On the latest episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential, Editor-at-Large Richard Kay claims Harry and Meghan are now considering visiting the UK without their children, which he sees as ‘a form of emotional blackmail’ as the King desires time with Archie and Lilibet.
The Sussexes are due to arrive in the UK in a matter of days, yet the trip remains up in the air after Harry, despite months of planning, suddenly voiced serious concerns over the security arrangements offered to him and his family.
In a briefing from the Sussex camp last week, the Prince was said to be reconsidering the visit altogether, after RAVEC, the Home Office committee that rules on royal security, was reported to have declined to grant him the taxpayer-funded police protection he sought for the family’s stay.
This fresh row comes after Harry lost a Court of Appeal challenge in 2025 against the decision to downgrade his security after he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties, with judges ruling he had not been unfairly singled out for different treatment.
Editor-at-Large Richard Kay claims Harry and Meghan are now considering visiting the UK without their children, which he sees as ‘a form of emotional blackmail’
Kay argued this is likely a negotiating tactic by the couple, trying to push King Charles to intervene on their behalf to secure time with his grandchildren
Veteran royal reporter Kay told fellow panellist Rebecca English that the latest news he had heard about the trip was that Harry and Meghan planned to come, but would leave Archie and Lilibet in Montecito. He argued this is likely a negotiating tactic by the couple, trying to push King Charles to intervene on their behalf to secure time with his grandchildren.
‘It does very much feel like there is a form of emotional blackmail going on,’ Kay said. ‘They know the King wants to see his grandchildren. He has barely seen them.
‘The Sussexes want reconciliation with Charles, in the hope that it might lead to a broader reconciliation with other members of the family. Yet this kind of behaviour is doing its damnedest to make sure that doesn’t happen.
‘The latest I heard was that they will come, but we may not see the children. I think that would be a great shame. The public would certainly like to see a picture of the King with his grandchildren. It’s a real mess.’
Royal Editor English updated viewers on another twist in the security saga: a leaked document, commissioned privately by Harry and his security team in the US, which claimed the Prince faced around a dozen serious terror plots, several of them said to originate in Britain.
The document was given to RAVEC in February, in the apparent hope it would persuade the committee to grant Harry the level of protection he wanted for the family’s July trip.
That it emerged just days before the Sussexes are due to arrive, English suggested, adds to a growing sense that Harry and Meghan are trying to ‘manipulate the situation’.
English updated viewers on a twist in the security saga: a leaked document, commissioned privately by Harry and his security team, which claimed the Prince faced serious terror plots
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE: Why the Palace are ‘BAFFLED’ by Prince Harry’s UK trip
