King Charles reunites with Harry, Meghan and grandchildren in long-awaited family meeting

After weeks of speculation, King Charles has been reunited with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and his two youngest grandchildren for the first time in four years.

The King and Queen Camilla hosted the Sussex family at Highgrove House on Friday, Buckingham Palace confirmed, with Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, seeing their grandfather for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.

However, no photographs from the reunion are expected to be released, with Buckingham Palace describing the meeting as a private family occasion.

People reported Meghan and the children travelled to the UK from Europe, where the family had been holidaying before Harry returned to Britain earlier this week for charity engagements and events marking one year until the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.

The private family gathering marks a significant moment in the royal family’s long-running estrangement after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior working royals in 2020 and relocated to California.

Harry’s most recent meeting with his father came in September last year, when he spent about an hour with the King at Clarence House in London.

This followed a “fantastic” visit between the Sussexes and the then-Prince Charles in 2022, during the late Queen’s Jubilee.

“The prince was delighted to see his grandson and meet his granddaughter for the first time,” a royal source said at the time, adding it was “wonderful” to have the Duke and Duchess of Sussex back in the UK.

Harry has since spoken about wanting to repair his relationship with his family.

In a BBC interview earlier this year, the prince said he “would love reconciliation” and acknowledged that whether that happened was “entirely up to” his family.

The meeting came after days of uncertainty over whether Meghan and the children would travel to Britain at all amid ongoing concerns about security arrangements.

Plans appeared to change several times throughout Harry’s visit before the family ultimately travelled to Gloucestershire for the private gathering.

Royal commentator Victoria Arbiter told nine.com.au earlier this week that she would be “very surprised” if, after all their efforts, the Sussexes did not meet the King during the trip.

“[When] you remove all the pomp and ceremony, you remove everything, this is still a father and a son,” she said.

“I think the King is very aware of his own health crisis, and the fact that geography makes it very complicated and it makes it very difficult for him to be able to see his son.”