ROYAL FAMILY NEWSPrince William Stays Away From King Charles' Secluded Highgrove Reunion With Prince Harry, Meghan Meghan, Archie and Lilibet
King Charles reunited privately with Prince Harry and his family.
July 17 2026, Published 9:29 a.m. ET
King Charles has reunited with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their children in a major private step for a royal family still living with years of strain.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that Charles, 77, and Queen Camilla, 78, hosted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, at Highgrove House on Friday, July 10. The palace described the meeting at the King’s private Gloucestershire home as a “private family occasion.”
The reunion marked King Charles' first meeting with his grandchildren in years.
It was the first time the King had seen Archie and Lilibet in person in more than four years. Harry and Meghan had not been in the U.K. together since 2022, when they attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
A Private Setting for a Public Family
The Highgrove provided a private setting for the royal meeting.
Highgrove was a meaningful choice for the reunion. The estate has long been considered Charles’ beloved country retreat, offering the family privacy away from the formality and scrutiny of Buckingham Palace.
No photos from the gathering are expected.
Meghan and the children are believed to have arrived in Britain from a European vacation on Thursday night. Harry traveled to the U.K. earlier in the week for public engagements tied to WellChild and the Invictus Games.
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Why Highgrove Mattered
Prince William did not attend the family reunion.
The location also made practical sense. Harry spent Friday morning in Birmingham for the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games, putting him less than two hours from Highgrove. Charles traveled there after morning engagements in Oxfordshire.
The setting may have carried personal weight for Harry, too. In his memoir Spare, he recalled Highgrove fondly and revealed that he and Prince William had a favorite teenage hideaway there: a basement bomb shelter retreat known as “Club H.”
“Club H was the perfect hideout for a teenager, but especially this teenager,” Harry wrote. “When I wanted peace, Club H provided. When I wanted mischief, Club H was the safest place to act out. When I wanted solitude, what better than a bomb shelter in the British countryside?”
He added, “Willy felt the same.”
A Family Rift Still Remains
The brothers' strained relationship remained unresolved.
The reunion comes after years of strained relations following Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duty in 2020. Sources said father and son wanted to meet this week and that Charles was eager to see his young grandchildren.
Still, the wider family picture remains unresolved. While Harry and his family were at Highgrove, William was playing in a charity polo match in Windsor. The brothers’ relationship remains broken, and there were no plans for them to meet during the Sussexes’ visit.
The trip had already been marked by disputes over security for Mghan and the children in London and confusion over whether the family would stay at Buckingham Palace. At Highgrove, the public drama gave way to a private family reunion years in the making.
