Is It Safe For Meghan Markle To Visit The UK?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will bring Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, to Britain this July. This will be the first time the whole Sussex family has set foot in the country together in nearly four years, since the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in Summer 2022.

The trip centers on the one-year countdown to the Birmingham Invictus Games, and Harry has told American friends he's "excited" for the children to finally reunite with King Charles in person, something that hasn't happened since they were toddlers.

Whether Meghan should actually join them has become the real question hanging over the whole visit.

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: The headline here is a fair question, and not a new one. Harry has long argued the answer is no, not without proper protection. Neil Basu, the Metropolitan Police's former counterterrorism chief, has confirmed there were "disgusting and very real" threats against Meghan from the British far right while she lived in the UK, threats serious enough that "people have been prosecuted" for making them.

In 2018, weeks before the wedding, a letter containing white powder and racist content was sent to the couple, intercepted before it reached them and investigated as a hate crime. In their Netflix documentary, Meghan described finding an entry in her own security manual reading "Meghan just needs to die. Someone needs to kill her. Maybe it should be me," and described checking the locks on her own hallway at night. None of that changes the practical reality now: Harry lost his automatic police protection in 2020, lost a legal challenge over it last year, and only secured a partial breakthrough in December when the Home Office agreed to a full risk assessment, with Ravec still to make the final call.

A former royal security adviser told OK! that any Meghan visit would need "every aspect... planned with extreme care," adding that while she "may not face the same level of physical threat" today, "she is far more exposed to public hostility and criticism" than Harry, who "still manages to draw warmth and goodwill from many people." Royal correspondent Jennie Bond was blunter in the i Paper earlier this year: "I'd give the U.K. a miss."

The Sun's Phil Dampier went further yesterday, warning Meghan is "taking a big risk" with any return, pointing to an "unforgivable insult" he says the public hasn't forgotten. The most recent YouGov tracker has her UK favorability at just 19 percent, the lowest recorded since polling began in 2017.

These facts are the basis of Harry's years-long legal fight to get armed protection reinstated rather than relying on a private team that legally cannot carry firearms or access UK intelligence briefings. Whatever you make of Meghan, two young children are simply trying to go and see their grandfather. Let’s remember the human side of this family.

It's official. Kensington Palace confirmed this morning that Prince George, the future King and all of 12 years old, will start at Eton this September, following his dad William and uncle Harry through the gates of Britain's grandest boys' boarding school.

Founded in 1440, £63,000 ($85,000) a year and the alma mater of 20 of Britain's 58 prime ministers. Little brother Louis and sister Charlotte stay put at Lambrook for now. The least-kept secret in royal circles, confirmed at last. Watch this space...

Celebrity Intelligence Takeaway: For a decade now, the Waleses have sold us a lovely story, the "normal family," the one William described to the BBC himself back in 2016, all love and a supportive home, and the school run like the rest of us. And I've largely bought it. But a £63,000 blazer at the most establishment school in the land is the moment that story shows its seams.

The modern monarchy survives on a clever sleight of hand, ordinary relatability stretched over extraordinary privilege, Kate cooing about George's shoe size on one side and a thousand-year throne on the other. Eton is where the two quietly stop pretending to be the same thing.

None of which is a scandal, mind you. You cannot raise a future head of state at the local comp. It's simply worth clocking the trick while we applaud it, because spotting how the magic is done is half the fun of watching.

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