Prince Harry and Meghan Markle news: why Australian tour may derail chance of reconciliation with King Charles

Harry and Meghan’s non-royal royal tour of Australia may have been hailed as a success by the couple, but it could derail any chance of making amends with the royal family.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in Australia from April 14 to 17 for a mix of philanthropic and attempts to make moneywhich would have made the palace very wary.

But with Prince Harry reportedly struggling to get an invite for himself and his family to the Sandringham estate over the British summer, a royal expert believes extending an olive branch to the Sussexes could help King Charles finally get on better terms with his son.

Royal journalist Richard Palmer said The mirror that a personal reunion at Sandringham could be the only solution if the king wants to have a relationship with Harry and his grandchildren.

“Spending a few days together at Sandringham or another royal residence could allow for some sort of showdown that clears the air,” Palmer said.

“Many in the outside world think that they all have to move on and that even though things will never be the same, they can have some kind of more normal relationship.

“The king finds it incredibly painful that he cannot see his grandchildren, but is very cautious about re-establishing a relationship.”

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King Charles reportedly last saw his youngest son’s two children in June 2022, when the Sussexes traveled to Britain for the late queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.

The couple used the timing of the event to hold a first birthday party for Princess Lilibet at their former home, Frogmore Cottage, in Windsor, but no senior members of the royal family attended.

Instead, King Charles reportedly met his granddaughter, who was born in the US a year earlier, on the same trip, and also reconnected with his grandson, Prince Archie, who was three at the time.

King Charles last met Prince Harry at Clarence House in September 2025, when his son was in town for the WellChild Awards.

The meeting, which became public when Prince Harry arrived at the king’s home in London, is said to have lasted just 50 minutes.

The King and Queen Camilla are currently in Washington, US, on a four-day state visit, but are not believed to be traveling across the country to see the Sussexes.

Instead, the best chance for a reunion will be in July, when the Duke is expected to travel to Birmingham, England, for a year-long event until the 2027 Invictus Games.

Palmer said that the “people around” the king believe that “some sort of accommodation needs to be achieved” between the king and Harry.

“Maybe the way to do that is to have them all come together, away from the cameras, have them all say the things that need to be said, and spend some quality time together and become a family again,” he said.

But one major stumbling block that could prevent this is the Sussex’s recent trip to Australia.

The ‘non-royal royal tour’ was believed to have raised concerns among members of the royal family, particularly in relation to its commercial nature.

A major concern was Meghan’s decision to use the tour to launch a partnership with AI fashion platform OneOff.

The Telegraph in Britain, it was reported that alarm bells were ringing in royal circles that Meghan was making money from a retail platform built around the outfits she wore to charity activities.

Among Meghan’s “looks” on the app is the outfit she wore during their first stop on the tour: a trip to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne to meet patients.

She even offered up the look for her visit to Bondi to meet survivors of the mass shooting.

While the landing page for OneOff lists her as ‘Meghan’, click the link and you’ll see she’s also called ‘Duchess of Sussex’.

This kind of commercialization of royal titles was something the late queen wanted to avoid when the couple first announced in January 2020 that they were stepping down as working members of the royal family to forge their own paths.

It was one of the sticking points that emerged at the so-called Sandringham Summit that took place later that month and forced them to abandon their lofty idea of ​​a half-in, half-out approach to royal life.

As part of the final agreement reached in 2020, Harry and Meghan agreed to no longer use their Duke and Duchess titles for commercial purposes.

Yet they have continued to do so ever since, and according to Palmer, their trip to Australia showed that they “basically got what they wanted, which was to be half in, half out of royal life”.

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Then there were the comments Prince Harry made about his father and late mother, Princess Diana, during his trip to Australia, where King Charles is head of state.

As well as being critical of his father’s parenting, he said in a separate speech that being royal “killed my mother”.

Palmer noted that what Harry said was nothing compared to what he said in the Netflix series or his autobiography Savebut that’s not the problem.

“The monarchy is all about public service, not private gain, and non-working royals who are as famous as Harry and Meghan and appear to be cashing in on their royal status are drawing uncomfortable attention to the palace,” he said.

And although the Sussexes are not funded by the taxpayer, or officially represent Britain, they appear to be making money from things like the ‘quasi-royal tour’.

And that is where the concerns from the palace come from.

It also puts the king in an awkward position if he wants to move forward.

“One of the big risks of them coming to Sandringham and staying with the King and Queen Camilla is that it is a very high-profile trip, and if Meghan is selling replicas of her clothes and Harry is making money from speeches, then the King looks like he is helping them make money,” Palmer said.

“That is a big risk for the monarchy.”

And one that none of the royals are likely to want to take

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