Will there be a royal reunion? Harry and Meghan reportedly planning first UK family visit with Archie and Lilibet since 2022

LONDON, June 18 — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will visit the UK next month with their two children, their first family trip back to the country since 2022, British media reported yesterday.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be accompanied by their children, seven-year-old Archie, and five-year-old Lilibet, the BBC and ITV news channels reported.

The couple left Britain in 2020 when in a shocking move Harry stepped back as a working royal and moved to North America with his family.

But he has said he would like to reconcile with his father, King Charles III.

Harry, 41, had reportedly been planning to visit the UK this summer to mark the one-year countdown towards next year’s Invictus Games.

The games, launched by Harry in 2014 for wounded veterans from 25 nations, is due to be held in the central city of Birmingham from July 10 to 17, 2027.

Meghan and Harry last visited Britain with their children for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for then Queen Elizabeth II in June 2022, just a few months before her death in September that year.

Prince Harry has insisted he would “always be part of the royal family” despite the public rift, including a falling out with his brother Prince William.

Harry is last believed to have briefly met with his 77-year-old father, who is being treated for an undisclosed cancer, at the king’s Clarence House residence in London in September 2025.

‘Life is precious’ 

His spokesman did not reply immediately to an AFP request for confirmation of the July trip.

Since stepping down from frontline royal duties and moving to California with Meghan, Harry has publicly criticised the royal family on several occasions.

In March 2021, in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Sussexes insinuated that some members of the royal family were racist.

And in his tell-all memoir Spare, he criticised William and his sister-in-law Princess Catherine, among other revelations.

“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. But... I would love for reconciliation,” Harry told the BBC in May 2025.

“Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has.”

The prince has visited the UK several times in recent years for charity engagements and high-profile court battles, but has voiced concerns about the security of his family.

Last year, he said he felt unable to bring his family to the UK after losing a court case to have his full police protection restored during UK visits.

“It’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely,” he said then.

The prince also told ITV News in April he did not recognise the description of himself as “not a working royal”.

“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, and I enjoy doing it,” he said.

The term “working royal” is used to describe senior members of the royal family who carry out official engagements as representatives of the monarchy. — AFP