Queen Camilla – a fixed smile in place — offered tea to Prince Harry despite his public denunciation of her as ‘evil’: It appears to have calmed the Sussexes’ fears about returning to the UK, writes TOM BOWER

Six years after Harry and Meghan stormed out of Britain to become mega-rich Hollywood stars, they have been forced to humiliatingly retreat. 

The embrace of Tinseltown’s A-listers has loosened and they finally came to the conclusion that their diminishing status could seriously challenge their financial security.

Perhaps Harry fears that once his brother becomes king, William will strip the Sussexes of their titles in much the same way the King did with Andrew. 

Deprived of the ability to trade on their royal status, the Sussexes would be reduced to relative penury.

In the coarsest terms, the Sussexes are not returning to Britain as born-again royalists and patriots. 

They will return to the country they so outrageously damned in successive media appearances because they are desperate.

Once ensconced at their rented home – probably in the Cotswolds – the Sussexes will pose as traditional English country gentry for wholly selfish reasons.

Only Britain offers them the chance of restoring their battered spirits by adopting a relatively low-cost, privileged lifestyle, while attempting to worm their way back into the lives of Harry’s aristocratic friends and, ultimately, the Royal Family.

For some time, the Sussexes’ critics have been anticipating their downfall. Despite the fanfare that accompanied their arrival in California in 2020, realists wondered how the couple would sustain a career lucrative enough to finance their desire for an A-list lifestyle.

Not least maintaining their Montecito home, now worth over £20million, which has running costs of at least £1.5million a year.

The answer, they discovered during the Oprah Winfrey interview, was by betraying the Royal Family’s trust with a succession of headline-grabbing claims. 

Not least, Meghan’s vile allegation that, when she was pregnant with her first child, Archie, unnamed members of the Royal Family had ‘concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be’.

Meghan’s reward was global fame. As for Harry, his former admirers were puzzled as to why he wrote an autobiography filled with poisonous and inaccurate comments about his family.

Could he really have betrayed his father and brother just to land a $20million contract? Probably not, his friends would say. Aggrieved Harry, say his defenders, just needed to settle scores. Well, mission accomplished.

In his book and subsequent interviews and speeches, Harry never resisted any opportunity to damn King Charles, Queen Camilla and William. On the eve of their return to Britain, the Sussexes’ critics demand that these traitors be given no mercy.

The couple’s supporters will counter-argue that their surrender should be greeted with Christian forgiveness. After years of aggression, they have seen the error of their ways.

Forget the bad blood, the Sussexes’ supporters say, and embrace the chance of new relationships among the family and between the Sussexes and the British public.

Cynics may wonder whether any peace offering by the Sussexes – and the world waits to hear whether Meghan and Harry will actually seek forgiveness – will be genuine. But there is no doubt that King Charles is willing to listen.

Among the serious casualties of the Sussexes’ Blitzkrieg was the King. 

Undoubtedly, he now feels vulnerable. Not only because of the threat that his life may be cut short by cancer but also his sense of guilt over the damage he caused Harry by conducting an extra-marital affair with Camilla and ultimately breaking up the family unit.

In those circumstances any decent father will forgive his son, regardless of his sins, not least in order to forge a relationship with his two grandchildren.

During the Sussexes’ visit to Highgrove last month, the atmosphere was, according to an insider, ‘polite with no recrimination’. 

Queen Camilla – fixed smile in place – offered tea to her stepson despite his public denunciation of her as ‘evil’ and it would appear that the goodwill shown calmed the Sussexes’ fear of returning.

Such a scene of domesticity is unlikely to be repeated in William and Kate’s home.

The Sussexes have publicly targeted both Waleses with unprecedented cruelty and William and Kate have every reason to fear the consequences of their return to Britain.

Even before her marriage, Meghan’s apparent envy of Kate suffocated any chance of friendship and following the hateful stories Harry and Meghan spewed on Netflix, Oprah Winfrey and in podcasts, William and Kate are, understandably, in an unforgiving mood. 

Among their most notorious encounters was the teatime ‘reconciliation meeting’ between the brothers and their wives after the Sussexes returned from their honeymoon in 2018.

