How Prince William and Kate Middleton Are Handling Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK Return.
Royal experts weigh in on how the Prince and Princess of Wales are managing Harry and Meghan’s return to the U.K.
As rain fell on the cobbled schoolyard of Eton College on Sept. 8, Prince George emerged through the historic archway beneath 16th-century Lupton’s Tower, flanked by his parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The 13-year-old prince, almost as tall as his mom, smiled broadly as he approached headmaster Simon Henderson and provost Sir Nicholas Coleridge. “Welcome. Good luck. Enjoy it,” Henderson told him.
George appeared ready for his new chapter. “He looked relaxed and happy,” royal author Simon Vigar tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
It was a monumental moment for the couple: Their oldest child and the future king was leaving home for boarding school, changing the rhythm of the close-knit family William and Kate, both 44, have worked hard to protect.
But the milestone coincided with another new reality facing the Prince and Princess of Wales. Just a day earlier, a letter issued on behalf of King Charles, 77, reiterating that Prince Harry, 42, and Meghan Markle, 45, remain nonworking royals, had stirred fresh controversy following the couple’s return to Britain.
For William and Kate, it suddenly put an unresolved family rift that had largely played out from thousands of miles away back into focus.
“It’s been magnified,” says a palace insider. “When they were in California, and you gazed through the looking glass, you couldn’t see it so well, but it is right back in front of them.”
This fall was already going to reshape life for the Wales family. Kate, in remission following her cancer treatment, is increasingly back on public duty, while at home she is adjusting to George no longer being at the breakfast table each morning.
Harry and Meghan’s unexpected return has added a complication they didn’t anticipate.
“William and Catherine can maintain that their focus has to be about them and their family, but there will be pressure on them about how they interact with Harry and Meghan and their family in the future,” says Russell Myers, author of William and Catherine.
Harry and Meghan’s homecoming with Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — who are settling into life at their new school outside London — comes amid fresh tensions with the royal family.
Charles and Harry have spoken at least once since the Sussexes’ Aug. 26 arrival but have not seen each other. Their last meeting was in July, when Harry, Meghan and their children joined the King and Queen Camilla at Highgrove.
The surprise letter issued on the King’s behalf has underscored the complications that remain.
“The King and William are completely united on the Sussexes not representing the royal family,” says Myers. “It’s without a doubt how in sync they are on this matter.”
William and Harry, meanwhile, remain estranged, with no direct contact between the brothers, sources have told PEOPLE.
“William’s view is clear — any relationship his father has with Harry or the Sussexes as a family is entirely up to him,” says Myers. “But looking toward the future, he will have no relationship with them, in a working or private capacity whatsoever.”
Harry has made no secret of his desire to reconcile with his brother, but those close to William and Kate say the wounds behind the estrangement remain deep. “It was very hard on them, and I wouldn’t blame William for being cautious,” says one close palace source.
Adds royal historian Amanda Foreman: “At the moment, it has gone from being a hot war to a very, very cold war. But in a cold war situation you still have to turn up to the Olympics.”
For William and Kate, the approach is essentially the monarchy’s age-old mantra: “It is keep calm and carry on,” says Vigar, author of The Four Wives of Windsor. “They see it as a sideshow and ancient history.”
On Sept. 10, William and Kate displayed that approach, stepping out together as a united front in support of William’s suicide-prevention initiative amid a packed autumn schedule.
“They are shining a light on things that are important to them,” says Ailsa Anderson, the late Queen Elizabeth’s press secretary. “What they don’t want is all this other noise becoming a distraction.”
Tags: Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Louis, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Meghan, Lilibet
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