If coverage of the Royal Family can seem like a soap opera, it’s never more so than when Prince Harry is in town.

Brother against brother. A son seeking reconciliation with a father. Competitive sister-in-laws. A grandfather wanting to see his grandchildren. And now, will they or won’t they be here?

We can expect to see all those storylines when Prince Harry and possibly his wife Meghan and their children Archie, aged seven, and Lilibet, aged five, return to the UK this week.

A detailed plan of the visit was initially issued which included the Duchess of Sussex – but because of concerns over security, she and the children now won’t be at the start of the trip in London, but might be elsewhere in the UK later in the week.

The purpose of the trip is to get ready for the Invictus Games and to attend charity events. There are five days of engagements which begin on Tuesday in London before moving on to Birmingham, which will host the games for injured military veterans next year.

Whether fairly or not, the focus will be on family tensions and whether there are any signs of bridges being built between the returning Sussexes and their royal relations.

This latest chopping and changing over whether they are coming won’t have helped that cause of reconciliation. You can almost imagine Palace officials rolling their eyes and muttering, “Nightmare”. But Harry has always been intensely sensitive around the safety of his family.

But if the security concerns can be overcome, and Meghan and the children do come for part of the visit, it will be the first time the Sussexes will have all been together in the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. That seems like another era, as well as another reign.

From inside Team Sussex, the mood seems determined despite the uncertainty. It’s understood Prince Harry is looking forward to seeing friends and family and that nothing is going to sour his chance to support his Invictus “second family”.

But there always seems to be drama, not to mention psychodrama, wherever the Sussexes go.

This time round, while they’re in the UK, we’re expecting the result of Prince Harry’s court case against Associated Newspapers over allegations of unlawful information gathering. The outcome could add another flavour to events – although Meghan will not now be in the UK when the ruling is published.

That will be followed by the cliffhanger of whether Meghan appears later in the week – and whether the King will meet his grandchildren.

On Prince Harry’s previous solo visit, in September 2025, the attention was on his meeting with his father, King Charles, held privately at Clarence House.

Now the speculation is about whether there will be a meeting that brings together the King, Prince Harry, Meghan and the chlidren – and whether there will be a family photo to capture the moment.

From the Sussex perspective, a picture would be a sign of their legitimacy as part of the family. But you can also imagine Palace officials worrying about how such a photo might be used. They don’t want to see it boosting jam sales in Montecito.

David Yelland, former editor of the Sun and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s When It Hits the Fan, says “the politics around that photo are so complex that it almost certainly won’t happen”.

“The photo we really want to see is with the grandchildren,” he says, but he thinks there would be too many arguments about who was in charge of the picture and how it was set up.

“You start to think about the negotiations between the two sides. Who stands where? Is Meghan in the photo? Where’s the King? Is Camilla going to be in the photo?

“It would be easier to get a photo of Putin and Trump together after a meeting than it would be to get photos of these people in the same room at the same time,” Yelland says.

Even without a photo, a meeting seems likely if the children do come to the UK, not least because King Charles, with his own health challenges, would want to see his grandchildren.

Prince Harry will want to reconnect with his family on his mother’s side too – and there has been speculation about a stay at the Spencer estate at Althorp.

That would also mean the possibility of a poignant visit to the grave of Princess Diana, bringing his children to the island burial site of the grandmother they never had a chance to meet.

Inevitably, much attention will be on Meghan, who hasn’t been seen in the UK since the late Queen’s funeral – and whose involvement in this trip seems to be in the balance.

How the public would respond to her is a question that might never really be answered, as even if she does take appear, it’s likely to be within the confines of a pre-planned event.

She remains a figure that polarises opinion. According to a recent YouGov survey, 20% of the public have a favourable opinion of her, the lowest point in her popularity in a survey going back to 2017.

“There’s definitely a sharp drop. I think she’s also in the past talked about how she’s one of the most trolled people in the world,” says PR expert and When It Hits the Fan presenter, Farzana Baduel – which means Meghan has to contend with the “level of hate that is directed at her”.

Winning round the UK public is going to take more than a summer visit but a return might be a tentative start.

Meghan has campaigned on issues that would likely connect with the public, such as trying to tackle online harm to young people.

But royal commentator Pauline Maclaran says the UK public remains unsympathetic and “probably somewhat unfairly” blames Meghan for the couple’s departure from royal life.

“Everything she has done since the famous Oprah interview and the Harry and Meghan Netflix show seems only to fuel dislike of her,” says Prof Maclaran. “I believe she was always in a very difficult position, coming into the Royal Family as a bi-racial American and an independent woman.”

Fans of Harry and Meghan will be enthusiastic about the trip, but there is also an inescapably negative side to the fascination with the couple, particularly on social media.

“We talk about the amount of money that Meghan makes making jam, but a lot of people on social media on the west coast of the US are making a lot of money out of hate,” says former tabloid boss Yelland.

A rapprochement between Prince Harry and Prince William seems even less likely. They remain on very different trajectories, with William’s life heading remorselessly to the point where he will take to the throne.

“My sense is that the King wants to have a relationship with his grandchildren and so there is a reasonably good chance of some sort of family reconciliation on the back of this visit,” says royal commentator Richard Palmer.

“But it’s still a very different matter when it comes to Harry and William. I don’t believe there is any relationship whatsoever between the brothers at the moment and little prospect of one developing,” says Palmer, who has been on trips with both brothers.

“People close to William used to talk hopefully about time being a great healer. But as time has moved on, William has become more unwilling to reconcile with Harry. He tells friends he just doesn’t think about his brother.”

Buckingham Palace isn’t saying anything about Prince Harry’s trip. It seems to approach such visits with a sense of wariness, like when an unpredictable neighbour is calling round. They’ll be politely welcoming, while not being devastated when they leave.

There might also be an eyebrow raised at how much Prince Harry’s trip to the UK resembles a royal visit – like the events that Harry and Meghan seemed so keen to escape.

They went to the US and stopped being working royals, but are now returning and seem to be working at being royals.

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