A familiar cast of loyal friends, society figures and royal relatives could be ready to rally around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they prepare for a return to life in the UK.
After six years based in Montecito, Prince Harry and Meghan are expected to establish a home in Britain with their children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, who are due to begin school in September.
The King is said to be pleased at the prospect of spending more time with his grandchildren. Even so, the Sussexes’ homecoming would come against a complicated backdrop, with relationships inside and outside the Palace strained long before the couple boarded what Harry later described as their “freedom flight” from the UK.
Speculation has persisted for years that Harry’s ties with some of his former party-circle friends cooled after he began his relationship with Meghan. His rift with Prince William and the Princess of Wales also remains unresolved, with the brothers understood not to be on speaking terms.
Yet not every bond has been broken. A number of Harry’s childhood friends are believed to have remained steadfast, maintaining loyalty to both the Duke and his brother despite the tensions that have reshaped royal life.
Among those who could form part of a private welcome circle are the Duke of Westminster and brothers Charles and Thomas van Straubenzee. Also close to Harry is Mark Dyer, the straight-talking former Welsh Guards officer who became an important mentor to the prince after the death of Princess Diana.
Meghan, meanwhile, has often maintained that she knew little about Britain or the Royal Family before marrying Harry. Still, she had her own network in London before royal life formally began.
That circle includes public relations specialist Isabel May, who helped Meghan adjust during her initial move to the UK, as well as Markus Anderson, the Soho House executive long regarded as one of the duchess’s closest confidants.
And while relations with the wider royal family remain strained, it’s worth remembering that Meghan was originally pals with Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank before she met Harry and the two couples remain close.
Princess Eugenie
Meghan already knew the Duke of Sussex’s cousin Eugenie before she started dating Harry
Harry is known to be close to his cousins Beatrice and Eugenie and always appears to enjoy friendly chats with their husbands.
But it seems likely that any meetings between the York sisters and the Sussexes will take place behind the scenes, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Our News Outlet.
‘Eugenie was always the closest to the Sussexes, visiting them, appearing in their Netflix series and they both have houses in Portugal,’ he shared.
‘However, Harry and Meghan won’t want to be too close to the sisters as they are far too controversial because of their disgraced parents. The Sussexes will keep their distance publicly and they do excite worldwide interest.
‘They may of course see them privately but we may not hear of it.’
Meghan already knew Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank before she started dating Harry – and in their 2022 Netflix documentary, released in December, it was revealed that Eugenie has spent time with her cousin Harry and his son Archie while in Los Angeles.
Eugenie became the first member of the Royal Family to publicly visit the Duke of Sussex in California, two years after he quit senior duties.
Duke of Westminster
The Duke of Westminster is one of Prince Harry’s close friends and godfather to his son Archie – but didn’t invite him to his wedding to Olivia Henson
In 2024, the Duke of Westminster decided not to invite Harry and Meghan to his society wedding to Olivia Henson to avoid ‘drama’.
As one of Prince Harry’s closest friends and godfather to his son Archie, he is believed to have been keen to invite the Sussexes before deciding not to so his nuptials wouldn’t be overshadowed by royal tensions.
The Prince of Wales was present at the event alone, beaming as his close friend tied the knot.
Known as Hughie to his friends, the billionaire Duke is also godfather to William’s son Prince George.
A life-long friend for each of the brothers, he is thought to be the only pal both chose to mentor their children.
‘It’s incredibly sad it has come to this,’ a friend of William and Harry’s told The Sunday Times.
‘Hugh is one of very few close friends of William and Harry’s who has maintained strong bonds and a line of communication with both.
‘He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up, but realises it’s unlikely to happen before the wedding.
‘He wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any awkwardness.’
A spokesman for the Duke at the time said: ‘We are not in a position to comment on the guest list.’ Buckingham Palace also declined to comment.
A source also told PEOPLE that Harry’s absence was ‘an understanding between the two friends’ and was a ‘mutual’ decision. According to the outlet, the Prince sent ‘his love and support and admiration for the couple’ ahead of their big day.
Charles and Thomas van Straubenzee
Harry and Charles van Straubenzee watch the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham Stadium in 2015 – the Duke of Sussex has long been close with Charlie and his brother Thomas
The van Straubenzees have often been described as being like a second family to William and Harry. The boys’ parents Claire and Alex are said to have provided a retreat for the royal brothers during the ‘war of the Waleses’ – Charles and Diana’s very public, and painful divorce.
Harry was particularly close to Thomas’s late brother Henry, who became the royal’s best friend after they met at their prep school, Ludgrove Prep in Berkshire.
