The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to bring Archie and Lilibet to the UK in July, setting up Prince Harry’s first visit to Britain with his family in four years. The trip would bring the couple’s two children back to Harry’s home country while one of the biggest questions around the visit remains unresolved: whether King Charles will see his grandchildren.
Archie is seven and Lilibet is five, and Charles last saw them during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022. Harry and the king were last face to face in September at Clarence House, after a previous meeting in February 2024, and the possibility of another reunion has kept attention on the planned trip.
Harry, who lives in California, has said he wants a reconciliation with the Royal Family and met Charles at Clarence House in London last September. That outreach sits alongside a harder reality. His security was downgraded after he stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2020 and moved to the US, and in May he lost a legal case to have police protection restored when visiting the UK.
After that ruling, Harry said it was not safe to bring his family back to the country of his birth because he could not guarantee their safety. The uncertainty over security is still hanging over the July visit, and it is not yet known whether Charles will meet Archie and Lilibet while they are in Britain.
The trip is also tied to next month’s event marking the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games, the wounded military competition Harry founded in London in 2014. During that visit, he is also due to see several of his remaining patronages, including WellChild and Scotty’s Little Soldiers, before the focus shifts to Birmingham, where the Games are scheduled for 2027.
For now, the July plan gives the Royal Family a chance of a small thaw after years of distance. Whether it becomes a family reunion, though, depends on the security arrangements still under review.
