Harry and Meghan taking break from public life so they don’t ‘overshadow the royal family’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are taking a break from public engagements for the next few weeks to ensure attention isn’t taken away from the working members of the royal family.

King Charles is currently on a nine-day tour of the Caribbean, which has been described by some as potentially being “the most difficult royal tour of his reign”.

The monarch began his royal visit in the Bahamas on Wednesday by acknowledging “the great suffering of the past” in a speech within hours of landing.

He arrived in the region amid growing calls for Britain to make reparations for its historic role in the transatlantic slave trade.

King Charles’ Caribbean tour will conclude with his address at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda next week.

The issue of slavery reparations will be discussed when King Charles joins leaders at the summit, including Britain’s prime minister who has already ruled out reparations.

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Sources close to Prince Harry and Meghan told The Times the king’s visit to the Caribbean was a factor in the duke not scheduling any coming events.

He and Meghan are spending time with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, during the half-term school break, the publication reports.

The couple is expected to make at least one more joint appearance before Christmas.

A source close to the couple told The Times: “Harry doesn’t set out with an intention to try to pull focus or draw attention away from what his father is doing or what his brother is doing.

“Obviously with the King going to CHOGM and the Prince and Princess of Wales going to India, he knows about those things and he is obviously mindful of that as he’s planning his own activities as well.”

They added: “He can only mitigate against clashes if information is shared with him in advance. Some information is shared with him but not all information is and that’s fine.”

The Prince of Wales is preparing to fly to India for his Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in mid-November.

The Princess of Wales is expected to join her husband for the ceremony in Mumbai, marking her return to the event for the first time since 2022 when it took place in Boston.

Prince Harry and Meghan, who are not working members of the royal family, carried out a joint engagement in Nottingham on October 15 − their first since moving back to the UK in late August.

On the same day, King Charles and Queen Camilla were opening parliament in Wales while the Prince and Princess of Wales were in Cornwall.

An interview by Prince Harry, in which he called for reconciliation with his family, was published by GQ on the same day the royals hosted a state visit by the Sultan of Oman at Windsor last week.

Earlier this week it was revealed that Meghan would be relocating to Australia early next year for several weeks.

The duchess will co-host Junior MasterChef Australia alongside Poh Ling Yeow, a series which has been on hiatus since 2020.

A decision on whether Prince Harry, and their two children − who are seven and five − will join the duchess in Australia has not been made.

During Prince Harry and Meghan’s four-day visit to Australia in April, the duchess took a short break from the itinerary to appear as a guest judge on the adult version of the show.