MEGHAN’S SHOCK RETURN TO THE UK
After all her animosity towards the royals, why would she go back?
The Duchess of Sussex left England in a huff in March 2020, jumping on a plane back to North America before the pews at Westminster Abbey had cooled after her final public engagement – the Queen’s Commonwealth Day service.
Since then, those close to Meghan, 40, have repeatedly insinuated that they “doubt she’ll ever go back to the UK again, after all she’s endured at the hands of the royal family”.
And from the palace point of view, there was “widespread relief” that she didn’t accompany her husband on his two trips home this year, “because she’d have made it all about her”.
So it was with great surprise in the face of such two-sided hostility that palace aides are said to have recently received a request from Meghan and Prince Harry for a reunion with the Queen in London in coming weeks.
“The couple want the Queen to spend time with their new baby,” a California-based source says of little Lilibet Diana, who was born in June and was named for her great-grandmother’s famous nickname. “And the Queen travelling to them in Montecito at age 95 is probably out of the question, so Meghan and Harry have made it known that they’d like to bring their family to her.”
Senior courtiers are said to be “stunned at their audacity, given everything they’ve said about the Queen and her family since moving to America” – including fiery interviews, podcast and documentary appearances in which the couple have made serious claims
of racism and negligence at the hands of the Windsors.
Harry recently confirmed rumours he’s writing his memoir, due out next year. “The Queen has no reason to expect her grandson’s book will be anything less than the usual one-sided attacks and privileged complaints he’s been spouting all year,” snipes one palace source.
UK newspaper The Mirror reports that for now, Her Majesty’s staff is “ignoring” Harry and Meghan’s request.
Our source adds, “It’s just to buy time really – they can’t avoid Harry and Meghan forever or that will become their next thing for them to gripe about on Oprah’s couch.
“They’re scrambling to prepare for any possibility, including that the Sussexes just want a photo op of their baby with the Queen to maximise publicity for their own causes.”
‘The Queen should be very careful about what she says’
Another source, meanwhile, warns that the Queen should “be very careful about what she says while taking an audience with the Sussexes”.
“There is absolutely no trust any more – no one would put it past them to record the conversation and use it in a new interview or an upcoming production.”
Indeed, Woman’s Day is told that as part of the couple’s lucrative deal with Netflix, Harry is considering making a movie version of his memoir, with Meghan in the director’s chair.
Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie – a sympathetic journalist to the pair – has confirmed they have “big projects in store” at the streaming giant.
“That is not what anyone at the palace needs or wants to hear,” says a source.