{"id":4285,"date":"2026-07-11T17:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4285"},"modified":"2026-07-11T17:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:06:58","slug":"king-reunites-with-his-grandchildren-but-denies-harry-and-meghan-their-photo-op","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4285","title":{"rendered":"King reunites with his grandchildren but denies Harry and Meghan their photo op"},"content":{"rendered":"
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King Charles III on Friday hosted a long-awaited but already much-debated reunion with his errant son, Prince Harry, his American wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, at his country estate.<\/p>\n

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The meeting, \u201cshrouded in secrecy,\u201d took place at Highgrove, Charles\u2019 private Gloucestershire residence, a short drive from Birmingham, where Harry has been attending events to mark the 2027 Invictus Games in that city, the Daily Mail reported. The king has not seen his grandchildren since 2022, due to his sad and bitter estrangement from his son over his and Meghan\u2019s public criticism of the royal family and their attempts to monetize their connections to the monarchy.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, not much is being said about the meeting, with Buckingham Palace refusing to discuss any further details about what was described as a \u201cprivate family occasion,\u201d the Daily Mail and other outlets reported. The palace also said no images would be released \u2014 which means that neither Harry nor Meghan will be able to publish any happy family photos of themselves or of Archie and Lilibet with the king.<\/p>\n

Critics of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said that Meghan, especially, was probably hoping for a photo op with the king, so that she could use it to promote her royal connections, her personal brand and her As Ever lifestyle products. But Charles and his palace aides have denied the former TV actor that opportunity, according to the Daily Mail and the Times.<\/p>\n

While many on both sides of the Atlantic will see the meeting as a triumph of family reunification and \u201cgrandfatherly tenderness,\u201d especially for a 77-year-old king who is living with cancer, the Daily Mail reported that palace courtiers remain \u201cweary and wary\u201d of the whole situation, given that Harry and Meghan have a documented history of leaking information about private family occasions to the media for public relations purposes. Harry also has \u201cvilified\u201d his father and stepmother, Queen Camilla, in multiple interviews, documentaries and his memoir, \u201cSpare,\u201d the Daily Mail said.<\/p>\n

Many, though, prefer to see the bright side and hope that this meeting, which also included Camilla, leads to a further thaw in family relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such wonderful news!!! The children and King Charles need that family connection!\u201d one person wrote in response to an article about the reunion on the People magazine site, which tends to be pro-Harry and Meghan. \u201cThat\u2019s what civilized people do, they get together to discuss things and reconcile with family for the sake of the children,\u201d another person said.<\/p>\n

But even on the People site, some commenters were measured in their reaction, especially when it comes to Harry and Meghan. \u201cI also am happy for King Charles and hope it is a joyous visit with no ulterior motives,\u201d one person said, while another remarked: \u201cI\u2019m glad to see that Harry and Meghan are smartening and growing up by coming around to the fact that being a victim is an unhealed wound which seems to get payback until it doesn\u2019t \u2026 Life is short, as a grandparent, I know how amazing it is to have a grandchild.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pretty harsh criticism of the meeting also poured in on various social media platforms. Criticism also came from royal journalists like Tom Sykes on his The Royalist Substack. He and others pointed out that Charles, as king, is no ordinary grandfather but is the head of the British government. He and others also have accused Harry of spending the past six years trying to undermine the authority of the British government by raging against its monarchy and showing disrespect to his home country\u2019s institutions.<\/p>\n

Sykes and others say that a \u201cpetulant,\u201d \u201centitled\u201d Harry also has spent the past several weeks whipping up \u201cconfected,\u201d back-and-forth media \u201cpsychodrama\u201d over his family\u2019s travel plans to the U.K. and security arrangements, while resorting to the \u201cemotional blackmail\u201d of the king by suggesting the king wouldn\u2019t see his grandchildren unless he intervened to make sure his son got the automatic, taxpayer-funded police security he wanted.<\/p>\n

Throughout all the drama, the king has refused to intervene on the police security issue, given that the issue is a British government and Home Office decision, Sykes reported. According to the Daily Mail, the king also finally \u201csnapped\u201d and told Harry that he wasn\u2019t welcome to stay at Buckingham Palace this week after he dithered for weeks and past a deadline for accepting his father\u2019s offer of accommodations,<\/p>\n

Moreover, Harry suffered a \u201ccrushing\u201d and potentially reputation-ruining legal defeat this week, with a British court ruling that he had no evidence to file a lawsuit, accusing Daily Mail journalists of engaging in unethical behavior while reporting on stories about him 15 years ago or more. Harry responded to the ruling by issuing a blistering statement that essentially accused the judge, who works in his father\u2019s court, of making a corrupt decision by saying he engaged in \u201ca complete and obvious whitewash\u201d of the case.<\/p>\n

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\u201cToday, at Highgrove, the King paid the ransom,\u201d Tom Sykes wrote on his Substack. He and others have said that Harry and Meghan desperately needed an audience with the king, given that the duchess\u2019 As Ever brand is struggling and this week\u2019s court judgement could be catastrophic to their finances if they end up having to pay millions in legal fees after losing the case. Their reputation is \u201cin the toilet,\u201d Sykes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe palace machine will wrap this in the language of grandfatherly tenderness, but this was a capitulation,\u201d Sykes wrote. \u201cA total, unconditional capitulation, and I\u2019m afraid it exposes a fatal flaw in Charles that is the flip side of his cultured, artistic and humane nature: he is a soft touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others online were more harsh in their judgement of Charles, calling him \u201cweak,\u201d or worse. \u201cAll respect for The King gone. Utterly stupid gullible old man,\u201d one person wrote on the X account for the Times and Sunday Times. Another person called Charles \u201ca disgrace,\u201d while yet another said, \u201cHarry and Meghan are desperate for that royal connection to revive their toxic brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Many see the meeting as a triumph of family reunification, but others are angry that the king granted an audience to two people who have publicly vilified members of the royal family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nKing reunites with his grandchildren but denies Harry and Meghan their photo op - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4285\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King reunites with his grandchildren but denies Harry and Meghan their photo op - 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