How the Royals will keep themselves very busy as Prince Harry lands in the UK

The Royal Family intend to ‘shut out the noise’ from the ongoing saga of Prince Harry’s visit to the UK this week with a slew of public engagements.

Senior working royals have more than 29 official duties already scheduled in their diaries starting today, when the Duke of Sussex arrives in Britain, and Saturday, when his final public appearances conclude.

Most of the engagements have been long planned and will see almost all of the senior working royals out on public duty.

In addition, the King will undertake several private audiences and meetings which are not highlighted in the diary in advance.

There has been concern in royal circles of late that the constant ‘psychodrama’ surrounding the Sussexes’ ‘will they, won’t they’ family trip – the first time they would have all come together to Harry’s country of birth for four years – would overshadow the valuable work being undertaken by senior royals.

There have been accounts of Harry being ‘close to tears’ after apparently finding out ‘at the 11th hour’ that the Home Office’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee, which decides on police protection, has kicked his request to have his security reviewed into the long grass.

This prompted surprise among those in the know here, who point out that the prince’s situation hasn’t changed since he lost his court battle to have his taxpayer–funded police protection re–instated.

They have questioned why he would organise a high–profile, and presumably costly, trip to the UK for his family knowing there was no guarantee this would change. 

At the weekend a spokesman for Harry finally announced, after days of flip–flopping, that he would no longer bring his wife, Meghan, and children, Archie and Lilibet with him to London today, as he felt the provisions being offered to him were not enough to secure their safety.

The prince will undertake several days of engagements in the capital solo while the California–based family are on holiday at an undisclosed location in mainland Europe.

However he has not ruled out them coming over later to join him outside London.

The prince has engagements in the Midlands on Friday and Saturday, and plans to stay on to visit family and friends, including a trip to his late mother’s family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire to visit her grave.

It is still not known whether Harry will accept the King’s invitation to stay at a royal residence this week or next.

And there is still no indication of whether the couple’s children will get to meet their paternal grandfather, whom they have not seen since 2022, when they were aged just three and one.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment, believing that despite, once again, much perceived provocation by the Sussexes ‘discretion remains the better part of valour’.

There has, however, been intense frustration that what should have been a drama–free trip, allowing the King to reconnect with his son and grandchildren, has been turned into another soap opera of Harry and Meghan’s own making.