King Charles III and Queen Camilla are set to travel to Balmoral Castle in late July for their annual summer holidays in the Scottish Highlands. When asked if Harry and Meghan can come, His Majesty reportedly fired back: "No way."
Royal correspondent Rebecca English claimed that the King made the sharp reply to a source with a "resounding snort" as he made his feelings clear on the matter.
The outright snub is said to respond to recent reports reflecting His Majesty's wish to see his elusive Sussex grandkids. Neither his youngest son nor his daughter-in-law are allegedly open to a visit to Britain with their children.
The monarch has "full custody" of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet Diana thanks to an 18th-century prerogative. This custom could help the monarch due to his "shrinking" roster of senior royals.
"The fact they are still seventh and eighth in line to the thrown is quite extraordinary really, and you never know one day they might be called into action," royal expert Phil Dampier shared when highlighting the Sussex kids' possible future with the Crown.
"They might move up the scale," he added. "It's all hanging a bit by a thread and I think when they get older they're going to start asking questions and say, 'How did it come to this? That we haven't got a relationship with our grandparents or the royal family.'"
According to royal journalist Marlene Koenig, the 1717 prerogative, in which King George I introduced due to issues he was having with his heir, the future King George II, gave the sovereign jurisdiction over the custody of his/her grandchildren. This never extended to the late Queen Elizabeth II since Archie and Lilibet were her great-grandchildren, however, Koenig also highlighted how the prerogative resurfaced in the mid-1990s during the marital issues of the then-Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Even though the royal decree exists, Koenig and other analysts feel that His Majesty "would never act" upon the prerogative.
"It would destroy his image and his reign would likely become deeply damaged as a result," a former palace insider stated. "That was all well and good for George I, whose era may as well be another planet entirely compared to today."
Prince Archie turned five on May 6, and the monarch is said to be "desperate" to have a relationship with his grandson and Princess Lilibet Diana, who turned 3 on June 4.
It is believed that Meghan has not been to Balmoral Castle since 2019. Harry was memorably last there upon the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and the accession to the throne of his father on September 8, 2022.
The Daily Beast reported on English's claims.
