‘Head scratcher’: Speculation over why Meghan Markle won’t join Prince Harry on UK visit

The Duke of Sussex is set to return to the UK – but there has been no explanation why his wife will not be making the trip too.

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Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Princess Anne is always keen to officially visit a lighthouse. (The rockier and more remote the promontory, the better).

Like the lighthouse, there are some immutable facts, cold-hard givens, I have long held when it comes to writing about the royal family: Queen Camilla will always look vaguely bemused on the job; Kate, the Princess of Wales’s bouncy blow dry defies all known laws of physics and Prince William, the Prince of Wales possibly owns enough navy jumpers to fill a M&S warehouse.

Likewise, that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex – the most stylish member of the royal family since Anne of Cleeves brought in the ruff – would always happily take any and every opportunity to demonstrate her superior sartorial savoir faire while doing some charity gladhanding.

But I am wrong. Dead wrong.

In less than two weeks, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and a man who needs to relearn how to smile, will be back in the UK to attend and give a speech at WellChild’s annual awards, an organisation to which he has shown more dedication and commitment than to anything besides his wife and his favourite Xbox controller. (The charity supports seriously ill children and their families and the event celebrates the incredible resilience and strength of those young people and those who care for them).

So we have a phalanx of cameras in the offing and the chance for Meghan to put on the serious razzle-dazzle.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pictured at the Invictus Games 2017 in Toronto. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Except now it has been revealed that the duchess will be skipping this year’s awards, passing up on the opportunity to show off just quite what sort of magic Dior couturiers can conjure with a needle and thread.

Instead, she will meet up with Harry “a few days later” in Dusseldörf for the upcoming Invictus Games.

The Duchess of Sussex eschewing an opportunity to shine by her other half’s side? This is all a bit of a head scratcher, a brow-furrower and an all round “huh?” moment.

Last year’s event saw her attend a Team US and Team Ukraine welcome event, a reception for friends and families of competitors, a charity driving challenge, introduce Harry on stage during the opening ceremony, watch the athletics, and pop up with Aitch at an Invictus Games Foundation reception too.

This time around, it is unknown for how much of the Games Meghan and her five-figure designer wardrobe will be present for. What exactly does meeting up with Harry “a few days” after the WellChild Awards on September 7 actually mean? The Games only start two days later on September 9.

However, the other meaty part of this is why Meghan might be not be joining Harry back in the UK.

Is she avoiding a nation where 68 per cent of the population has an unfavourable opinion of her? Where its citizenry would seem to view her with all the warmth of an increase to the basic tax rate and the reintroduction of early pub closing hours?

Their reception in Britain is hardly likely to be a warm one. It might feel like a million years ago now, but it was only about 14 months ago that the duke and duchess arrived in London, got done up in their best couture bib and tuck and were reportedly booed by some in the crowd when they attended a Platinum Jubilee service at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Meghan's decision has raised eyebrows.

Notably, the duchess did not fly back with Harry in June when he became the first member of the royal family to take to the witness box in 130 years in his phone hacking case against the Mirror Group Newspapers.

It was clearly a huge emotional and personal undertaking for the duke. At the end of eight hours of giving evidence and cross-examination, the 38-year-old “fought back tears”, the Guardian reported, telling the court, “it’s a lot” in what was described as “a cracked voice”.

Nor was Meghan with Harry when he made a surprise appearance in court in March for his case against the Daily Mail’s parent company, alleging phone hacking and “gross breaches of privacy”.

What is surprising is that given the couple’s trenchant, unwavering support for one another over the years, when it came to these court outings, the Sussexes did not turn up sweetly welded onto one another.

So, is Meghan skipping the brief UK leg of the trip simply down to her dodging a country and a set of in-laws where there is no real love lost? Maybe she has read the auguries and has no interest in putting herself in the same vicinity as Fleet Street’s nicotine-stained fingers and within glaring distance of Queen Camilla.

Or maybe all of this has something to do with the big, exciting project that the Duchess of Sussex has reportedly been working on in a bid to become the Jeff Bezos of the Byredo candle set. Maybe she is simply chockas with meetings and doesn’t have the time to do any red carpet dazzling as she finesses UX designs and wonders how much is too much to charge for her signature line of in-law-repelling crystals.

We might not know the reason why the Duchess of Sussex will be flying straight over British airspace in September, but we can make a pretty firm stab at the upshot.

Meghan didn’t join her husband in June when he visited the UK for the Mirror Group Phone hacking trial. Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images

For one thing, Harry will be left solo to fend off the British press and to have to find somewhere to doss down given the Sussexes no longer have a UK home after King Charles yanked back their keys in June and changed the alarm code. (It’s now Camilla’s measurements – 40-32-42 – but then it’s always Camilla’s measurements when it comes to His Majesty).

Then there is the symbolism of Meghan’s only partial Invictus appearance.

The Games have provided a key backdrop for their relationship. It was at the Toronto Games in 2017 when they made their first public appearance as a couple and then a year later, in 2018, they undertook their first overseas tour together to attend the Sydney Invictus Games.

That Harry and Meghan will be flying in separately for the Games seems fitting in a year when their public and professional lives have taken increasingly divergent paths.

While Harry has been doing battle in the High Court and his BetterUp headshot has been egregiously over-Photoshopped, Meghan signed up with Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel and has been working on Le Grand Mystery Website Thingamy. (Will it be a blog? An e-commerce platform? A platform where Ivy League moms can donate their time to help those not fortunate enough to have a Range Rover?)

The former actress would seem to be focused on the future and building some sort of enterprise that is not based on reliving past hurts and that time Kate got the last profiterole at Christmas.

Is Meghan simply avoiding her in-laws? Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The same cannot be said for Harry, who has no reported fresh, new professional irons in the fire and seems stuck fighting the fights of his past royal life. Next year his case against The Sun’s parent company News Group Newspapers (NGN) for illegal information gathering will go to trial, with his Mirror case yet to be decided and the Mail case still bubbling away. (NGN is owned by the same parent company as News Corp Australia, publisher of this masthead).

There has, of course, been some speculation about whether the Sussexes might be going through a bit of a marital rough patch, though an insider told Page Six last month, “It’s not true. It’s literally made up”.

Meghan possibly putting in less of a visible presence at this year’s Invictus Games and not attending the WellChild Awards will not exactly quell any lingering questions and raised eyebrows on this front.

Still, we are about to be treated to watching the Duchess of Sussex wearing the hell out of half of Net-A-Porter’s most-coveted pieces.

The only thing that might be more of a delightful prospect would be finding out that Anne is starting an Instagram account devoted to lighthouses. We can but dream.

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 ‘Head scratcher’: Speculation over why Meghan Markle won’t join Prince Harry on UK visit