Prince Harry reportedly is preparing to return to the U.K. to be with Queen Elizabeth and the royal family after the death of Prince Philip, as Buckingham Palace announced that his grandfather’s funeral next Saturday will be a scaled-back service due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it’s not known whether COVID travel restrictions will affect Harry’s return from the United States, whether his pregnant wife Meghan Markle will accompany him and what kind of reception the couple would receive in the U.K. — a month after they accused the royal family of being racist and cruel during their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“Harry will absolutely do his utmost to get back to the U.K. and be with his family,” a source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the Daily Mail. “He will want nothing more than to be there for his family, and particularly his grandmother, during this awful time.”
People magazine also reported that Harry is likely to return to the U.K for the first time since he and Meghan stepped away from royal duties and moved to California.
As for Meghan, she is pregnant with the couple’s second child and is due to give birth some time in the summer.
“Meghan is obviously pregnant so she will need to take advice from her doctors about whether it is safe for her to travel, but I think Harry will definitely go,” the source said. Royal commentators have said her pregnancy makes it less likely that she will make the trip with her husband, the Guardian reported.
A few hours after news came that the 99-year-old Philip had died Friday morning at Windsor Castle, Harry and Meghan posted a tribute on their Archewell Foundation website.
“In loving memory of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh,” the tribute read. “Thank you for your service … You will be greatly missed.
Harry and Meghan have paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh on their Archewell website – “Thank you for your service…you will be greatly missed” pic.twitter.com/KdQoKZgIUy
— Lizzie Robinson (@LizzieITV) April 9, 2021
Philip, the beloved husband and consort of the queen, recently spent a month in the hospital where he was treated for an unspecified infection and underwent surgery for a pre-existing heart condition. His death was not related to the coronavirus, and he had been vaccinated.
But his death came in the year that COVID-19 caused turmoil and heartbreak in the U.K. More than 150,000 Britons have lost their lives to the pandemic, and many families have been unable to hold typical funerals for their loved ones, the New York Times said.
Buckingham Palace announced Friday that Philip’s funeral would take place at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, but it won’t be a state funeral and there won’t be a lying-in-state, as Philip himself requested.
The modifications also were made in accordance with the “prevailing circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” a statement read, which added that members of the public are asked to not participate in any of the events surrounding the funeral.
The pandemic also means that anyone traveling to the U.K. must quarantine for up to 10 days, so it’s unknown whether these restrictions would affect any plans by Harry and Meghan to attend the funeral. But the Guardian reported that this self-isolation period can be reduced to five days if the traveller pays for a private COVID test at least five days after arrival. If the private test is negative, traveller can stop self-isolating as soon as they get the result.
Philip’s death also comes as the royal family has been in turmoil over the past two years, first over Prince Andrew stepping back from royal duties due to his scandalous association with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and, more recently, following Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Winfrey.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are living in self-imposed exile near her hometown of Los Angeles, made a number of stunning allegations against the royal family in their March 7 CBS interview, particularly that an unnamed member of the royal family said racist things about Meghan, who is biracial. She suggested that their son Archie wasn’t given the title of prince because someone in the family had concerns about the color of his skin.
The couple also alleged that the family was indifferent to Meghan’s mental health struggles and that Prince Charles cut them off financially after they announced they were stepping away from royal duties and moving to the United States.
Harry would not reveal the name of the so-called “royal racist” during the interview, but Winfrey said the next day that the duke had assured her, off camera, that the person was neither the queen nor Prince Philip. Harry also indicated to Winfrey that he had a good relationship with his grandparents, particularly the queen.
Prince Harry has been said to have been very close with his grandfather, with the two often seen smiling and joking around while on royal outings together, People magazine reported. Philip also played a crucial role in Harry’s and William’s lives after the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.
In May 2019, Philip was photographed with a big smile on his face when Harry and Meghan visited him and the queen with their newborn son Archie.
Queen Elizabeth II is introduced to her new great-grandchild, as she visits Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's baby boy – Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor – with Prince Philip and Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland. https://t.co/BGUC54NdBA pic.twitter.com/BIXmg2Xgxu
— ABC News (@ABC) May 8, 2019
But in their Winfrey interview, Harry and indicated that his relations with his father and brother, Prince William, had become strained. The couple’s allegations of racism also reportedly left the royal family “reeling.” The queen issued a brief 61-word statement saying that the allegations were “concerning” and would be addressed privately within the family.
But the queen also pushed back against Meghan’s “truth,” as Winfrey called it, and the couple’s version of events during their time as working royals. While the queen said the family was “saddened” to hear of Meghan and Harry’s challenges, she remarked that “some recollections may vary” when it comes to the issues raised in their interview.
The interview generally didn’t go over well in the U.K., with Harry’s favorability rating with the British public falling 15 points to 45 percent, according to a YouGov poll taken right after the interview, Reuters reported. The poll also found that 48 percent percent of 1,664 respondents had a negative view of Harry, who had long been one of the most popular members of the royal family. Meanwhile, only three in 10 people had a positive view of Meghan, while 58 percent had a negative opinion.
The timing of the Winfrey interview also came when Philip’s health was failing. There was a great deal of criticism in the U.K. over the fact that the two-hour interview was broadcast as a TV special on CBS when Philip was critically ill in the hospital.
Harry, Meghan and Winfrey reportedly recorded the interview before Philip went into the hospital, the Daily Mail said. CBS host Gayle King, who is a close friend of Winfrey, also claimed after the interview that Harry and Meghan had a contingency plan: The interview would not air if Philip’s health worsened, but CBS never confirmed that this was the case.
In Meghan’s home country, the reaction to the couple’s claims has been mixed. The couple initially received widespread sympathy and positive coverage in much of the U.S. media — but not so much in outlets that lean right.
Indeed, in the weeks since the interview, Harry and Meghan have become major right-wing targets in America’s culture wars, with conservative figures like Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News pundits accusing them of being spoiled and privileged “woke” advocates for “cancel culture.”
On Friday, pundits on Fox and Friends went so far as to blame Harry and Meghan for Philip’s death, the Daily Beast reported. Minutes after news broke that the 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh had died, host Brian Kilmeade brought up reports that Philip was “enraged” after the Winfrey interview.
“So here he is trying to recover and he’s hit with that,” Kilmeade said, according to the Daily Beast.
Kilmeade also cited Piers Morgan, the polarizing British broadcaster, as a source for evidence that Philip’s health was affected by the Winfrey interview. Morgan famously quit his co-hosting duties “Good Morning Britain” after his network received thousands of complaints after he said he didn’t believe things Meghan said in the interview, including that she felt suicidal.
Kilmeade said: “Piers Morgan was saying on his morning show, which he famously walked off of, is like ‘Really? Your grandfather is in the hospital, you know he’s not doing well, is this really the time you have to put out this interview?’ Evidently, it definitely added to his stress.”
