Harry and Meghan Markle return to the UK for brief visit

After the high drama of their very public royal Megxit, it was a low-key reunion behind the walls of Windsor Castle for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with the Queen of England on Thursday.

Harry and Meghan Markle did not announce their visit to the UK in advance. This marks the first visit by the duchess to Europe in the two years since the couple left the UK in March 2020 and unshackled themselves from formal royal life. But being that this would have been classed as a family occasion, “like all private get-togethers”, and not an official engagement, we would not have been had the advance warning, according to Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine.

“A very welcome if long overdue move on the part of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” he said of the meeting, which came one week before the Queen’s 96th birthday next Thursday.

The couple is also understood to have met Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, who were at Windsor for the Maundy Thursday service at which Charles stood in for the Queen.