It has been a long time.
Too long, really.
Prince Archie is seven. Lilibet is four. They have not seen their grandfather since the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. A lot happens in two years. Faces change. Feelings harden or soften, or maybe they just freeze in place until someone forces them to thaw.
This summer, that ice might crack.
The Scottish solution
Royal author Ingrid Seward floated an idea in May that makes practical sense if not emotional sense. King Charles could invite Harry and his family to Balmoral in Scotland.
It is the only place that works.
Think about it. The King has time there. The estate is vast, dotted with cottages. No need to cram the Sussexes into a guest wing of the castle and risk an awkward dinner table. Seward told The Mirror that it is “the only time the King has time” and that the logistics actually hold up.
“It’s not that difficult, and can be done fairly under the radical.”
She didn’t say “radical,” but the vibe is quiet. Discreet. Away from the cameras and the pundits shouting at screens in London.
There is a problem with any visit involving Prince Harry. Prince William. His wife Kate. Their kids. They usually go to Balmoral too.
The tension is palpable. Thick enough to spread on toast. So, Seward suggests a workaround: stagger the visits. Let the King host one set, then the other. Harry doesn’t even need to stay in the main castle, though he’d expect it. He could stay elsewhere on the estate.
It keeps the peace. Or at least keeps the drama contained within a geographic bubble in the Scottish Highlands.
Security and silence
Security is often the excuse for staying away.
Or at least, it’s the headline reason Harry gives for not bringing his children to the UK. Crowds. Protests. The safety of two very public toddlers.
But at a royal residence? The problem dissolves.
Seward notes that if the Sussexes stay at Balmoral, they get “full security.” No random paparazzi with telephoto lenses creeping through hedgerows. Just the King’s protection. It removes the primary logistical barrier to Harry returning with Archie and Lilibet.
It sounds clean on paper.
In practice? It’s still high stakes.
A hope from the other side of the Atlantic
Harry has wanted this for a while.
Back in January, he apparently hoped King Charles’s upcoming US visit would create an opening. The King is supposed to travel there in April. A meeting on neutral ground? A quick photo op?
It didn’t happen. The schedules didn’t align. Or someone chose not to make them align.
Still, Harry isn’t giving up on the idea. Not entirely.
He spoke to the BBC in May 2025, and the words were telling.
“I would love reconciliation with my family.”
He added that continuing to fight is pointless. Life is precious. That’s the sort of sentence people write on greeting cards after a divorce is finalized, but said out loud by a royal? It carries weight.
The ball is in Charles’s court now.
He holds the key to the cottage. He controls the calendar.
Harry wants a relationship. Not for the tabloids. Not for the brand deals.
For the kids. For himself, presumably.
Summer is coming.
The air in Scotland will cool.
Whether the fences will be lowered remains to be seen. But the invitation, Seward insists, is realistic.
