Queen 'has invited Prince Harry to lunch at Windsor Castle' when he returns to the UK for Diana statue unveiling

Queen Elizabeth has reportedly invited Prince Harry for lunch at Windsor Castle when he returns to the UK next month.

While it might seem like the British Royal Family's version of a simple grandmother-grandson catch-up, it marks the first private meeting between the pair since Megxit.

"It's a typically magnanimous gesture by Her Majesty,' a courtier told UK newspaper Daily Mail.

"The lunch will be a chance for them to talk things through."

Prince Harry is due to return around the end of the month, ahead of the unveiling of a statue of his mother, Princess Diana, on July 1 - what would have been her 60th birthday.

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Flying in from the US, the Duke of Sussex will be required to spend up to 10 days quarantining at his Frogmore Cottage home.

He may be able to exit quarantine early if a COVID-19 test on day five is negative, as he did for Prince Philip's funeral in April.

Harry and Meghan's UK home is moments away from where the Queen is currently residing, at Windsor Castle.

There was initially some doubt as to whether the Duke of Sussex would be able to return for the unveiling of the statue, commissioned by Princes William and Harry in 2017, due to his daughter's impending birth.

However, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor's arrival on June 4 means he should be able to travel for the momentous occasion, which has been years in the planning.

He would also no doubt want to show photos of the newborn to his 95-year-old grandmother, who Lili is named after.

READ MORE: Prince Harry told the Queen about daughter's birth and her 'very intimate' name

Other than brief family moments during his quick visit for Prince Philip's funeral, the Queen and Prince Harry haven't had an in-person meeting since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit their royal roles and left for North America back in March 2020.

Prior to that, the biggest meeting the pair would have had was the January 2020 meeting dubbed "Sandringham Summit", which discussed the couple's terms of exit.

The grandmother and grandson have remained in touch across the Atlantic.

Harry told James Corden, during an interview which aired in February this year, that he video called regularly with the Queen and Prince Philip.

"They've seen Archie running around," he said.

Her Majesty even asked over a video call what to get Harry and Meghan's son Archie, two, for Christmas — sending over a waffle maker to their Montecito home after Meghan suggested the kitchen appliance.

"So breakfast now, Meg makes up a beautiful organic mix, in the waffle maker ... out it comes, he loves it," Harry said.

"Archie wakes up in the morning and literally just goes, 'Waffle?'"

It will however be the first time Harry sees his grandmother since the release of his mental health docuseries with Oprah Winfrey, The Me You Don't See, which was filled with bombshell revelations of his life as a young royal.

Harry also recently compared growing up in the royal family to "a mix of being in The Truman Show and being in the zoo", during an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast with American actor Dax Shepard.