Meghan and Harry are expected to jet into Britain on Sunday as the ructions continue over the Duchess of Sussex’s transatlantic ‘truth bombs’ in the US media and on her Archetypes Spotify podcast.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are returning to the UK for the first time since the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in early June with Meghan declaring this week that she has upset the Royal Family’s dynamic ‘just by existing’.
The Sussexes are expected to be in Europe for around six days next week with two confirmed engagements in the UK and one in Germany to promote the next Invictus Games.
Harry and Meghan will attend three events in Europe – it is not yet known if they will see the Queen at Balmoral
It remains unclear if they will visit the Queen at Balmoral amid an ongoing row about their security with the Home Office and Meghan’s barrage of apparent swipes at the royals in the US media, claiming she and Harry had been treated differently and warned she could ‘say anything’.
The couple will visit Manchester on Monday for the One Young World Summit where Meghan, 40, will address the opening ceremony that evening.
They will also meet a group of summit delegates doing ‘outstanding work on gender equality’. The summit brings together young leaders from more than 190 countries. Meghan has been a One Young World counsellor since 2014.
The Sussexes will then head to Dusseldorf in Germany for the Invictus Games 2023 One Year To Go event on Tuesday before returning to the UK for the WellChild Awards in London on Thursday where Harry will deliver a speech.
In June the Sussexes kept a low profile and spent most of their time at Frogmore Cottage, where they are expected to stay after jetting into Britain, most likely on Sunday.
Yesterday it emerged that Meghan found her journal at Frogmore during the Jubilee celebrations where they were not invited onto the Buckingham Palace balcony. The discovery will raise fears that she could publish her account of royal life before they emigrated. Harry’s own memoirs are already underway.
But experts predicted that they will take centre stage on their trip, which may also be filmed as part of their rumoured £83million [$100million] deal.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has said that their tie-up with the streaming giant is one of the few good explanations for the visit. He said: ‘Their poll ratings have been terrible for a long time, there is a deep rift with the Royal Family which won’t heal soon. I am puzzled why they are coming’.
PR guru and brand expert Mark Borkowski said he expects Meghan to use the trip to gain publicity. He told MailOnline: ‘ This remains a Cold War between the houses still in conflict. To those outside looking in, it appears that Meghan is constantly looking to intersect the news agenda’.
He said that a portrait of Meghan that was remarkably similar to one of Harry’s mother was ‘was perfectly timed at a time the world was remembering Diana’ on the 25th anniversary of her death this week.
Mr Borkowski said:'[It appears she [Meghan] is a modern celebrity that is defined by her media profile. This is a pedantic explanation to suggest that the visit will be one that will be in the full glare of the media, she will be using every occasion to regenerate her narrative. It’s a new form of photosynthesis – converting media energy to extract the nutrients for continued brand fame’.
The Sussexes (pictured in New York last month) are visiting the UK and Germany next week
It is the first time the couple have been to the UK since the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in early June when they attended the service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral but kept a low profile. They also visited in April when they secretly met Prince Charles and the Queen on the way to Holland for the Invictus Games.
It is thought unlikely the couple will bring their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, 14 months, on the trip.
The couple have given a series of interviews since their decision to quit Britain for a new life in California, including the notorious Oprah Winfrey interview in which Harry claimed his father had stopped taking his calls.
In her latest interview – with New York magazine The Cut – Meghan was asked if her relationship with the royals and with her own family could be healed.
She said: ‘It takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.’
But her description of Harry’s relationship with his father Prince Charles threatened to cause new hurt.
She told interviewer Allison P Davis: ‘Harry said to me, “I lost my dad in this process.” It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.’
She later appeared to backtrack, when a source told Page Six in the New York Post that she had meant she did not want Harry to lose his father.
The Sussexes recently renewed their lease on Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, in an unexpected move that sparked speculation that they may have plans for more frequent visits to the UK in future. They are said to love the property and held Lilibet’s 1st birthday party there in June.
Meghan spoke of how ‘surreal’ it was to go back to Frogmore when she and Harry returned to Britain for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The pair only attended one major event across the weekend in June – and spent most of their time at the property, packing up their belongings.
A piece in New York Magazine reports Meghan recalling: ‘You go back and you open drawers and you’re like, Oh my gosh. This is what I was writing in my journal there? And here’s all my socks from this time?’
The article suggested she collected her sofa, art posters collected while travelling with friends, and thrown into ‘good old Ikea frames’, which was described as ‘a past message from a single self she hadn’t fully wanted to leave behind’.
They also celebrated daughter Lilibet’s first birthday with a casual picnic in the gardens of the house.
Locals caught a peek inside the gates of Frogmore Cottage today – just days before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are due to return to Britain
Harry and Meghan have allowed Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank to use the five-bedroom house while they live in their £13m Californian mansion, but sources said recently the renewal of the lease is ‘a signal that they aren’t going to disappear’.
An insider told the Sun earlier this year: ‘By agreeing to extend the lease, and with Jack and Eugenie focusing on Portugal, they have a firm prescence smack bang in the middle of Windsor court where it’s all happening.
‘They can now come and go any time they please. The coming year could be one of the most tumultuous in royal history and the Sussexes are making sure they have a foothold in Windsor.’
The couple are back in the UK next week for a number of events, but are said to not be planning to attending Balmoral, the Scottish Highlands estate where the Queen is expected to remain for the next few weeks as concerns grow over her mobility issues.
The Telegraph understands the couple are still waiting on decisions around their security while in the UK before they decide if they travel off schedule. A Home Office panel is also set to decide whether they qualify for protection by the Met Police.
On September 5, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will travel from their home in California to visit Manchester for the One Young World Summit, where Meghan will give the keynote address at the opening ceremony.
The couple will then head to Germany for an event to commemorate a year until the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf on September 6, before returning to the UK for the WellChild Awards in London on September 8 where Prince Harry – a long-term patron of the charity – will deliver a speech.
It is believed that September 7 is then not taken up with any engagements, meaning they could go and visit family.
But it is believed that like when the US-based couple were in the UK in June, when they kept a low profile, they will spend much of their time at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. Harry, 37, last saw his Grandmother during her Platinum Jubilee, where he reportedly only had around 15 minutes with her.
They also visited in April, when they secretly met with Prince Charles and the Queen on their way to the Netherlands.
After this trip, the Duke spoke about ensuring his grandmother has ‘the right people around her’ when he appeared to make a swipe at royal household staff during an interview with NBC including the so-called ‘men in grey suits’ who advise the Queen.
This latest news comes as warring brothers Prince William and Prince Harry will reportedly not mark the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death on Wednesday together – neither in public or private.
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