As Prince William and Princess Kate enjoy their summer break on the Balmoral estate with King Charles and other members of the Royal Family, no doubt the biggest conversation around the dinner table is Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming move. The couple, who have lived in Montecito, California for the past six years, are making a surprise relocation to Britain this month—and for William especially, it creates a sticky situation.
The Princes of Wales has not been on speaking terms with his brother in years, and the two avoided each other at their uncle Lord Fellowes’s 2024 funeral, the last time they were seen in public together. William also did not head to Highgrove House this July when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children reunited with King Charles and Queen Camilla for the first time in four years.
But now that Harry and Meghan will be living nearby, it opens the door for them to attend Royal Family events like vacations at Balmoral and Christmas at Sandringham once again. It’s a situation that royal author and journalist Robert Jobson says must “be difficult” for the Prince of Wales.
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The princes did not publicly interact during their grandmother Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022.
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“Are they really going to have William and Harry sitting round a table with all that’s gone on?” Jobson told Hello! magazine, adding, “I feel that William must be slightly aghast by the whole thing.”
The royal biographer pointed out that King Charles might be “hoping that it will be a chance for reconciliation,” but noted the move will likely prove to “be very difficult for The King.”
“On one level he will reconnect. On another level it will make things complicated for him,” Jobson continued. “It will muddy the waters.”
Prince William and Prince Harry attend the opening of the Greenhouse Sports Centre in 2018.
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An ocean has separated the brothers for the past six years, but with the Sussexes set to establish a non-royal residence in the U.K. this month, former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt pointed out that Harry’s “presence back home will make it harder for his brother to duck a reconciliation.”
“The surprise return of Harry and Meghan is likely to have left William apoplectic,” Hunt added, per the Daily Mail.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have enrolled their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, at a British school, but any details about where they’ll be living are being kept tightly under wraps—at least for now.
