When the King reportedly extended a conciliatory gesture to his younger son last week, making time for Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet during what would be their first family visit to Britain in four years, one person immediately came to my mind: Kate.
To be honest, the ongoing father-and-son drama concerns me far less than the position of the Princess of Wales.
How might she feel about Meghan’s much-discussed return, given the damage she believes has been done to her reputation, and the prospect of the Duchess being welcomed back by the King at the centre of the Royal Family? The King has even reportedly made a royal residence available for the Sussexes to use during their visit.
It is hard to imagine she would be especially pleased. A sense of hurt, or even betrayal, would be an entirely human response to such a highly publicised reconciliation, particularly after the way both Sussexes have spoken about her.
While Harry and Meghan have pursued lucrative ventures from their base in Montecito, Kate has continued to serve as a steadfast daughter-in-law and future Queen. Before her cancer diagnosis, she also helped shoulder the considerable burden of royal duties left after the Sussexes stepped back and moved to America.
One suspects Kate has not forgotten the claims made in the 2020 royal biography Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie, widely seen as sympathetic to the Sussexes, which portrayed her as “cold” and “not supportive” of Meghan during the Duchess’s brief period as a working royal.
Nor, perhaps, has she overlooked Meghan’s remarks in Harry & Meghan, the six-part Netflix docuseries released in 2022, suggesting that Kate, in contrast to the supposedly warm and affectionate Meghan, is not a “hugger”. That characterisation has been challenged many times during Kate’s hospital visits, where she has been seen embracing cancer patients and survivors, having faced the illness herself.
Meghan claimed in her Netflix series that Kate is not a “hugger”, a portrayal often contrasted with the princess’s hospital visits, where she has been seen embracing patients
The King planning a reunion with the Sussexes must feel like a blow to Kate, especially as she returns to public life after her cancer battle at events such as Royal Ascot
And how could she put to the back of her mind those accusations in Harry’s self-indulgent memoir Spare that Kate slighted the ‘homoeopathic cure-alls’ like oregano oil and turmeric that Meghan once offered to her husband.
Or his claims that she was constantly ‘on edge’ after realising ‘she was now going to be compared to and forced to compete with Meghan’?
Well, look how that competition worked out.
Worldwide, Princess Catherine is the most loved royal, often slightly pipping her husband in the popularity stakes, while Meghan rates as one of the least popular – beaten to the rock-bottom slot only by the disgraced former prince Andrew.
Those close to Harry and Meghan have, of course, done their best to sabotage that popularity.
Perhaps most unforgivably and with the most damaging effect is the Dutch translation of Scobie’s book Endgame: Inside The Royal Family And The Monarchy’s Fight For Survival, which ‘inadvertently’ named King Charles and Kate as the royals who questioned what the Sussexes’ first-born Archie’s skin colour would be, as Meghan alleged in her Oprah interview in 2021.
All this history surely means the news that her beloved father-in-law is planning a reunion with the Sussexes must feel like a blow to Kate, especially as she returns to public life after her cancer battle: radiant at Royal Ascot and majestic at Trooping the Colour for the King’s Birthday Parade alongside her beautiful children.
Some sources say Prince William ‘believes his father is making a misjudgment in making efforts to rebuild a relationship with Harry’, and I’d venture most of the British public would agree with him.
Kate was majestic at Trooping the Colour, alongside her husband William and children George, Charlotte and Louis
Like millions of loyal monarchists, I support William on this. There is no place in Britain any more for Harry or Meghan.
I hope William keeps his pledge to maintain his distance from his brother for everyone’s sake, not least for Kate’s.
The thought of the Sussexes swanning back, being embraced by the King, even if it is in private (as it must be – no photo ops for any new Netflix show, please) – and seizing every PR opportunity to promote Harry’s 2027 Invictus Games countdown, is simply nauseating.
For them to be given a world stage on which to perform as the prodigal son and daughter-in-law after they have done so much damage to the Royal Family beggars belief.
Indeed, any sign of a Sussex love-in risks King Charles losing support, his credibility and his legacy.
As a former spin doctor, I know optics are everything, so here’s my message of warning to the King: tread carefully here.
We all understand your desire, as a father still undergoing treatment for cancer yourself, to see your son and grandchildren.
But, for God’s sake, manage this visit wisely – not least for Camilla, your loyal wife, who has also been attacked by Harry and must detest him as much as we do.
Nor should there be any public briefings about the reunion, or you will risk alienating the love and respect of your eldest son, William, who has stood by your side fighting the good fight since the Sussexes departed.
And William, you must stand firm and protect your family from the Sussexes’ manipulation, which some have already derided as the ’emotional blackmail’ of a frail and elderly father being held hostage by his opportunistic son and his grasping wife.
Most of all, William, protect Kate.
My final advice goes to Princess Catherine herself: there is absolutely no pressure, as some may argue in the coming weeks, for you to meet Meghan.
Nor for your children – who you have raised so beautifully – to meet their cousins Archie or Lilibet. Stand tall, stand proud, know you are loved by millions and see off the Sussex invasion, please, for all our sakes.