‘Skinny, with no muscles, and hair that stood up in permanent surrender, Henners was all heart,’ Harry wrote affectionately of Henry in his memoir Spare. ‘Whenever he smiled, people melted.’
The Duke said in his book that Henry was the only boy who asked him about his mother Princess Diana after she died in 1997. Tragically, he himself passed away in a car crash at the age of 18.
In Spare, Harry described how the news of Henry’s death had terrible echoes of the moment that his father, then Prince Charles, told him that his mother had died. He noted how ‘just like Mummy’ Henry was not wearing a seatbelt.
In December 2022, despite being estranged, the princes signed a joint letter to mark the 20th anniversary of Henry’s death.
Charlie van Straubenzee appears to still be close to Harry. Both he and his brother Thomas were ushers at the Duke of Sussex’s wedding in 2018, where Charlie gave a speech at the reception.
Harry also is godfather to Charlie’s four-year-old daughter Clover and, in turn, Charlie is godfather to Prince Archie. The pair were also seen cycling around the Californian neighbourhood in May 2022.
However, Thomas – often described as the Prince of Wales’s best friend – is likely to have divided loyalties over the rift between Harry and William.
He and the Duke of Sussex were close in the 2010s and when Thomas was mugged in Stockwell, south London, in 2012 it was Harry he was on the phone to when his Nokia phone was snatched.
In 2015, he accompanied Harry and his brother Charlie to a rugby match.
Guy Pelly
Guy Pelly was close with both of Charles’s sons when they were teenagers and was pictured at a rugby game with Harry and William in 2002
Prince Louis’ godfather, once nicknamed ‘the court jester’, may also be among the welcoming committee for the Sussexes
Guy Pelly, 44, was close with both of Charles’s sons when they were teenagers and was at one point seen as the only hope to solving their rift in the wake of ‘Megxit’.
And it seems he still has a warm relationship with the family, and was earlier this year seen enjoying a conversation with King Charles at the British Embassy for His Majesty and Queen Camilla’s landmark state visit.
Guy was in attendance with his wife Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Wilson, an American-born heiress to the Holiday Inn empire. Her grandfather, Kemmons Wilson, founded the hotel business in 1952.
The couple married in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2014 and later settled into business, running a vineyard in Virginia, where tastings start from $60 per person. Couples hoping to tie the knot at the scenic venue can expect to spend around $17,650.
Guy – wearing a grey suit, blue shirt and sage green tie – beamed at the party. He stood next to Elizabeth, who was elegant in a dusky orange dress with a floral design.
The event brought together a cross-section of British and American figures – from politicians and officials to charity leaders and sporting stars – as the monarch sought to reinforce strained transatlantic ties.
But Charles’s connection to Guy goes far beyond diplomacy. Former nightclub owner Guy, who organised Prince William’s stag do, has been close friends with William since they were teenagers and was also present for some of Harry’s wilder nights.
As well as maintaining a close friendship with William, Guy has remained in Prince Harry’s close circle, having reportedly visited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in California in September 2020.
Mark Dyer
The flame-haired man of action served the then Prince Charles until the mid-1990s and acted as a mentor to the princes after the death of their mother
Another mutual friend often seen as a potential bridge between the brothers is former Welsh Guards officer turned royal equerry Mark Dyer.
The flame-haired man of action – known to friends as ‘Marko’ – served the then Prince Charles until the mid-1990s and acted as a mentor to the princes after the death of their mother Diana in 1997.
Dubbed Harry’s ‘second dad’, he is now thought to be a conduit through which the prince can keep in touch with his family and friends in the UK.
The Cheltenham College-educated pub owner appeared in Spare as the finger-wagging royal bodyguard who confronted Harry about his use of illegal drugs, and more recently survived stomach cancer.
His relationship with both royal brothers – and his no-nonsense nature – could make him a useful mediator in any future discussions between them, according to insiders.
‘Mark can always be relied on to talk sense into Harry and will be a stoic under-the-radar support for Harry in what has the propensity to be a stress-inducing time for him,’ the source told The Times.
‘He also has the benefit of knowing what it’s like to live through a cancer diagnosis.’
In his previous role as one of Charles’s most trusted advisers, Mr Dyer would visit William at boarding school, help foster Harry’s romantic relationships and protect both young princes from prying photographers.
Since then, he created and then sold a chain of pubs. And he has fought a battle with stomach cancer, returning home to his family last year after six weeks in hospital.
