Last Friday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their two children arrived at Highgrove, King Charles’ longtime private estate. According to the Daily Mail’s crack team of incompetents, no one got any photos of Prince Harry, Meghan or the kids coming or going because Highgrove was also hosting a Chanel event that same afternoon. After the meeting, the Sussexes likely headed to Althorp, which is probably where they spent the weekend, with the Spencer family. Since the Friday meeting, all of the vague briefings have come from Buckingham Palace, not Team Sussex. It’s not about “trust,” it’s about control – Charles and Camilla want to control the narrative as much as possible. Well, Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl just got briefed about the meeting and how Charles pulled it off.
King Charles went to great lengths to keep his reunion with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Archie, and Lilibet secret, only telling Queen Camilla the meeting was going ahead so that she could be by his side. According to sources, not even the Prince and Princess of Wales were made aware that the meeting was taking place.
King Charles, who has sworn his youngest son and daughter-in-law to secrecy, insisting that nothing about last Friday’s reunion was leaked, only allowed aides to confirm the reunion had happened once Harry had left Highgrove House without being seen.
According to a source close to the monarch, Friday’s hour-long meeting was “completely cloak-and-dagger, orchestrated by the king.”
“The king wanted to see Harry and the children. A time was agreed for the Sussexes to come to Highgrove on Friday afternoon, and it was uncharacteristically last-minute for the king. Everyone was sworn to secrecy so that the meeting could remain private,” the source tells Vanity Fair.
Queen Camilla, who was nearby at her Ray Mill House estate, drove over to Highgrove for the meeting in “quite a hurry.”
“Charles wanted Camilla to be there for moral support and because she has been a pillar of strength for him throughout all the drama with Harry, and she dropped everything. She told no one, not even her family. She just got in the car and headed over. They were all on a mission to keep the meeting as watertight as possible,” the source says.
While Buckingham Palace confirmed in a brief statement that the meeting had taken place, an aide said no further details or pictures would be released. There has been no word from Prince Harry about the meeting, and Meghan and the children have not been seen since arriving in the UK. While Prince Harry was photographed leaving Althorp, his late mother Princess Diana’s ancestral home, on Friday, there have been no sightings of Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet.
“They are keeping the meeting top secret. They haven’t said anything to anyone,” says a source close to the Sussexes. “The agreement was made before they met the king that nothing would be shared—no photos, no details. It was a top-secret arrangement and they pulled it off, and frankly they are delighted about that. They were at Highgrove for an hour or so, but don’t expect to hear anything about what was said,” the source adds. “That was the promise Harry made to his father. It’s critical because this is the first time the families have met in four years. Harry was very pleased it happened because everything was up in the air.”
The funniest part is that William and Kate were not told in advance. W&K were performing their sad little “inspired by Harry & Meghan” skit at William’s polo game at the same time that Charles met with the Sussexes. Hilarious. Still, imagine the sliding-doors version of the Sussexes’ trip, with Harry securing a secure suite at Buckingham Palace, and Charles actually inviting Meghan and the children to come and spend real time with him. Imagine a different version where Charles failed to even organize this last-minute Highgrove meeting, and what Harry might have said publicly if he called out his deadbeat father once again. Of all of the choices available to Charles, this option was certainly the bare minimum.
It’s crazy that Camilla had to high-tail over to Highgrove from Ray Mill as well, and Camilla is likely the source of this story (in my opinion). “…Because she has been a pillar of strength for him throughout all the drama with Harry, and she dropped everything…” Laying it on thick, Side Chick. By “dropped everything,” she probably means her gin & tonic. Anyway, I hope that Harry has gotten all of this out of his system. I hope the scales have fallen from his eyes.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
