Mail: Prince Harry ‘expects to be let back in’ & thinks the Windsors ‘need him’

For some people, there seems to be a sense of disbelief that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s office is briefing certain reporters behind-the-scenes, without putting their names on anything or speaking on-the-record. Harry and Meghan abandoned their stance of “you should only believe it when we say it directly” a few years back though – around 2024, that was when their office began to get much more proactive about briefing H&M’s perspectives, thoughts and updates. As a longtime royal-report reader, I can tell the difference between stories sourced through Prince William’s camp versus King Charles’ camp versus Team Sussex. Currently, Team Sussex has hand-picked several reporters from the Telegraph, People Magazine, the BBC and a few other outlets to get their perspective across. I do not believe Team Sussex is talking to anyone at the Daily Mail, although the Mail is definitely doing too much to convince everyone that they have Sussex insiders. Speaking of, the Mail’s Alison Boshoff has yet another exclusive full of Sussex drama. Some highlights:

Team Sussex’s pushback on the palace’s status-clarification letter: Via [Harry’s] press team (he has a communications expert in London and a team in California) the Prince was stung into strikingly peevish public criticism of the Palace. ‘The duke is understood to have taken particular issue with the notion that the couple were to be treated as private citizens. If that were the case, it was claimed, such formal guidance would not be required. The Sussexes prefer the term “public figures”, and would have liked an acknowledgement that, on a personal level, they remained members of the Royal Family, despite no longer receiving public funding,’ said a Sussex source.

Harry’s friends say that he expected big drama around his return: Now those very same friends are briefing that Harry ‘always expected’ a row like this one to be the outcome. After all, they say, he was briefed against by the Palace machine ‘for years’ when he and Meghan were living in the UK. They say he views this week’s developments as just yet more of the same. ‘He is not surprised,’ a friend tells me. ‘Remember, this is a couple who had briefing after briefing after briefing against them from parts of the establishment. They had really prepared themselves for this outcome before they came back. They were always expecting it.’

What does Harry really want? What then is Harry trying to achieve? Says another source, bluntly: ‘Look, they expect to be let back in. Harry expects they [the Royal Family] need him. He and Meghan have nothing else going for them. They’ve burned every bridge in America.’

Meghan’s possible October event: As for Meghan, she’s apparently eyeing the prospect of being invited to the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Phantom of the Opera in London on October 9. This would send a bit of a message as Lord Lloyd-Webber and King Charles are close. As a former actress, a re-entry into British showbusiness would make sense for her.

Team Sussex briefing storm around the palace’s letter: As you might expect, this briefing of such minutiae, and in such bad grace, has only served to shred what remains of relations between the Palace communications team and the Sussexes. Sources close to the Palace, who were ‘weary and wary’ before their return, have rather had their point made for them about the sheer impossibility of navigating a working relationship with the Sussexes. The mood music is very much: ‘Will they never learn?’ From the Palace side, I’m told the intention on Monday had only been to ‘clarify’ that the Megxit deal as struck in 2020 still held, despite the new circumstance of the couple and their children Archie and Lilibet returning to the UK and enrolling the children in schools.

Harry & Meghan’s royal cosplay: One observer says: ‘Harry and Meghan’s philanthropic activities are so close to the royal playbook. They go on “royal” tours abroad, they lay wreaths, they meet local consular staff, they make speeches which closely echo sentiments expressed by the King. Now that they are back in Britain, can the public really be expected to remember that Harry is a member of the Royal Family, who is acting like a working royal, but isn’t? It feels like nonsense.’ A source close to the Sussexes believes this confusion is actually what the couple are counting on and forms part of the strategic thinking behind the return – which is, surely, a high-stakes tactic.

Team Sussex is miserable: The source says: ‘Ultimately their PR is disastrous every time and I hear that the team are utterly miserable. It all looks awful. The spinning is unbelievable – so sloppy and I cannot believe that they offered (off-the-record) quotes in response to the King’s letter. What it shows is that they’re assuming the King would change his mind about sticking to the Sandringham summit rather than holding the line.’

Life in the Cotswolds: They’ve not been spotted out and about, which is apparently a deliberate move. Home for now is a ‘cottage’ on the estate of a wealthy friend, about which I’m told: ‘You or I would call it a massive house but they call it a cottage.’ The Sussex friend adds: ‘I think they’re both feeling largely very positive and are really excited about the new chapter. They have minimal plans between now and Christmas and the aim is to be quiet.’

The Birmingham Invictus Games: There also remains a heavy focus on plans for the Invictus Games next year. It’s thought he was filming some material for sponsors at the Tower Bridge Studios this week. Indeed, plans for the Games are at a crucial point, with Prince Harry and the team seeking further corporate sponsorship. One of their major sponsors, Boeing, opted not to renew after the event in Vancouver in 2025. Another sponsor is Netflix, who recently downgraded Harry and Meghan’s deal to a ‘first look’ arrangement, and who dropped out of their commercial partnership with As Ever. Some say that Harry needs to get around £20 million in sponsorship to ‘save’ the Games in the coming months.

The Sussexes will go back to California for a visit soon: At the end of October, the Sussex family will return to California for half term week, and then batten down the hatches for another five weeks in the UK before they go back to America for a longer spell over Christmas. Harry believes that by then a Home Office review will have changed his security status. ‘He thinks he is going to get some kind of increased security after the review,’ says his friend. That might, alone, allow this messy re-entry to count as a success rather than a humiliating mess. But then, as one rather cynical associate from California put it: ‘They aren’t relevant unless they are causing trouble.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This is a buffet – you can choose what to believe or not believe. I believe that Harry was more optimistic about his return, and he really thought he was achieving a half-in royal status through the backdoor. I believe that Harry has a high tolerance for his family’s humiliation rituals and this must feel like a giddy and catastrophic relapse for him. I believe that Harry and Meghan’s current communications team is doing an absolutely awful job, and the furious Sussex briefings over the clarification letter were a PR disaster for them. Like, people should have been fired over that. I do not believe that the Sussexes had to return to the UK because they made a hash of things in America – that’s wishful thinking from Boshoff and the Windsors. I also don’t think Meghan is going to start popping up at random events in London.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.