling of a statue of their late mother Princess Diana.

What do you get someone at Christmas when they already have everything they want or need? We’ve all probably wondered that about our own friends and family, so imagine what it’s like for the royals. Or at least, what it would be like for them if they hadn't found a way to avoid this issue.

They famously stick to a tradition of gifting one another novelty gifts and joke presents instead. Many of these have been revealed in reports over the years, including the Princess of Wales's cheeky gift to her brother-in-law before he met Meghan.

Catherine excelled at the royal's comical tradition, reportedly gifting Prince Harry, a 'Grow Your Own Girlfriend' kit. This was apparently at a time when he often found his love life under scrutiny in the press.

Talking about how the tradition came to be - and how Catherine’s gift perfectly fit in - one royal expert, Emily Nash, said on the debut episode of HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast, "Typically they buy things that are cheap and make people laugh; it's not about big lavish presents, it's about winding someone up in many cases".

Other hilarious examples includes the gift Meghan Markle allegedly gave Prince William during her first Christmas with the royals in 2017.

Meghan - who might have already been feeling the nerves as the late Queen Elizabeth had broken a rare royal Christmas tradition for her - was lucky enough to have a "huge hit" with her gift for William, according to biography, Finding Freedom.

The book claims, "At least one of her gifts was a huge hit - a spoon for William that had 'cereal killer' embossed on the shallow bowl end of the utensil." Meghan’s gift for the late Queen Elizabeth was also reportedly a winner.

"Meghan bought a little hamster that sings with a little rope for Her Majesty," a source said. "It was so funny, especially when the corgis tried to take hold of the toy."

More revelations in Finding Freedom suggest that Prince Harry once gave his grandmother a rather surprising gift too: "a shower cap emblazoned with the phrase, 'Ain’t life a b****.'" Despite being language one would hardly associate with Her Majesty, the book alleged she "loved" the gift.

There are, of course, likely to be exceptions to the Royal Family's present tradition. It’s believed that Prince William gifted Princess Catherine the beautiful Sézane earrings she wore on Christmas Day in 2022, for example.

The Princess of Wales also went with something more personal and heartfelt for Queen Elizabeth during her first Christmas with the family.

"I can remember being at Sandringham, for the first time, at Christmas, and I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas gift," the Princess told the documentary film, Our Queen at 90. "I was thinking, 'Gosh, what should I give her?' I thought back to what would I give my own grandparents, and I thought, 'I’ll make her something.' Which could have gone horribly wrong, but I decided to make my granny’s recipe of chutney."