King Charles III, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were photographed leaving the Balmoral estate in a convoy of cars on August 21, 2026, days after the surprise announcement that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving back to Britain — and with sources describing the Waleses as unwilling to engage with anything the Sussexes say or do.
Charles, 77, was at the wheel of a hybrid electric Range Rover Sport Autobiography on the A939 near the Aberdeenshire estate. William and Kate traveled together in a Land Rover Discovery. The king’s sister, Princess Anne, drove herself in a separate vehicle; Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall and her husband, Mike Tindall, were spotted in another; and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, was driven by his son James, Earl of Wessex.
A “Sussex Summit” in the Highlands
A source indicated that the group was believed to have passed part of the day grouse shooting close to Corgarff Castle, about 30 minutes by car from Balmoral. Because so many senior royals turned up at once, the visit has been labeled a “Sussex summit,” and Charles and William are reported to have talked over the Wednesday announcement while there. That said, the gathering is hardly unusual: the wider family has long made a habit of heading north to Scotland every summer.
The king began his yearly stay on August 18. Hours earlier, the Tindalls turned up at the estate gates for the traditional welcome ceremony, as did Anne’s son Peter Phillips with his new wife, Harriet Sperling. Also present were Lena and Mia Tindall; Savannah and Isla, Peter’s daughters with his former wife, Autumn Kelly; and Harriet’s daughter, Georgina. The following day brought William and Kate, together with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Radio Silence From the Waleses
Harry’s plans have drawn no public comment from either William or Kate. Emily Nash, royal editor at HELLO!, pointed out that the pair would not normally even be in Scotland at this stage of the year. “Well, what is intriguing about this is the complete radio silence coming from that end of the spectrum,” she said on HELLO!’s “A Right Royal Podcast.” Her guess, she added, is that the news has not gone down well with them.
According to Nash, the brothers’ bond has been left close to irreparable by years of public allegations, and the prospect of the Sussexes turning up in Britain again and stepping into the spotlight would be a difficult adjustment. “I can’t see a world in which they would be welcoming them back with open arms,” she also said of William and Kate.
One source with knowledge of the family said William, as matters stand, has no wish to patch things up with Harry, and that he and Kate see no reason to react to whatever the Sussexes announce or do. There was no public exchange between the two couples at the 2022 funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, and the rift widened further through a run of headline-making interviews, the Sussexes’ Netflix series and the disclosures in Harry’s memoir.
Questions Over Security and Schools
News that the Sussexes intend to be back in Britain before the end of August, after six years centered in the United States, broke on the night of Wednesday, August 19. They are hanging on to their properties in Montecito and Portugal, and their new base will be a private, non-royal home somewhere outside London. Places have already been secured for Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, at schools in the U.K., where the term is due to begin for them in the opening days of September. Meghan, meanwhile, is expected to keep running her lifestyle label, As Ever, from Britain.
Plenty remains unclear — chiefly the timing of the move, the exact location of the new home and the question of who foots the bill for the family’s protection once they are in the country. Harry has spent years fighting the Home Office in court over his British security arrangements following a downgrade in the protection he receives, and funding is anticipated to be among the matters the family has to resolve.
The king learned of his younger son’s intentions on August 16, three days ahead of the public statement, and William was given advance notice as well. Elsewhere in the royal circle, however, the plan is said to have come as a complete surprise. Sources say it was never mentioned when Charles and Queen Camilla hosted Harry and Meghan at Highgrove at the start of July.
Charles himself is said to welcome the idea of seeing more of his family. During their last trip to Britain, Harry, Meghan and the children had a private reunion with the king — a meeting that mattered all the more because he had last laid eyes on Archie and Lilibet in 2022.
The move brings the family full circle from January 2020, when the couple revealed they intended to step back from their roles as senior working royals. At the Norfolk meeting later remembered as the 2020 “Sandringham Summit,” the late queen determined that there could be no halfway arrangement with the institution, and by March 2020 Harry and Meghan had settled permanently in California. What their return means for the working monarchy — and for two brothers who remain estranged — has yet to be spelled out by anyone at Balmoral.
