Harry-Meghan and the royal family: A timeline of the rift, legal battles and reconciliation as they plan UK return

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will return to the United Kingdom UK seemingly marking the end to a yearslong rift between them and the royal familyThe Daily Telegraph reported that the couple will not resume their roles as working members of the royal familyHowever their return to Britain means King Charles III who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer will get to spend more time with his grandchildrenHarry and Meghan quit royal duties in 2020 and moved to the United States alleging hostility and racist attitudes from the press and royal establishment However in recent months there have been signs that the tumultuous relationship was beginning to thawTimeline of recent events involving Prince Harry Meghan and the British royal familyJuly 2016Prince Harry and American actor Meghan Markle meet on a blind date set up by a mutual friendNovember 8 2016Harry confirms Markle is his girlfriend and condemns press coverage of her He says he fears for her safety and says press coverage crossed the line and used racial undertones in its stories His comments remind many that his mother Princess Diana had died in a car crash while being pursued by photographersNovember 27 2017Harry and Meghan announce their engagementMay 19 2018Meghan and Harry get married in a grand ceremony at Windsor Castle2019 onwardsHarry launches lawsuits against three newspaper groups mdash Rupert Murdochs News Group the Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers He claims stories about his school days teenage shenanigans and relationships with girlfriends were obtained through hacking bugging deception or other forms of illegal intrusionMay 6 2019Harry and Meghans son Archie is bornJanuary 8 2020Harry and Meghan announce that they plan to step back as senior royals and become financially independent The decision soon becomes a major rift and the couple moves to Meghans native CaliforniaFebruary 2020The committee that oversees royal security decides Harry will not receive the same level of taxpayerfunded protection as he did when he was a fulltime royal Harry later launches legal action against the UK government over the security decisionFebruary 11 2021Meghan wins an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over the publication of a letter she wrote in 2018 to her estranged fatherJune 4 2021Meghan and Harrys daughter Lilibet is bornSeptember 8 2022Queen Elizabeth II dies aged 96 after 70 years on the throne Her eldest son becomes King Charles IIIJanuary 10 2023Harrys ghostwritten memoir Spare is published and becomes a bestseller It recounts his grief at the death of his mother when he was 12 his frustrations in his royal role and anger at his father brother stepmother and the media among othersMay 6 2023King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey Harry attends without Meghan or the childrenJune 67 2023Harry testifies in his case against the Mirror Group becoming the first British royal in more than a century to appear in the witness boxDecember 5 2023A threeday court hearing begins on Harrys claim over his security Lawyers for the prince argue that the decision to downgrade his protection was unlawful and unfairDecember 15 2023Harry wins his case against the Mirror Group when a judge rules that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade He is awarded legal costs and 140000 pounds USD 190000 in damagesFebruary 5 2024Buckingham Palace announces that King Charles has cancer and will receive treatment Officials dont say what form of cancer the king hasFebruary 7 2024Prince Harry arrives in the UK from California to visit his father He departs the next dayFebruary 28 2024The high court dismisses Harrys security claim He appeals the decisionJanuary 22 2025The publisher of tabloid newspaper The Sun settles a lawsuit offering Harry a full and unequivocal apology for intruding on his private life between 1996 and 2011 including incidents of unlawful activitiesMay 2 2025Three Court of Appeal judges dismiss Harrys case saying the security decision was sensible Harry responds in an interview saying the decision means he cant bring his wife and children to his home countryMay 3 2025In a long and at times emotional television interview Harry says he wants reconciliation but also reairs grievances against the royal family the UK government and the mediaSeptember 8 2025Harry arrives in the UK to visit his charities amid signs of a thaw in the frigid relationship between him and the rest of the royal family The trip corresponds with the third anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth IISeptember 10 2025Harry joins King Charles for tea in London marking the first time they have met in more than a yearOctober 17 2025Prince Andrew announces that he is giving up his royal title of the Duke of York and other honours after his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlinesJuly 10 2026King Charles hosts Harry and meets with his family for the first time in years as they try to repair the rift Harry Meghan and their two children meet with the king and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House a country estate west of LondonAugust 19 2026Plans are revealed that Harry and Meghan will return to the UK but they will not resume their roles as working members of the royal familyWith AP inputs