Meghan’s return to Buckingham Palace could be PR nightmare for Queen
Buckingham Palace faces a "nightmare" if Meghan and Harry attend the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022, according to a royal expert.
Events to mark the platinum jubilee will take place over an extended bank holiday, from 2-5 June. They will include the "Platinum Party of the Palace", a live concert from Buckingham Palace on Saturday and a "Jubilee Pageant" through central London on Sunday.
Senior members of the Royal Family will be able to enjoy these festivities from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
According to the Daily Mail the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will receive an invite, and could even join other family members on the balcony.
Speaking to the paper an insider said the Queen wants to “extend an olive branch” to the couple.
However Daniela Elser, a leading Australian royal expert, warned their return will be “positively pyretic” and will distract attention from the Queen.
Writing for Cairns Post she said: “The stage is set for a PR and logistic nightmare of unrivalled proportions for the palace.
“The point of the four-day Jubilee festival isn’t just a multimillion-pound exercise in shoring up the UK bunting industry.
“There’s a serious message underlying this affair, namely to reinforce the diplomatic import and philanthropic heft of the monarchy.
“That is, the house of Windsor seems to be focused on doing everything they can right now to buttress the monarchy to ensure it can ride out the potentially rocky years of King Charles III.
“That objective could be seriously undermined if the Jubilee bash ends up being thoroughly subsumed by the roiling melodrama of Harry and Meghan’s return.”
Harry and Meghan announced they were standing down as senior royals in January 2020, and moved to California.
In March 2021 they gave an incendiary interview to Oprah Winfrey, in which an unnamed royal was accused of making racially insensitive remarks.
On Thursday Harry and William unveiled a new statue of Princess Diana in the gardens of Kensington Palace.
It was the first time the brothers had seen each other since Prince Philip’s funeral, in April.
Ms Elser added: “The palace desperately needs to find a way to get the persistent bad taste out of the public’s mouths and to remind them why they used to proudly enjoy collecting commemorative royal biscuit tins.
“Again, the Sussex soap opera could jeopardise this goal too.
“This week we got a sour taste of what the whole Trooping the Colour debacle might be like, with Harry having returned to the UK for the unveiling of the statue of Diana, Princess of Wales that he and brother Prince William had previously commissioned.
“The lead up to the event saw a squall of press coverage focused on the miserable state of affairs between the brothers.”
During her interview with Ms Winfrey, Meghan claimed there were “concerns and conversations” within the family about Archie’s skin tone, ahead of his birth.
This was confirmed by Harry, though neither Sussex would name the royal who made the remarks.
Ms Winfrey later revealed it was neither the Queen nor Duke of Edinburgh.
In response Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement, on behalf of the Queen, expressing regret at Meghan’s difficulties.
However it added “some recollections may vary” about the events described.
