‘I saw Harry hours before meeting with King – he made feelings clear’ | Royal | News

The mood was revealed in the hours before Prince Harry’s long-awaited meeting with King Charles after the Duke of Sussex was seen performing a public engagement ahead of a private family gathering.

The encounter at King’s Highgrove estate took place away from cameras on Friday, July 10, and no official photos have been released. But royal insiders have now shared new details about Harry’s state of mind before and after the emotional reunion.

It is understood the King was reunited with his grandchildren when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited the head of state’s country home in Gloucestershire.

Charles welcomed Meghan and Harry’s children, Archie and Lilibet, to Highgrove in the afternoon, following days of speculation about whether the family reunion would take place. Seven-year-old Archie and five-year-old Lilibet last saw their grandfather in 2022, when Queen Elizabeth II visited them. They saw it for themselves during Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Queen Camilla, who has a private home near the King’s Gloucestershire residence, is also understood to be there. The meeting between Charles and the young prince and princess is likely to be seen as another step towards repairing the relationship between the King and his youngest son.

Speaking on The Royals with Roya and Kate podcast, royal editor Roya Nikkhah revealed that Harry appeared to be in high spirits while attending the Invictus Games event at the NEC in Birmingham on Friday, knowing the family reunion would take place the following day.

He said: “I think what was interesting was his attitude when he was in Birmingham on Friday when he clearly knew this meeting was going to happen. He was going to go from the NEC to Warwickshire. It looked like that and the people who saw him there were quite animated. He was always with Invictus but he really was.”

Roya said she spoke to a member of Harry’s team after the meeting at Highgrove, who noted that the duke had deliberately kept the details secret.

“There were no leaks about what was going on. There wasn’t an emotional response like we got before when Harry came into a meeting and said, ‘I don’t know how much longer Dad has,'” he said.

Instead, Roya said that after the reunion, Harry was told he was “energetic, cheerful and very happy.”

“So despite all the drama and fights between him, his parents, and his father, he was obviously glad it happened. I think there’s something about Harry being able to reintroduce his children who haven’t seen their grandfather in four years,” he added.

Podcast co-host Kate Mansey said Archie and Lilibet had not visited the UK since the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, while Meghan’s last trip to the UK was for Queen Elizabeth II that year. He stated that it was for Elizabeth’s funeral.

Reflecting on the importance of the reunion, Kate said: “It’s been four years. A lot has been said about the King from Montecito, about Camilla and the rest of the family. It wouldn’t have been an easy reunion.”

Harry’s relationship with Charles has been strained since he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and subsequently made a series of public criticisms of the Royal Family through an Oprah Winfrey interview, a Netflix documentary, television appearances and Harry’s memoir, Spare.

Nor was his disagreement with the Prince of Wales resolved when William attended a charity polo match in Windsor on the afternoon of the Highgrove meeting.

In February 2024, Harry left California for Britain shortly after Charles announced his cancer diagnosis; this visit is widely seen as a first step towards reconciliation.

Harry had planned for Meghan and their children to join him for a week of engagements supporting charities and organizations close to his heart, including the Invictus Games. Although safety concerns prevented them from traveling together at the beginning of the visit, these issues appear to have been resolved at the family meeting in Highgrove.