Dyer was steadying influence to Harry and William in the mid-1990s after Charles appointed him to keep an eye on his sons, serving as a male counterpart to royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
During the first half-term after Diana’s death, Charles was committed to a five-day visit to Africa. Dyer took Harry along and organised a safari in Botswana for him while his father carried out engagements.
But Dyer’s role was not always to provide a softer support for the teenaged prince. Royal biographer Penny Junor once described Mark as one of the ‘few people who talks some sense into him’.
In Spare, Harry recounted losing his virginity to an unnamed older woman in a field behind a ‘very busy pub’ at the age of 17.
He was still a student at Eton College in 2001 when Dyer paid him a visit, with Harry suspecting he had heard about the one-night stand – which he described as a ‘humiliating’ experience.
But over lunch in a cafeteria in the city centre, Dyer – who had a ‘sombre look’ on his face – told the Prince that he had been sent to ‘find out the truth’ about his drug use.
Charles’s press office had been informed that a newspaper had evidence of Harry taking drugs.
When Harry did admit to smoking cannabis as a teenager, it was Dyer who escorted him to spend a day at a residential centre for drug users in Peckham, south London, at the insistence of his father.
When his school years ended, Harry’s closeness to Dyer grew as the pair travelled together to Australia, Argentina and Lesotho during Harry’s gap year.
The two months Harry spent in Lesotho, at the invitation of Dyer’s friend Prince Seeiso, made a lasting impression on the royal when he worked with orphaned children with Aids and met other traumatised youngsters.
When he returned to the UK, Harry told his father that he wanted to start a charity and Dyer was a driving force behind its foundation, according to Penny Junor.
Sentebale, of which Dyer is a trustee, supports orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, many of whom are affected by HIV and Aids.
Harry remains good friends with Dyer, and once recalled of him: ‘Of all Pa’s people there was consensus that Marko was the best. The roughest, the toughest, the most dashing.’
The former Army officer was also listed in the acknowledgements section of the book, where Harry wrote: ‘Love and thanks to friends and colleagues who helped jog my memory or else restored important details lost in the haze of youth.’
Dyer was reportedly fond of the Prince’s former girlfriend Chelsy Davy and snuck her out to the ranch where Harry was staying in Argentina during his gap year before starting his Army training at Sandhurst.
He continued his mentoring role even after his time as an official employee of the Prince came to an end.
‘Mark Dyer had been invaluable; he had done a superb job in supporting and guiding both Princes through their adolescence and showing them something of the world – also introducing them to Africa,’ Penny Junor wrote in her biography Prince Harry: Brother, Soldier, Son.
‘The press thought he was a bad influence but he did a bloody good job for them. He had huge integrity, and he was around when they needed advice that didn’t come from their father.’
When Harry began wooing Cressida Bonas in 2013, Dyer did his bit to ensure the royal romance ran smoothly. While Harry was in Afghanistan, it was reported that he was among the close circle of friends he entrusted with keeping the romance alive.
Meanwhile, Dyer enjoyed a brief romance with ex-royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke before wedding Texan heiress Amanda Kline in 2010.
Harry was an usher at the ceremony at St Edmund’s Church at Crickhowell, in Powys, Wales. Harry later returned the compliment, asking Dyer to be an usher at his own wedding in 2018.
The Sussexes also asked Dyer to be Archie’s godfather. And Harry, in turn, is godfather to Jasper Dyer, who served as a page boy at his wedding.
In 2009, Dyer founded the management company MDM Bars and Pubs and ran pubs including The Sand’s End in Fulham, where Harry is said to have conducted his secret courtship with Meghan.
He sold the pubs in 2017 for more than £10million and said he was going to ‘relax’ for a while. Later, he bought the Brook House Pub in Fulham with business partner Eamonn Manson.
In 2022, Dyer was successfully treated after a gruelling battle against stomach cancer and was sent home after six weeks in hospital and 14 hours of surgery.
He was spotted at the wedding of his niece, classical soprano Alicia Lowes when she married long-distance rower Alex Simpson in Monmouthshire.
Speaking of the joy of having her uncle at the ceremony, Alicia told Richard Eden: ‘Last year was hell for Mark, but he’s turned the corner and is cancer-free.’
Dyer is described as one of the few people Harry still trusts in Britain, although whether this would put him in a position to act as a mediator remains to be seen.
A source previously told the Mail that William respects his father’s decision to ‘keep the door ajar’ for Harry, but that is ‘not an option for him personally for the time being.’
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton
Harry and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton attend a reception at the British High Commission in 2010 in Gaborone, Botswana
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, 65, is another mediator hopeful who is still understood to have warm relations with Harry.
