Prince Harry visited his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, with his wife Meghan, during a stopover in the UK en route to The Hague, a spokesperson has learned of the couple.
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The couple is traveling to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games, a sports competition open to war wounded and disabled, founded by Harry, which opens this weekend.
According to several media, the couple visited the sovereign, who is to celebrate her 96th birthday in a few days, at Windsor Castle, which she has made her main residence and which is located about forty kilometers from London.
Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, had not been together in the UK since their sensational withdrawal from the royal family two and a half years ago. They now live in California.
According to the royal correspondent of the Daily Express, a conservative tabloid published in the UK, the couple’s visit was secret. “The main royal assistants were not aware,” says Richard Palmer.
Accused of snubbing the Queen
Absent at the end of March at the ceremony in tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip, who died a year ago at 99, Harry was accused in the tabloid The Sun of snubbing the event as well as the queen.
When the couple’s absence from the ceremony was announced, a spokesperson stressed that they hoped to visit the Queen soon, whose 70 years of reign will be celebrated in early June during several days of festivities.
The withdrawal of the royal family has mechanically deprived Harry and Meghan of the police protection which was until then granted to them in the United Kingdom at the expense of the British taxpayer.
Harry offered to bear the costs and challenged in court the refusal which was opposed to him by the Ministry of the Interior.
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