On Saturday, The Royalist reported that the Duchess of Sussex was planning a return to the United Kingdom as soon as this summer.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry said the report was pure speculation. The London Sunday Times is now carrying a closely aligned story.
The Sunday Times does not go into the same level of detail as The Sun, which suggested Meghan could be back in the U.K. in preparation for the Invictus Games in July 2027. But it does make clear that Meghan plans to return to the U.K. as part of any new deal Prince Harry reaches with the British government over his security arrangements.
A source is quoted as saying of Meghan: “I think she would come back with him and the children. They love to do stuff as a family whenever they can, and when they do things philanthropically, they often take the kids along privately. I can’t see a reason why he’d come over with the kids without her.”
That is a significant statement. It also goes a long way toward explaining an intriguing story in The Mail on Sunday: that Prince William has added an experienced crisis manager, Liza Ravenscroft, to his PR team. Ravenscroft, described by a former boss as “bulletproof sunshine,” runs Edelman’s UK crisis and issues team, and has a résumé built around working “arm in arm with big names facing into the toughest times.”
Kensington Palace has been keen to stress that Ravenscroft will be operating in a “non-crisis” role. However, it seems clear that William can see at least the possibility of a crisis looming, and that crisis is the fallout from Harry regaining his security and effectively re-establishing a court in the U.K.
There have been countervailing stories, including a Times report suggesting that nothing about the security decision is “nailed on.”
That is true. As we have made clear on our YouTube channel, there is no way this was settled over Christmas. The claim that it was “nailed on” emerged on the first Sunday of the New Year, when the offices of the U.K. Home Office had essentially been closed for several days.
But that does not change the broader reality of being able to see which way the wind is blowing, and the wind appears to be blowing firmly in Harry’s favor.
He has the UK government-mandated security review, increased media coverage arguing he should have his security reinstated, and a PR operation seeking (with some success) to frame this outcome as fair and just.
Harry’s team might be running the flag up the hill prematurely, but it would be naive to ignore the overall direction of travel. Harry has spent years, and millions of pounds, fighting for this security review. It is hard to believe he would have pursued it so relentlessly if he did not believe the assessment would lead to his protection being restored.
Of course, you can say this is simply his PR team attempting to shape the narrative. Well, placing a narrative in the media until it hardens into received opinion is a core PR technique.
There are many strands to this story: speculation about Meghan returning, speculation about the children returning, the absence of any serious attempt by the King’s office to shut down stories that Harry could open the Invictus Games alongside his father, and William’s apparent move to bolster crisis management expertise.
When you weave the strands together, it becomes hard to avoid the conclusion that preparations are indeed underway for Harry to get his security back and set up a bigger Sussex franchise in the U.K.
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