If you’ve been through it yourself, you get it—frightening health news changes everything inside a family structure. For Prince Harry, learning that his father King Charles had been diagnosed with a still undisclosed type of cancer following a routine corrective prostate procedure prompted a transatlantic flight to see Charles for under an hour—and, apparently, an increased desire to return to his native U.K. more often than he has since he and Meghan Markle relocated to the U.S., her home state of California specifically, four years ago.
Though neither are in the U.K. with much frequency, Meghan has returned much less often than her husband since their step back as working members of the royal family in January 2020. Now, apparently, as a 10-year celebration of his Invictus Games looms, Harry is reportedly “putting pressure” on Meghan to attend the event with him, and this pressure is causing tension in their marriage, a royal expert claims.
Harry founded the Invictus Games—which support wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and servicewomen, both veterans and those still serving—in 2014. The Games have become a cornerstone of Harry’s life’s work, and many of Harry and Meghan’s relationship milestones have occurred at the Games, including their public debut as a couple at the 2017 Games in Toronto. Right around the 2018 Games in Sydney Meghan announced her pregnancy with Prince Archie, and she has joined him—and dazzled attendees and the media alike—at the 2022 Games in The Hague, Netherlands, the 2023 Games in Dusseldorf, Germany, and, last month, the One Year to Go celebration of the Games’ forthcoming iteration in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada, set for 2025.
Royal expert and author Tom Quinn told The Mirror that Harry is pressuring Meghan to accompany him at the event, but that Meghan may not be eager to return to the U.K., as it has been reported that she “never felt at home” there. Royal author Omid Scobie—who has written extensively about the Sussexes—wrote in his 2023 book Endgame that Meghan “never wants to set foot again in England.” But, according to Quinn, Harry won’t accept a refusal.
“The Invictus Games—it’s one of the few areas of Harry’s life where he feels on firm ground,” Quinn said. “There’s no doubt that helping disabled soldiers is a good thing, and it’s something that Harry has tried to do without it becoming all about him, so it’s good for brand Sussex, but only if Meghan is also there. So he is definitely putting pressure on her to join him.”
Quinn added that “This is causing huge tension in the couple’s relationship. Omid Scobie’s book Endgame tells us that Meghan never wants to visit the U.K. again, but she now realizes, with the Games coming up and her father-in-law seriously ill, that you should never say never.”
Harry himself said, in an interview last month with Good Morning America following his father’s diagnosis, that he loves his family, was grateful to be able to jump on a plane as soon as he could to go see his father following the news of his diagnosis breaking, and that “I’ve got other trips planned that will take me through the U.K., or back to the U.K., and so I’ll stop in and see my family as much as I can.”
He also added in the same Good Morning America interview that the Games—as well as recent health scares—have helped him continually realize the importance of family: “Throughout all of these families, I see it on a day-to-day basis—again, the strength of the family unit coming together,” he said. “So, yeah, I think any illness, any sickness, brings families together. I see it time and time again, and that makes me very happy.”
And, although Harry may be pressuring Meghan to return to the U.K. with him, all seems well in the Sussex marriage, regardless. Speaking on the “Something to Talk About” podcast, Scobie addressed persistent rumors of trouble in the Sussex marriage, saying that sources close to Harry and Meghan told him that the couple “continue to be happy and in a good place.”
