Some family reunions are joyful. This one comes with a royal source on the record calling it “a huge new low as a tactic,” which is the kind of advance press that most family visits do not generate.
Harry and Meghan are bringing Archie and Lilibet to Britain next month. It will be the family’s first joint visit to the UK in four years. Harry spent those four years arguing in court that his children could not safely visit Britain without guaranteed government security protection. He lost at the High Court. He lost on appeal. He is now coming to Britain because King Charles personally invited him, offered a royal residence, and agreed to security arrangements, meaning Harry obtained through a family negotiation what two courts declined to give him through litigation. His argument was correct. His method of proving it has left a royal source on record calling him a tactician.
According to GB News, the source said Harry and Meghan are “doing this to force their hand, so they have to give him security or else they are endangering the children,” and called it “a huge new low as a tactic.” Another source told GB News the King “is not an uncaring man” and “doesn’t want to do anything which can be weaponised against him in the security row.” The word “weaponised” appears in multiple quotes from multiple sources about a man planning to bring his children to see their grandfather. Everyone involved has agreed to describe a family visit using the vocabulary of geopolitical conflict, which tells you something about how this family operates.
King Charles has cancer. He has been in active treatment since February 2024. He has met Lilibet, who is five years old, exactly once. According to GB News, he is reportedly looking forward to the reunion. William, per GB News, was “deeply betrayed” by Harry’s recent actions and is “unlikely” to meet him during the visit. William is not funding the security operation. The King with cancer is.
The five-year-old, who is a child, has been on British soil twice in her life. Her second visit required a High Court case, an appeals court case, a four-year standoff, a royal source describing her father’s behavior as a tactic, and a grandfather with cancer personally arranging and paying for the security. The child is not aware of any of this.
When the visit between a grandfather with cancer and the grandchildren he has met once requires all of this apparatus, who exactly assembled the apparatus?
Sources
GB News: Prince Harry warned trip to the UK is a ‘new tactic that could backfire’
GB News: Prince Harry and Meghan will stay at a Royal Family residence in UK
