{"id":682984,"date":"2026-07-09T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682984\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:46:10","slug":"meghan-markle-drops-out-of-invictus-games-event-but-could-still-bring-archie-and-lilibet-to-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682984\/","title":{"rendered":"Meghan Markle drops out of Invictus Games event but could still bring Archie and Lilibet to UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duchess of Sussex has pulled out of attending the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham, GB News can confirm.<\/p>\n

Meghan Markle had been due to attend alongside her husband, Prince Harry, at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) on Friday.<\/p>\n

However, sources have confirmed to GB News that the duchess is not attending.<\/p>\n

The duke and duchess’s office declined to comment on whether Meghan plans to fly into the UK privately with the children.<\/p>\n

This comes after days of difficult headlines for Prince Harry, who spectacularly lost his court battle against the publisher of the Daily Mail.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Telegraph has reported that Meghan, 44, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, will come to Britain this week, despite not making any public appearances.<\/p>\n

The Duchess of Sussex had already pulled out of a scheduled appearance with her husband at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

This came after it was decided by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) that the Sussexes were not entitled to any police protection during their UK visit.<\/p>\n

\"Meghan<\/p>\n

The Duchess of Sussex has pulled out of attending the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham, GB News can confirm<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

The duke and duchess lost their right to automatic taxpayer-funded police security in 2020 after stepping back as senior royals.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry challenged his UK security downgrade but officially lost that appeal in May 2025.<\/p>\n

The senior judge, Sir Geoffrey Vos, noted that while they understood Harry’s fears, his “sense of grievance” did not translate into a valid legal argument.<\/p>\n

Following the ruling, Harry expressed that he was “devastated”. He stated it made bringing Meghan and their children back to the UK “impossible” due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n

LATEST ROYAL DEVELOPMENTS<\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince Archie was born in May 2019 in London | GETTY<\/p>\n

If Meghan, Archie and Lilibet do decide to come to the UK, it would mark their first return since 2022.<\/p>\n

That particular trip was in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee and was also the last time King Charles saw his grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Harry has only seen his father twice in the last two and a half years.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a royal source spoke to the Mirror about a potential meeting between the King, Archie and Lilibet this week, claiming: “While nothing has been ruled out, conversations remain ongoing.”<\/p>\n

\"\\u200bPrincePrince Harry pictured on Thursday arriving for a visit to Birmingham Children’s Hospital | GETTY<\/p>\n

Another insider said: “The King would not pass up the opportunity to spend time with his grandchildren and if there is a way of making it possible, he will do it.”<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace declined to comment when contacted by GB News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duchess of Sussex has pulled out of attending the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,55521,100,68053,46804,1852,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-682984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-invictus-games","tag-meghan-markle","tag-prince-archie","tag-princess-lilibet","tag-royal","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}