This week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex traveled to Jordan for a two-day humanitarian trip at the invitation of the World Health Organization. WHO harnessed Prince Harry and Meghan’s star power to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Jordan’s refugee camps, and WHO’s programs and associations within Jordan. When Harry and Meghan’s team announced the trip one day before their arrival in Jordan, they emphasized that it was all about WHO and the Sussexes were not undertaking this visit at the behest of the British government or Buckingham Palace. They could not have made that any clearer. And yet, the reaction to the Jordanian trip has been nothing but nonstop tantrums coming directly from Prince William and his team. William wants the Sussexes’ titles removed! How dare H&M act like royals! How dare H&M visit another country, don’t they know that’s William and Kate’s job (except W&K refuse to do it). Why aren’t Harry & Meghan calling this a royal tour! And now, there’s this epic stupidity from William’s camp: Harry and Meghan were snubbed by Jordan’s royal family!
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been snubbed by the Jordanian King and Crown Prince during their whistle stop pseudo-royal tour to the Middle East. Harry and Meghan landed in the capital Amman late on Tuesday night and within hours began a series of humanitarian visits to various charity organisations – providing countess photo opportunities.
Royal insiders said that the couple’s high profile visit to Jordan has been ‘embarrassing’ for King Charles III and it follows closely on the heels of other ‘worthy’ visits to Nigeria and Colombia. The current king of Jordan, Abdullah II, has strong ties to the British Royal family and is close to King Charles. Their relationship is so close King Abdullah and his wife Queen Rania were special VVIP guests at the coronation and Queen Rania has also had several meetings with Queen Camilla to discuss woman’s issues. Their son Crown Prince Hussein is also friends with Prince William, spending time together in recent years in Britain and Jordan, from watching the football together to a joint visit to a RAF base. The Prince and Princess of Wales also attended Hussein’s wedding in 2023.
But despite Harry and Meghan being in Amman, a source in Jordan told the Daily Mail: ‘There is no meeting scheduled between the Duke and Duchess [of Sussex] and the Jordanian Royal Family.’
The only member of the Jordanian Royal Family Harry and Meghan met briefly was Princess Basma Bint Talal, an aunt of the current King during a visit to a venture run by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development.
Indeed, King Abdullah appears to have deliberately swerved any public meeting with the California based couple – instead choosing to meet Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. While in another seemingly apparent rebuff, King Abdullah met the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is leading the Duke and Duchess trip to Jordan. Official photographs showed King Abdullah at talks with the WHO chief as well as a sizeable party of delegates but Meghan and Harry were nowhere to be seen. This is despite the Sussexes’ own charity Archewell Philanthropies partnering with the WHO.
Another source in Jordan told the Daily Mail: ‘The fact the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t met King Abdullah and been given the traditional royal welcome is glaringly obvious. There has been no red carpet treatment, even though King Abdullah has met officials from the World Health Origination have been behind this visit by the Duke and Duchess. It’s well known that King Abdullah and King Charles have a very warm relationship and that was passed down through the friendship between the late Queen Elizabeth and King Abdullah’s father.’
A third royal insider said Harry and Meghan may be disappointed not to have been able to meet the King or Crown Prince of Jordan. ‘It’s a pseudo royal visit, mimicking many of the things they or William and Kate would have done when they were part of the Firm but it seems to be lacking in the ceremonial side of things’, the source said.
On whether the tensions between the Sussexes and Windsors have played a part, a third source added: ‘William’s certainly close to the Crown Prince. They watched England beat Panama in a World Cup game together on TV in the Crown Prince’s “man cave” in the basement of the King and Queen’s palace in Amman in 2018. William and Kate went to the Crown Prince’s wedding to Rajwa in June 2023. In October last year William and the Crown Prince went on a joint visit to RAF Benson. Charles and the King are also pretty close. Is it a snub? Harry and Meghan have met heads of state or other dignitaries on previous trips so you might expect it on this one’.
But the insider said it may never be known if this was a deliberate snub or a diary clash, for example. However, Harry and Meghan were met by British diplomats in Amman, it has emerged.
Given what we know about how the Windsors operate, I’m going to take a guess that as soon as the Sussexes’ trip was announced, courtiers from multiple royal courts begged King Abdullah not to meet with Harry and Meghan. That’s what happened with Joe Biden as well – the palace repeatedly begged President Biden and his administration not to meet with the Sussexes or invite them to the White House or platform them in any way. Whenever the Brits did that, they would always leak it as some kind of “win” against the Sussexes too, like “hey, we used our political capital to beg the White House to snub a prince and his Black wife!” The British royals and the British government also used their political capital to beg Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy not to meet with Harry, or if they did meet, not publish photos of the meeting.
But the larger reason why Harry and Meghan didn’t meet with King Abdullah or the Crown Prince is because THIS WAS NOT A ROYAL TOUR. Harry and Meghan were not greeted by representatives of Jordan’s head of state, they did not coordinate their visit with King Abdullah’s office, they were not there as representatives of Britain. They were there for a purely humanitarian visit through their work with WHO. But it’s endlessly amusing that the British embassy went ahead and hosted a reception for them anyway. William was probably punching walls about that.
Oh btw Harry & Meghan did meet with some Jordanian royals.
The Duke & Duchess of Sussex were hosted by both HRH Princess Ghida Talal of Jordan & HRH Princess Basma bint Talal of the Jordanian Royal Family
#HarryandMeghaninJordan pic.twitter.com/9PERt32Zyp
— montecito royals (@house_of_sussex) February 26, 2026
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
