Harry returns to UK, but unclear if he’ll meet King Charles

The Duke of Sussex is set to return to the UK this week for the first time in five months, with plans to support BBC Children in Need and revisit a community recording studio in Nottingham. Harry’s visit will include a series of engagements and a significant donation to the broadcaster’s charity, aimed at bolstering its efforts to combat youth violence.

However, it remains uncertain whether the Duke — who is estranged from his brother, the Prince of Wales, and has a strained relationship with his father, the King — will arrange a family reunion during his stay.

The King, currently at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire, and the Queen have no public engagements scheduled for the coming week. Harry and Charles last met face-to-face over 18 months ago, in February 2024, when the Duke, who is no longer a working royal, travelled across the Atlantic following news of his father’s cancer diagnosis.

Their meeting lasted just over 30 minutes before the King departed to recuperate in Sandringham. The duke will be in London on Monday — the third anniversary of the late Queen’s death — for the annual WellChild Awards, a cause close to his heart as the charity’s long-standing patron, before travelling to Nottingham on Tuesday.

Harry last visited the Community Recording Studio (CRS) in the city’s St Ann’s area to mark World Mental Health Day in October 2019, just two months before he and the Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping down as senior working royals and moving to North America.

King Charles

He is planning to hold a private briefing with Children in Need, the Police and Crime Commission, the CRS and community outreach group Epic Partners in Nottingham, stage informal catch-ups with some of the young people he met before, and watch performances from CRS artists and make a short speech. The duke appears to be focusing on his philanthropic ventures, while the Duchess of Sussex, who is not expected to join him on the trip to the UK, has been working on her lifestyle brand As Ever and promoting the recent launch of the second season of her critically savaged Netflix show. The duke is hoping to bring together key stakeholders, influencers and potential funders to shine a light on the work of grassroots organisations such as CRS and Epic Partners and the sports apprenticeship body Coach Core.

Coach Core was originally started as a programme by William, Harry and the now-Princess of Wales’s joint Royal Foundation in 2012 to use the power of sport to help change lives and train young apprentices. It has since become an independent charity. Harry and Meghan broke away from William and Kate’s Royal Foundation in 2019 after rumours of a rift began to circulate. Senior aides to the King and the duke were pictured together in London this July in what was reported to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two sides.

Harry, who levelled accusations at the King, Queen, William and Kate in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary and memoir Spare, told the BBC in May that Charles will not speak to him because of his court battle over his security, and he does not know “how much longer my father has”. But he also outlined his hopes for a “reconciliation” with his family, saying: “Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for lots of things.” He added: “But you know, I would love reconciliation with my family,” and said there was “no point in continuing to fight anymore”.

Harry’s level of security changed in 2020 after Megxit. He was last in the UK in April for a court hearing about his security arrangements, but lost his Court of Appeal challenge in May and said in the TV interview he “can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back”.