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Why Meghan Markle will only travel with Prince Harry outside of the UK

The Duchess of Sussex was last in London in September 2022

Danielle Stacey
Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
On 29 April 2024
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The Duke of Sussex will make his first major trip to the UK since the King's coronation last year.

Prince Harry, 39, will attend a thanksgiving service to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Invictus Games at St Paul's Cathedral in London on 8 May, but it is not known whether the Duke's wife, Meghan, and their two children, Prince Archie, four, and Princess Lilibet, two, will join him in the UK.

The Duchess last visited her husband's home country in September 2022. The Sussexes attended the One Young World summit in Manchester and had been due to appear at the WellChild Awards but had to miss the event following the death of Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Harry and Meghan's visit to the UK was extended in order for them to attend Her Late Majesty's state funeral at Westminster Abbey in London.

On the latest episode of HELLO!'s A Right Royal Podcast, The Telegraph's Royal Editor Hannah Furness talks about why Meghan is unlikely to return to the UK anytime soon.

"There is quite a heavy narrative that Meghan and the children won't be coming back until they can resolve this security issue to their liking," she says. "But he [Harry] will certainly be coming and going."

Listen to the full episode here...

LISTEN: The reason why Meghan and her children don't want to visit the UK just yet

The Duke took legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country.

Harry's lawyers filed an emotional witness statement to the High Court in December, in which the Duke explained why he and Meghan felt they had to move to the US after stepping back as senior royals in 2020.

Harry was last pictured publicly with his family at Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral last September© Getty
Meghan was last in the UK in September 2022 for the late Queen's state funeral

The father-of-two wrote: "It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.

"The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.

"I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm's way too."

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the sitting volleyball event during the Invictus Games at Zuiderpark on April 17, 2022 © Getty
Harry and Meghan will visit Nigeria together in May

It has been confirmed that Meghan will join her husband on a trip to Nigeria in May after being invited by the west African country's chief of defence staff, who met Harry in Germany last September at Invictus Games Dusseldorf.

Harry made a transatlantic dash to the UK in February following the news of King Charles's cancer diagnosis. The father and son had a 45-minute meeting at Clarence House, before the monarch departed for Sandringham.

Relations between Harry and the royal family have become strained in recent years, following explosive claims about Charles, his stepmother Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales in the Sussexes' Oprah Winfrey interview, their Netflix docuseries and Harry's memoir, Spare.

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