Tempers flared when, in a discussion about the tearful argument Meghan had with Kate before her wedding, Harry’s new wife said: ‘That was because of your hormones.’

‘You talk about my hormones,’ responded Kate, with a wide-eyed glare. ‘We’re not close enough for you to talk about my hormones.’

‘It’s no big deal,’ Meghan replied. ‘It’s baby brain.’

‘That’s rude, Meghan,’ William interrupted, jabbing his finger at her face.

‘If you don’t mind, get your finger out of my face,’ Meghan snapped in response.

William’s dislike of Meghan had been obvious after his warning to Harry before their engagement. ‘It’s gone too quickly,’ he said, referring to his brother’s girlfriend as ‘the American actress’.

William’s reservations were shared by his wife and they will now fear that Meghan will be out for more revenge.

Even before the wedding, many royals had concluded that the clever and stylish Meghan lacked the qualities required for a life of public service.

Meghan would later tell the tennis champion Serena Williams that the Royal Family ‘hates’ ambition. That, she said, was associated with vulgar pushiness.

Before the wedding, Queen Elizabeth had been warned about Meghan’s unsuitability by a senior member of the Establishment. 

After a series of conversations with Meghan, he reported that she was unwilling to submit to the Royal Family’s hierarchy.

If she could not have number-one status, Meghan had hinted, she would return to California and exploit her status there. Once in self-imposed exile, of course, the Sussexes let loose.

During their ‘royal’ visit to Nigeria in 2024, for example, Meghan denounced the Royal Family as racist during a dinner with the country’s senior army officers by repeating her claim that a question had been raised about how dark her child’s skin would be.

At the same event, Harry spoke about his mother’s ‘murder’, leaving their hosts convinced that Diana was murdered by the Royal Family because she was pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s Muslim child.

As they return to live in the UK, the big question is: what will the champions of ‘Finding Freedom’ – the title of a 2020 hagiography – actually do here?

For Harry, the answer is clear. 

He will try to rebuild his career as a frontman for charities. With the Royal Family depleted, there is a dearth of young royals able to patronise the hundreds of charities desperately seeking publicity and wealthy benefactors. 

Harry, who spent ten years in the military, will also make overtures to his beloved Army in the hope that officers might be willing to forget his recent errors, not least his boast about killing 25 members of the Taliban while serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.

In parallel, he will seek to restore his life as an English gentleman, which will mean a return to country pursuits such as shooting pheasants and fishing in Scotland. 

He will also attempt to build bridges with old friends. More challenging will be Meghan’s fate in Britain. Relatively friendless before Megxit, she could well feel isolated without her American pals.

She will undoubtedly form relationships with the mothers of her children’s school friends. Thereafter, in her bid for reincarnation as a ‘good person’, Meghan is certain to discreetly seek charities willing to take the risk of enlisting her as a patron, despite her notoriety.

Despite her success in legal TV drama Suits and talk of an offer to return to acting, only the naive would take her prospects of a successful film career seriously.

She is an intelligent woman who will have learned lessons from the missteps she has taken and the media exposés she has been subjected to. 

However, if she is streetwise enough to forge a path of eventual redemption, it could be her greatest performance.

The golden opportunity is next year’s Invictus Games in Birmingham. Harry cares deeply about this cause, but his long-held plan to use the event to engineer his return to the Royal Family should not be underestimated. 

Ever since he chose the city as host, he has lobbied Buckingham Palace to ensure that the King attends.

Equally important is Meghan’s presence at the tournament. 

Despite the Games’ invaluable mission to celebrate the military’s sacrifice, media coverage of Invictus has been conditional on an endless stream of photographs of her.

Harry knows the success of the competition largely depends on Meghan being in the spotlight.

In the countdown to the event, I am sure he will use the Games to help orchestrate the rehabilitation of himself and his wife.

Harry’s gamble is enormous. Win or lose, this time next year he will have the option to either stay in Britain or return to the US. Only then will we find out if the Sussexes’ homecoming was born of a desire to put down roots here, or just a ruse to restore their status in California.

● Tom Bower is author of Betrayal: Power, Deceit And The Fight For The Future Of The Royal Family.