Revealed, Harry and Meghan’s new ‘Megxit’ deal: ALISON BOSHOFF reveals what the Sussexes have agreed to ahead of their return to the UK – and why it will FINALLY see the King reunited with his beloved grandchildren…

As is often the way with any long-running family drama, outright exasperation has passed, leaving behind an air of wary anticipation. Reaction to the news last week that Prince Harry, Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet are planning to visit Britain next month – their first trip here in four years – was, in certain royal circles, less than wholly positive.

As was revealed in these pages, many thought the visit, which is to include a meeting with the King, felt like ‘emotional blackmail’ of a father by his son.

Sources also pointedly added that the issues over security that kept Harry out of the country for years remain unresolved.

But for all the talk, what no one seemed to be able to pinpoint last week was what Harry and Meghan would be doing here beyond launching the run-up to next year’s Invictus Games: where they might stay, who they might see, and whether they would bring a photographer or camera crew along with them.

In short, what is the Sussexes’ broader strategic aim? What do they want to achieve?

Those questions can now largely be answered. And they reveal the seeds of a post-Megxit future, which, if it comes to fruition, could be of historic personal and institutional significance for the Royal Family.

For, as a source close to Harry revealed to me, this visit is nothing less than step one in Operation Reconciliation, a carefully thought-through plan to heal the wounds between Harry and his family.

The prince is seemingly determined to ensure he and his wife delicately tiptoe through their visit here. He is, frankly, desperate not to ignite the embers of the bonfire of bad feeling that has roiled between him and the royals.

He’s even hoping, I’m told, to have Meghan and Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, meet brother William, plus Kate and their children.

First and foremost, though, Harry is aiming for a complete reset of his relationship with his father – with friends saying it is likely a stay is being planned for the Sussexes at Sandringham. The visit will be strictly private. No cameras, no subsequent Instagram posts, no revelations in interviews afterwards.

A source close to Harry told me: ‘Charles has let him know that he is really looking forward to seeing his grandchildren. Harry is looking forward to the visit, and to building bridges. That is what everyone wants. It was decided months ago that he would be coming with the children and with Meghan as well.’

A friend of Harry said: ‘The conversations started in January. Harry said that he wanted to come over with Meghan and the kids for Invictus and proposed that the Palace could support them.

‘The view was that he would have to ensure that all of the family part of the visit remained private. He agreed to that in a heartbeat. The way he has conducted himself since then has led to confidence in this new version of Harry. He has changed a lot [since Megxit]. He has grown up.’

This trip, it seems, has been made possible because there has been some apparent movement in the terms of the so-called 2020 Sandringham Agreement, in which the late Queen was adamant that the Sussexes could not be ‘half in and half out’. It meant that if they wanted to earn money from commercial interests they could not be working royals. This enraged the couple, who left the country seething and protesting that they still intended to live a life of ‘service’.

A source close to Harry said: ‘He and Meghan were hurt by how the family reacted. They felt that the reaction when they came to them with a proposal for a new way of working was, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”’

Waves of damaging scandal followed, as they repeatedly told – and sold – their story to raise funds. First to Oprah Winfrey, then in the Netflix series Harry & Meghan and following that, in Harry’s memoir Spare.

Now, according to friends of Harry, a new idea has taken hold, which will see he and Meghan free to flog jam and make speeches for cash when they are in America, but treated as cherished members of the Royal Family when in the UK.

The price for that is an assurance that there won’t be any commercial activity when over here. At least, that’s the new ‘deal’ as Harry sees it, and he is keen to keep to the terms when he arrives on July 6. A source close to the prince said: ‘Harry is determined to play this one with a straight bat, by which I mean that there will be no commercial activity around this visit – that goes for him and Meghan.’ The source adds that Harry believes the Royal Family’s stance on commercial activity ‘has shifted considerably – not over everything, but there is recognition in senior circles of the court that activities in the UK and the US are different.

‘There is some acceptance that in the UK he can act as a semi-working royal as long as there is nothing commercial going on here. In the US, he is a gun for hire and can take the money. In the UK, he will not.’ Apparently Harry doesn’t think that it completely undoes the terms of Megxit, but he is optimistic that it might allow him and his family to move beyond the outcome of the Sandringham summit, which has sown only toxicity. His supporters argue there is precedent for the UK-US divide and that royals have always been allowed to make money in the US. This more nuanced position seems to have been made possible via gentle diplomacy by some of the King’s advisers. Harry’s supporters point out that former diplomat Theo Rycroft, deputy to the King’s private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, is more amenable to making peace than Alderton and other advisers.

Harry’s friend reveals: ‘There is much closer cohesion between their teams. This is a well-planned visit which is a result of that improved working relationship.’

With this in mind, then, what can we look forward to from this ‘low-key, private family visit’?

Harry last saw the King, who is still receiving treatment for cancer, in a meeting last September, which lasted under an hour. The encounter before that was 19 months previously.

It’s thought that Lilibet, born in California, has only met the King once, on the Sussexes’ trip to the UK around the Platinum Jubilee in 2022. On that occasion, Harry and Meghan released a picture of their daughter enjoying her first birthday at Frogmore Cottage. It caused outrage.

The source said: ‘It was so far from where the Royal Family wanted to be, seeing family moments seemingly commercialised and thinking they might turn up on Netflix.’

Early July will see Harry and Meghan launch the countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham ‘as a couple’. I am told: ‘The public part of this trip will be about Invictus. The kids will not be a part of that. The children are coming to see their grandfather. It is a low-key family visit with the launch as the one exception.’

As for Meghan, she remains a deeply divisive figure both in the family and the country. The source said: ‘There is some nervousness from Meghan about how she might be received. They understand the British people feel as if she has turned Harry away from them and there was natural disappointment in how things have played out, but there are hopes of breaking the ice here.’

As on all his trips to the UK, Harry has been offered accommodation in a royal residence. On this occasion, I am told he intends to take the offer up, even though the question of security remains unclear. Harry and Meghan lost their automatic right to taxpayer-funded security after they moved overseas. He took legal action against the Home Office, which he lost in May last year.

Some news which will have some of Charles’s court spluttering is that there will be cameras in tow as the Invictus activities are being recorded by a film crew.

As for Prince William, described by Harry as his ‘archnemesis’, he is widely reported to be entirely unwilling to forgive his brother.

The Daily Mail’s diary editor Richard Eden, who broke the story of ‘Project Thaw’ – the existence of a group of senior establishment figures aiming to ‘warm up’ the family and the public for some kind of return by Harry – was categorical this week that the relationship between the brothers is still in the deep freeze.

‘[William] made clear some time ago that he didn’t want anything to do with his brother,’ a friend of William and Catherine told him.

Harry’s friend, however, says that there is a WhatsApp group via which Prince Harry shares family news and pictures with the wider Royal Family. This friend also makes the extraordinary claim that Harry has hopes of meeting with William and his family. ‘The feeling among his friends is that Harry is likely to stay in Sandringham and that there will be a number of informal meetings with the wider family and yes, that will include William.

‘They do not hate each other as has been reported. Are they tired of each other’s attitudes to this situation? Yes. Are they wary of how the other will react? Again, yes. But there is a lot of hope that there might be a civil meeting in a few weeks. Many years have passed and everyone is older.’

He adds: ‘Their wives may have to grit their teeth.’