Prince Harry won’t stay at Buckingham Palace during U.K. visit
Prince Harry is due in London on Tuesday and Birmingham later this week for a series of charity engagements and was originally supposed to bring his children.
Prince Harry will not stay at Buckingham Palace this week during a highly publicized visit to the U.K. because he failed to accept an invitation in time, Reuters reported on Monday.
Harry was supposed to bring his two children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, to England for the first time in four years later this week, but his spokesperson said Sunday that they would no longer join their father in Britain after the family was unable to agree on a security deal with the British government.
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Harry and his wife, Meghan, have lived in California since 2020; Lilibet was born in the U.S., and Archie was born in London.
According to Reuters, a royal source said that Buckingham Palace sent Harry several requests for clarification regarding an invitation to stay, but he failed to respond before the deadline, leaving staff without enough time to prepare for his arrival.
The source told Reuters that Harry then formally declined the invite but later changed his mind.
Harry’s spokesperson said the prince had been unable to accept the accommodation offer immediately because he was making alternative security arrangements following the government’s decision not to provide protection, and that it was later withdrawn.
The indecision over where he would stay also follows years of conflict between the prince and the rest of his family, with whom he became estranged in 2020 after moving to the U.S. Tensions simmered for years and bubbled over after the release of his memoir, Spare, in 2023.
Harry is due in London on Tuesday and Birmingham later this week for a series of charity engagements.
He will also be in the country to hear the verdict of a U.K. court case against MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mail, over allegations of unlawful behaviour.
Reuters’ royal source said the palace withdrew Harry’s offer to stay because of the King’s constitutional obligations to maintain distance from individual legal proceedings.
Harry’s spokesperson also told the outlet this was behind Buckingham Palace’s withdrawal of the offer to stay at “the last moment.”
“It is therefore disappointing that the offer has now been withdrawn, with Tuesday’s judgment in the Associated Newspapers Limited case cited as the reason,” the spokesperson said, after originally stating that Harry’s family would be staying in a variety of royal and private residences.
Staying at a royal residence ensures additional security measures, which have remained a major point of contention between Harry and his royal relatives. The prince lost his automatic, publicly funded royal security in 2020 when he stepped back from public duties; the decision was challenged by Harry in court but was ultimately dismissed, and security provisions for him are now decided on a case-by-case basis by the British government.
Harry has said the lack of police protection offered by Britain in recent times has meant he has been unable to bring his children to the country.
Harry’s father, King Charles III, has barely seen his two grandchildren since they were born, but in May last year, Harry said he wanted the fighting to stop, sparking speculation about a meeting during this trip.
— with files from Reuters
This story was originally published by Global News on July 6, 2026. CityAM Canada is republishing it for our Canadian readers.