Sussexes decline Balmoral invitation

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have turned down an invitation from the Queen to join her at Balmoral, it has emerged.

They were, it was said, going to delay their visit until the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had been and gone. And now they are not going at all.

In what one newspaper described as a ‘‘snub’’ – and definitely was not, according to a royal source – the couple have decided that this is not the year for the duchess to make her first visit to the Queen’s Scottish retreat.

Last year Harry and Meghan visited Birkhall, the Prince of Wales’s home on the Balmoral estate, and the Castle of Mey, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s former home in Caithness. It is not known whether they visited the Queen at Balmoral while they were at Birkhall.

According to The Sun, the couple decided not to travel to the estate this summer because four-monthold Archie was too young.

However, it was noted that the couple took their son with them when they celebrated the duchess’s 38th birthday in Ibiza last month, and also when they joined Sir Elton John in the south of France later in August. The newspaper quoted a source as saying: ‘‘She [the duchess] has never been to Balmoral and the Queen was disappointed they’re not going.’’

The Queen always asks all her family to join her at Balmoral, where she stays for two months every summer. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took their three children last month, flying to Aberdeen on the budget airline Flybe.

Other members of the royal family said to have stayed at Balmoral this year include the Princess Royal; the Duke of York and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York; their daughters the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie; and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

Picnics and country walks form the backbone of a stay there but salmon fishing in the Dee and grouse shooting are also on offer: one theory is that Meghan, who is firmly against blood sports, may not find such pursuits attractive. Diana, Princess of Wales, hated the place. According to Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles, ‘‘the formality of Balmoral’s intractable routine made Diana desperate’’.

A royal source said that it would be unfair to paint the Sussexes’ decision not to go to Balmoral as a snub. – The Times