Long-term, I can’t escape the gut-feeling that the Sussexes’ visit to Highgrove will end up being more trouble than it’s worth. On Friday, Prince Harry spent much of the day in Birmingham for the Invictus One Year to Go events, then he slipped away with his team. They apparently met with Meghan and the children, and they all traveled together to Highgrove, where they spent a few hours (??) with King Charles and Camilla. No one is saying that the Sussexes spent the night at Highgrove. I think it’s very likely that they went straight from Highgrove to Althorp, actually, and that they based themselves out of Althorp from Friday through the weekend (minus some goat yoga for Harry on Saturday). So, how were the Sussexes able to slip into Highgrove unnoticed, even with royal reporters stalking their every move? The Daily Mail tried to answer that question with this piece: “Inside Charles’s reunion with Harry, Meghan and their kids: How they used a Highgrove lunch for Chanel students to hide the private meeting… and why the Sussexes were full of smiles during the trip.”
As a procession of luxury cars swept through the gates of the King’s estate in Gloucestershire on Friday – carrying guests for an exclusive Chanel luncheon – one vehicle attracted little attention. Inside were Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, who had arrived at Highgrove for a private family meeting.
Far from the cameras and public gaze, the Sussexes entered Charles’s 900-acre site unnoticed as dozens of guests turned up for the French fashion house’s event to honour students who had completed an elite 24-week embroidery course.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘There were a large number of cars coming and going from Highgrove for the Chanel event which allowed the Sussexes’ car to blend in and helped them to enter the estate without being spotted.’
Harry and his family are believed to have met King Charles and Queen Camilla between 3.30pm and 4pm, remaining with the couple for more than an hour. The gathering was particularly significant because it marked the first time that Meghan, Archie and Lilibet had seen the 77-year-old monarch – who is still undergoing treatment for cancer – in person since 2022.
Earlier in the day, there had been clues that something important was unfolding when Harry arrived at an engagement for the Invictus Games at the National Exhibition Centre, near Birmingham. An observer said: ‘Harry turned up at Invictus with a massive smile plastered all over his face. Everybody was looking absolutely delighted. It wasn’t just acting. Liam [Maguire], his UK aide, looked absolutely like the cat that had got the cream as well. Then rumours started to go round that they were going to Highgrove.’
The family reunion at Highgrove had clearly put Harry in high spirits following a week dominated by negative headlines, including a row over his security and a crushing defeat in his court case over privacy against the Daily Mail.
This weekend, the Sussexes are believed to be staying at the Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire – the ancestral home of Princess Diana’s family and where she is buried on a private island in the middle of a lake.
I love how this quote is clearly from one of the royal reporters covering the Invictus event: “Harry turned up at Invictus with a massive smile plastered all over his face. Everybody was looking absolutely delighted…” They were so mad that Harry wasn’t broken by his legal defeat, and that he kept on doing his events with a smile on his face. They had been telling themselves that they finally got him, that they had finally “beaten” him. Besides, I’m pretty sure Harry was super-happy because he was around the Invictus community, not because his deadbeat father agreed to see him at the last minute. As for the Chanel event at Highgrove, it actually sounds like the Mail’s editors are fuming because they didn’t get photos of the Sussexes in the car or heading into Highgrove. This is the equivalent of “the dog ate my homework” from Charlotte Griffiths and Caroline Graham (who cowrote this piece) – they’re furiously trying to explain why they didn’t get photos or insider information. It was the Chanel event!! WE SWEAR!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Meghan’s Instagram.