He served as the Queen Mother’s equerry before working with William and Harry to guide their military careers, protect Harry in the wake of Princess Diana’s death, and ensure Kate’s seamless integration in the Royal Family, among other things.
Now, he lives out his days in a countryside manor in Suffolk where he’s catered towards his artistic itch and written Beyond The Edge Of Light, a novel set for release this month.
But the Old Etonian could just come back from his creative bubble to help mend William and Harry’s broken relationship, royal expert Richard believes.
Speaking to Our News Outlet, he said: ‘The world knows there is a deep and bitter rift between Princes William and Harry.
‘We know that their father, King Charles, loved them both, but the War of the Waleses and Diana’s tragic death cast a shadow over their youth. It traumatised Harry with effects that are all too evident today.
‘The brothers were close, but there was also a strong rivalry, as Harry revealed in his memoir Spare.
‘Prince Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles eventually led to a happy marriage. However, the pressures were immense, and both William and Harry needed a surrogate father.
‘This role was filled by their principal private secretary for eight years when they were in their twenties, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who has a deep and enduring bond with them both that has lasted.
‘In his interview with The Times, he praises both of them, calling William “a natural leader” and Harry “a mischievous cub”.
‘He organised William’s wedding to Catherine, which is one of the weddings of the century. Clearly, their mutual trust is absolute.
‘William made him Prince George’s godparent, and he intends to act as his mentor, with his wide military experience as well as a courtier being beneficial.
‘He also handled the complex negotiations surrounding the military experience, which have been pivotal to both William and Harry’s lives.
‘He served as mentor to Catherine, helping her as she was eased into her royal role, calling her “really cool” in The Times. She hugged and kissed him publicly during an official engagement in Suffolk, which shows how close they are.
‘Despite his loyalty to the crown, he refuses to break his bond with Harry. He talks of his “huge redeeming features” and, when dealing with the rift, will only say “I’m a perennial optimist”.
‘In Spare, royal courtiers received blasts of hate from an irate Harry, but he was clearly devoted to “JLP” whom he called “the product of Britain’s finest military training” who didn’t “deal in b******t”.
‘When JLP decided against showing him papers linked to Diana’s death, which he thought he would have found challenging, Harry accepted it.
‘When the statue of Diana was unveiled in 2021, both brothers greeted him warmly.
‘So far he has chosen to be discreet and avoid involvement in the feud which continues to bedevil the monarchy.
‘Yet if a mediator were to be wanted by them both, it would undoubtedly be him.
‘However, it should be noted that he has had little to do with Meghan, as his dates of service preceded her. If one day his services were called on, would she trust him and would he trust her? As yet, we don’t know.’
Discussing Harry and the prospect of a reconciliation in The Times, Lowther-Pinkerton said: ‘What I would say is that I was and am very fond of him. He has huge redeeming features and I’m a perennial optimist.’
The ease with which Lowther-Pinkerton put the brothers at ease was revealed once again in July 2021, a time when tensions had risen between William and Harry following the Sussexes’ bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
But one wouldn’t know the drama that was unfolding when the pair, visibly delighted, greeted Lowther-Pinkerton at their unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, on what would have been her 60th birthday.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lowther-Pinkerton also revealed his fondness for the Princess of Wales, describing her as ‘a really cool woman’.
‘He chose well,’ he said of William, ‘I think they’re great.’
Lowther-Pinkerton, a former member of the Irish Guards and SAS, was appointed William and Harry’s first private secretary in March 2005, weeks after Harry hit the headlines for wearing a Nazi uniform.
He is also credited with helping both princes shape their military careers: while Harry served on the front line in Afghanistan, William became a search and rescue pilot at RAF Valley on Anglesey.
Alexander Gilkes and Misha Nonoo
Eugenie and Meghan first met at an event in Miami in May 2014. Fashion designer Misha Nonoo pictured in 2015 with Meghan
Before she deleted all her blog The Tig and her social media pages in late 2017, Meghan’s friend Misha Nonoo made regular appearances on the Duchess’ Instagram account.
In a previous interview with the Evening Standard, the fashion designer, 41, explained how she met the former Suits actress in 2014 while attending an Art Basel event in Miami.
She explained: ‘We were seated next to one another at a lunch and we got along like a house on fire.’
Explaining how they ‘really bonded’ over their charity work, Misha added: ‘We both love dogs too.’
Meghan’s flourishing friendship not only gave her a leg-up in the fashion arena – but also provided her with an important royal connection too.
