Prince Harry will fly back to the US shortly after his grandfather Prince Philip’s funeral — as he doesn’t want to be separated from his pregnant wife, Meghan Markle, for too long.
The Duke of Sussex does not plan to spend any great length of time in the UK after the service on Saturday.
His wife, who is expecting their daughter in the early summer, was banned from accompanying him on doctor’s orders. And we’re told Harry will be hurrying back to California to be reunited with Markle and their young son, Archie.
Although it’s not known what visa Harry is on — or whether he has applied for his green card — according to current guidelines, he will have had to apply for a National Interest Exception to travel home for the funeral, a top immigration attorney told us. However, there are also exceptions made for those married to US citizens.
He will also have to adhere to COVID rules when he returns to the US. Current guidelines state that all visitors to the country must provide a negative test taken within three days of travel.
It’s the first time that Harry has been back to the UK since he and Markle quit royal life last year. And it will be the first time that he has seen his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, his father, Prince Charles, brother Prince William, sister-in-law Kate Middleton, and the rest of his family since March last year.
Markle had wanted desperately to join her husband and made every effort to get the trip signed off on, sources told us. The fact she’s not there means that Harry has to face them all alone after the couple made bombshell claims about their split from the royal family to Oprah Winfrey last month.
During the interview, Harry told Winfrey that despite everything, he still has great affection for his brother.
“As I said before, I love William to bits,” he said. “We’ve been through hell together and we have a shared experience, but we are on different paths.”
Harry is currently quarantining at the Sussexes’ Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, where his cousin Eugenie and her family are living. He flew in to London’s Heathrow Airport on a scheduled British Airways flight — accompanied by security — on Sunday.
A rep for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined to comment.