Would Prince Harry and Meghan be welcomed back? We asked Britain

Times

a day ago

It is a Saturday in June 2027, and the crowds have gathered outside Buckingham Palace to see the royal family watch the traditional flypast after Trooping the Colour.
As the family gathers on the balcony, the eyes of the crowd — and, more importantly, the lenses of the photographers — are not focused on the King. They are not even watching Prince Louis, now nine, and still more than capable of stealing the show.
They only have eyes for two people: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, back in the royal fold after years of self-imposed exile in California.
As the Sussexes stand there, Meghan offering her most dazzling smile while Harry yet again finds himself incapable of hiding the hint of a scowl, they are greeted with … well, what, apart from the incessant clicking of camera shutters? Cheers? Boos? Or a confusing mixture of the two? Shockingly, could it even be indifference? The Sussexes are not used to indifference.
That one can even entertain such a fantasy has only been possible in the last week, since photographs were published showing Tobyn Andreae, Buckingham Palace's director of communications, having a meeting with the Sussexes' two most senior PR aides, Meredith Maines, who is also head of their household in Montecito, and Liam Maguire.
It was billed as the tentative first steps in a gradual process of rapprochement — and indeed, after the meeting was leaked to The Mail on Sunday, make that very tentative — aimed at lessening some of the tensions that exist between the palace and California.
But it immediately sparked much speculation about where it might lead. After years of hurling abuse at his family from the other side of the Atlantic, does Harry want to kiss and make up? Might Harry and Meghan be considering coming back to the UK — if not on a permanent basis, then at least for part of the year? Most tantalising of all, could they even be thinking about undertaking occasional royal duties?
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That is all a long way off. Even though Harry has appeared to have been in more conciliatory mood of late — talking of whether his family is prepared to forgive him, rather than peppering every interview with angry demands for apologies from them — neither of them have looked like they are getting ready to move back into Frogmore Cottage any time soon.
'They're very happy living in and raising their family in California and, as it stands, have no plans to leave,' a source close to Harry told the Mail last week.
But the intriguing question is: if they do come back, if only for a bit, how will they go down with the British public? Even if Harry is prepared to forgive and forget, are we?
Up to a point, seems to be the answer.
Nearly a quarter of people (24 per cent) think that it would be a good thing if Harry came back to live in the UK, according to a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times, while 22 per cent think that it would be a bad thing. By far the most common answer is, however, an indifferent one: 41 per cent said they don't care, either way.
But many people really do not like Meghan: 41 per cent think her return would be a bad thing, against 12 per cent who think it would be a good idea, though 35 per cent are indifferent. The over-60s are much more likely to be anti-Meghan, with 64 per cent of the 65 and over age group against her return compared with 17 per cent of 18 to 24s.
There is a similar split on the question of whether they should take up royal duties again:
There is, however, one thing that people are in favour of: forgiveness — on all sides. The YouGov poll of more than 2,100 people found 44 per cent think Harry should forgive the rest of the royal family for their previous behaviour:
Sarah Hewson, the royal commentator and former Sky News royal correspondent, argues that the view of the public is likely to be heavily affected by what Harry's own family thinks. When he gave his interview to the BBC after losing his court case against the Home Office over his security provision, Harry said his father was not taking his calls. But we know that the King is deeply pained by the rift with his son, so there is every chance that could change.
'It really depends on how they come back, and on what terms,' Hewson said. 'It would really take Charles as the King to pave the way for them coming back.'
There is a parallel here, with the way the Queen Elizabeth paved the way for Camilla to be known as Queen rather than Princess Consort, by releasing a statement on her Platinum Jubilee saying that was her 'sincere wish'. Once Charles lets it be known that he has forgiven his son — or at least, is prepared to let bygones be bygones — then it would be a churlish British public that insisted on letting old resentments fester.
William? That's tougher. He feels deeply betrayed by Harry, and forgiveness does not seem to be on the table right now. But if ever he changed his mind, that could have a dramatic effect. Hewson said: 'Were there to be reconciliation with William as well, and were we to see forgiveness on all sides, then I think that people would be very happy to see Harry back in the bosom of his family.'
Simon Lewis, the former Buckingham Palace communications secretary who now co-presents the BBC Radio 4 podcast series When It Hits The Fan, said: 'I think the British people would like to see some sort of reconciliation. They are pretty understanding of Harry. They all saw what happened to him as a child, and there is a lot of sympathy for him. There is still a reservoir of goodwill that he might be able to tap into. But a lot needs to be resolved before there can be a proper discussion about return and what that means.'
The historian and commentator Tessa Dunlop believes that for the British public the whole Megxit saga was like a relationship break-up: and as every romcom fan knows, break-up is often followed by make-up.
'We were hurt. That's why there was this vitriolic outpouring against Harry and Meghan,' she said. 'They dumped us, and it was really painful, so we slagged them off a lot. We would love it if they came back. If we didn't care, if we thought they were total losers, we would stop taking an interest in them. But we loved them. We recognised their charisma and their star power.'
It is, however, a complex picture. People will find it harder to forgive Meghan than Harry. But there will be a warmer welcome from the young, who were always more prepared to see Harry and Meghan as victims of a hidebound royal family rather than the instigators of their own downfall.
Perhaps the key player in all of this is Queen Camilla, who has good reason to feel bitter regarding all the things that Harry has said about her. But she is a canny operator who knows what it is like to be a royal pariah. If she thinks that a family truce would bring some measure of happiness to her husband's remaining years, she could be the person to make that happen.
That is not to underestimate the work that would have to be done before Harry and Meghan are waving to the adoring crowds from the Buckingham Palace balcony. These are two deeply divisive members of the royal family, who were booed outside St Paul's Cathedral during Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
In recent years, some have made a regular habit of Sussex-bashing at the slightest opportunity, when sensible people might have decided that the rational thing would be simply to ignore them. But tabloid heroes and tabloid villains can turn on a sixpence, and it would not take much for their erstwhile enemies to decide that having Harry back on side again might not be such a bad thing. And the opportunity for such a volte-face is exactly two years away, which given that any putative peace talks will likely proceed at a glacial pace, feels about right.
'I think the Invictus Games in 2027 will be the perfect platform for them to be publicly back here in Britain, representing a charity that Harry founded, that means so much to him, and that Meghan has long supported,' Hewson said.
Other members of the royal family turned out to support the first games for wounded and sick military service personnel in London in 2014: when the games return to Birmingham in two years' time, it could be the family's opportunity to show their support once more.
'The Invictus Games is the best of Harry,' Hewson added. 'If you are going to have a big reunion, that is a pretty safe space in which to do it.'