Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet will not join Prince Harry when he arrives in London next week, after a dispute over police protection couldn't be resolved in time.
Harry's team had requested taxpayer-funded security for the family's visit - the same fight he lost in a UK Court of Appeal case last year after his protection was downgraded when he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020. That request was turned down again, and with days to go before the trip, his spokesperson confirmed the family would not travel together for the London portion.
Whether Meghan and the children still join Harry later in the visit, when he travels to Birmingham on July 9-10 for events marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games, remains undecided. Sources close to the family say arrangements for that leg are still being worked out.
The five-day visit, running July 7-11, was set to be the family's first UK trip together in four years - since the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022 - and had raised hope that King Charles might finally reunite with his young grandchildren. That reunion, at least for now, is on hold.
It's a reminder that reconciliation rarely moves in a straight line. The door King Charles opened at the end of June is still open - this trip just isn't the moment it fully walks through it. For a family that's spent years working through very public wounds, an unresolved security dispute is one more small distance still standing between an invitation and an ending that heals.
Related Article: Harry and Meghan Accept King Charles' Invitation to Stay at a Royal Residence During UK Visit: Is Reconciliation Finally Beginning?
