Three words in Prince Harry’s court documents cast doubt over Sussexes future

Prince Harry has written a telling statement in court documents regarding his case against the Home Office – possibly revealing his unexpected plans.

Of all the words I’ve typed this year, along with ‘dog bowl’, ‘todger’ and ‘pantsuit’, ‘High Court’ is up there.

So frequently have Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex’s legal teams, if not himself, been pitching up there, I hope they’re getting a discounted, bulk parking rate.

And thus on Friday, he was back, or more accurately Shaheed Fatima KC representing the exiled royal, was in court.

The case … Hang on, just consulting my extended spreadsheet that keeps track of all of his cases, scrolling, scrolling … Was in regards to his legal challenge to the Home Office’s ruling regarding his security arrangements while in the UK.

Fatima read out part of Harry’s written witness statement which included this line: “The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US.”

Notice anything – anything at all – that jumps out at you? You more practised Sussex Kremlinologists might have spotted it but let us all now stop and duly observe: “At the moment.”

Prince Harry may have revealed his future plans in new court documents. Picture: Daniel LEAL/AFP

Hold your horses: Could this be Harry sending up white smoke signals from the Sussex conclave about a future that could include time in the UK? Puff puff, puff puff.

Now before anyone’s knickers get into too pathological of a twist, requiring surgical removal and the application of Valium, the notion of Harry packing up his family to return to a life of woollen underpants and Blue Peter firmly belongs in the fantasy pile. (Like my dream that Princess Anne starts a podcast called Horsing Around. Sigh.)

There is no doubt that Harry’s future, broadly speaking, lies with him living in the land that gave the world cheese in a can.

This is the second time in a matter of weeks that the prospect of Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, staging some sort of temporary return to Britain has popped up, a turn of events that no-one, including Harry’s on-call psychic, could have predicted.

In November, a friend of the couple told the Sunday Times’ royal editor Roya Nikkhah: “I can’t imagine the Sussexes would decline an invitation to spend time with His Majesty. As of yet, there have not been any invitations for the holidays.”

Even before the recent Endgame palaver this jolly festive fantasy of roasted chestnuts and Silent Night singalongs with Anne on triangle was an utter non-starter. Then came the events of the last two weeks and thus, nail meet coffin.

Sussex HQ has refrained from uttering a single, solitary syllable about the claims, raised by obsequious biographer and man no longer welcome in Holland (I’m guessing) Omid Scobie in the Dutch version of his book.

Specifically, that it was King Charles and Kate, the Princess of Wales who had speculated about Archie’s skin colour prior to his birth.

King Charles and the Princess of Wales were named as the royals who allegedly made comments about Archie’s skin colour, revelations which were made in the Dutch version of Omid Scobie’s new book. Picture: Chris Jackson/POOL/AFP

While the royal family has chugged along with their December schedule pretending they have never heard of Endgame or the Netherlands, Harry and Meghan seem to have taken a temporary vow of silence, which really is and of itself quite the statement. However, even if the Endgame crisis had not happened, there are other things seemingly standing in the way of Harry’s way of some cheery UK return.

Things like his wife. Or more specifically, the Duchess of Sussex’s reluctance to spend any time in a country where she had a clearly rotten time, even with the easy accessibility of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges provided.

When it came to Charles’ coronation in May, unfortunately that was exactly the same day that Meghan had to colour-code her lesser sock drawer so she couldn’t make it. Or, as Scobie explains in Endgame the duchess had “strong feelings about not getting hauled back into royal dramas”. Strong feelings indeed.

Meghan has not been in the UK since the Queen’s funeral in September last year. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Then in September it was only Harry who briefly returned for a charity engagement before travelling on to Germany for the Invictus Games where the duchess joined him. So too on two occasions the duke jetted back to London for his multiple cases against UK publishers, with him flying entirely solo each time, Meghan eschewing joining him to stay firmly back on American terra firma.

Also in these instances and during the coronation, somehow the King could not find time to see his son either, because he too probably had a sock drawer that needed an urgent seeing too.

Also in Harry’s way of some big warm and fuzzy London visit is that the reception waiting for him from his old mates sounds like it would be colder than an outside loo in Scotland in January.

This week it was revealed that the Sussexes have been cut from the guest list to the social event of the year in 2024, the wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, Archie’s godfather, to Olivia Henson. (Well done you Olivia, by the by.)

According to the Times, the duke “has decided to exclude the Sussexes to avoid a family clash in the House of Windsor” with “exclude” a much politer way of seemingly saying, ‘dumped from a great height’.

Meanwhile biographer Tom Bower has written in the Daily Mail of Harry: “On his brief recent trips to Britain, he has invariably been shunned by his old friends. None openly support Harry.”

The Sussexes moved to the US in early 2020. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Next, there is the fact that Harry, for the first time in his life, has nowhere to stay in the UK with his ‘Pa’ clearly less than impressed with the Sussexes’ emotional incontinence and stream of revelations courtesy of their Netflix series and Spare.

In January this year His Majesty informed the couple he wanted the keys back to their Windsor home Frogmore Cottage and for them to clean out under the fridge.

Thus in summation we have a duke saying that the US is his home “at the moment” while back in the land of his birth his family have failed to invite them for Christmas, he has been “shunned” by his old chums and he will need to book his own accommodation at the Slough Best Western, breakfast not included.

What a massive horrible mess the duke now finds himself in.

Thomas Wolfe famously wrote a novel called You Can’t Go Home Again and boy was he on the money.

Harry can, of course, in the most literal sense go back to the UK anytime but what is waiting for him, really?

Not family, not friends and not any bangers left in the £19 breakfast buffet bain-marie if he leaves it too late.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Three words in Prince Harry’s court documents cast doubt over Sussexes future