And the pair still appear to keep in touch. In July 2024, both were spotted at the G9 Ventures Summer Summit in the Hamptons.
At the time of Meghan and Misha’s first meeting, the designer was still married to her ex-husband Alexander Gilkes – who attended Eton college at the same time as Prince Harry and Prince William.
What’s more, Alexander – who is now with tennis champ Maria Sharapova – has such close ties to the Royal Family that he was even invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding back in 2011.
In 2011, the Etonian founded his own auctioneer firm Paddle8 in New York – which employed Princess Eugenie for two years in 2013.
The mother-of-two was Alexander’s Benefit Auctions Manager and the two became so close that he even referred to her by the nickname ‘Eug’.
During the Princess’ time in New York, Alexander also attended the Gavel&Grand Benefit Auction with Eugenie and her mother Sarah Ferguson.
It is through Alexander’s work that his ex-wife Misha is believed to have become close friends with Princess Eugenie.
After hitting it off with Meghan, Misha then reportedly introduced the actress to Eugenie.
During her 2021 interview with Oprah, Meghan explained: ‘Eugenie and I had known each other before I had known Harry, so that was comfortable.’
If their ties to Eugenie weren’t already a significant enough royal connection, Alexander’s younger brother Charlie also dated Pippa Middleton for a number of years.
During their relationship, the younger Gilkes brother was invited on board the Middleton family’s boat for the river pageant during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
Following their split, Charlie – who is the founder of Inception Group – then went on to marry publicist Anneke von Trotha Taylor.
The couple’s 2014 wedding in Puglia was even attended by Meghan’s future husband Prince Harry along with Pippa and Michael Middleton.
Isabel May
Isabel May and Marks Anderson pictured at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018
Meghan Markle pictured with her friend Markus Anderson at the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in 2017
After befriending Markus Anderson in 2012, the Soho House director is then said to have introduced the Duchess to PR guru Isabel May.
Isabel, who studied history at Sussex University, joined London-based PR agency Freuds in 2001. Among her clients was Soho House, which resulted in her close friendship to Markus Anderson.
The former Burberry director of communications was at the fashion brand when they employed David and Victoria Beckham’s sons Romeo and Brooklyn.
In 2018, she moved to the former England captain’s company DB Ventures to become their Chief Marketing Officer. She has since moved on to become Charlotte Tilbury’s Chief Communications Officer.
As a result of her close connection to the Beckhams, Isabel was rumoured to be the individual who set Meghan and Harry up on their first date in 2016.
At the couple’s Windsor wedding in 2018, Isabel was seated in the second row on the bride’s side – in front of Serena Williams, Oprah Winfrey and the Clooneys – perhaps signifying her closeness to Meghan.
In 2019, Vanity Fair reported that Isabel had been asked by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be Archie’s godmother.
A source told the Mail On Sunday: ‘Izzy is one of Meghan’s dearest and closest friends and she values her friendship so very much. Izzy keeps their relationship really quiet and very much under the radar.
‘The time they spend together is private. She helped Meghan adjust to life in London when she moved here from Canada. Meghan relied on her a lot. They are just like any two young female friends. They totally support one another and enjoy lots of social activities together.’
Violet von Westenholz
Violet von Westenholz pictured with Meghan Markle at Wimbledon in 2016 – around the time the Duchess of Sussex started dating Prince Harry
In the couple’s Netflix docuseries, Meghan explained how she travelled around Europe in 2016 to have a ‘single girl summer’.
But just weeks before her first date with her future husband, the actress crossed paths with an individual with a very strong royal connection.
Violet von Westenholz is the daughter of former Olympic skier Baron Piers von Westenholz, who is a close personal friend of King Charles.
What’s more, her mother Jane von Westenholz is a long time friend of Camilla’s and was involved in the renovation of Dumfries House – a Scottish stately home saved by Charles in 2007.
In her role as press relations director for Ralph Lauren, she organised a publicity day for the brand at Wimbledon tennis tournament – which Meghan attended.
Following the event, the actress uploaded a photo on her Instagram with the PR director and other guests.
Expressing her gratitude, Meghan captioned the post: ”How much more could I adore this gem thank you Violet von Westenholz’.
Violet has been friends with Prince Harry since they were both teenagers, and regularly joined the royal family on skiing trips abroad.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in 2018, Violet refused to deny if she was responsible for introducing Meghan and Harry.
She said: ‘I might leave that for other people to say [who it is].
‘It’s a great story and I am sure they are going to be very happy together. I am just happy they are really happy. They are great together.’
