Prince Harry returns to UK for Prince Philip's funeral without pregnant wife Meghan Markle

Prince Harry yesterday flew to London Heathrow Airport for Prince Philip’s funeral without his heavily-pregnant wife Meghan Markle on his first visit to Britain since quitting royal duties last year.

The Duke of Sussex was reportedly seen leaving his £11million California mansion on Saturday night in a black Cadillac Escalade to board an early-hours flight from LA, and disembarking a BA plane in chinos, a jacket and black face mask at the west London airport around 10 hours later at 1.15pm GMT.  

Harry was met by security off the plane and put into a black Range Rover, before he was reportedly driven to Kensington Palace. It is thought he will be quarantining at Nottingham Cottage, because his official home under the Megxit deal, Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, has been handed to Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. 

Christopher Wren-designed Nottingham Cottage is where Harry proposed to Meghan Markle in 2017, and is just a few yards from the apartment where his brother William lives with his family. 

The Duke of Cambridge, who is likely to be at home, was said to be ‘very upset’ and ‘reeling’ over claims the Sussexes made in their Oprah interview, especially claims that the Royal Family is racist. Experts say their grandfather’s funeral could be the ‘ideal opportunity’ for William and Harry to heal their rift.

Harry can leave quarantine after five days rather than 10 if he provides a negative coronavirus test under the Government’s Test to Release scheme. However, he will be allowed to attend Philip’s funeral regardless, as official guidelines state those coming in from abroad can leave isolation ‘on compassionate grounds’.  

Sources close to the couple said former Suits actress Meghan wanted to join Harry but was advised against travelling by her physician because she is pregnant with their second child – a daughter. 

The royal family ordered a truce over the contents of the bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey to focus on honouring Philip, who died at the Berkshire residence on Friday just two months before his 100th birthday. 

Harry and Meghan were criticised for accusing the royal family of racism during the CBS special, broadcast by ITV in the UK while Philip was in hospital receiving treatment for an infection and a pre-existing heart condition. Sources say the duke was brief about the content of the interview after he left hospital. 

In a short tribute to Philip, the Sussexes wrote on their Archewell organisation website: In loving memory of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, 1921-2021. Thank you for your service… you will be greatly missed.’ 

Harry was last pictured with Philip in May 2019, when they were seen posing for a photograph with baby Archie at Buckingham Palace. 

Harry’s return to the UK ahead of Saturday’s funeral will be his first since March 2020 when he moved to Canada, and will be the first opportunity to reunite with Prince William. It came as:  

• Sophie, Countess of Wessex, led royal tributes outside the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge in Windsor as she described the duke’s death as ‘so gentle’ and said: ‘It was just like someone took him by the hand and off he went’;
• Prince Philip thought Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was ‘madness’ and ‘no good would come of it’, friend Gyles Brandreth said;
• The Duke of Edinburgh’s children continue their tributes, with Prince Andrew calling him the ‘grandfather of the nation’ while Princess Anne called her father her ‘teacher, supporter and critic’; 

Philip’s ceremonial royal funeral will take place on April 17, and a national minute’s silence will be observed as it begins at 3pm. The duke will be carried on a specially-modified Land Rover he helped design which Army engineers reportedly prepared after he was admitted to hospital in February. 

Just 30 people, expected to be the duke’s children, grandchildren and other close family, will attend his funeral while wearing face masks and socially distancing, due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

Harry will walk behind the coffin alongside his brother Prince William and the rest of his family at Saturday’s funeral at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. He will not wear his military uniform after being stripped of his official honorary titles honours, and instead will wear a suit along with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. 

Harry and William’s relationship is said to have taken a frosty turn, after initially being close brothers. 

The warring princes are said to have spoken by telephone following Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah, but friends of the LA-based couple said the conversation was ‘not productive’.

During his explosive tell-all, Harry hinted at the extent of the alleged rift between the two brothers, claiming that their relationship was now ‘space’, but added he hoped time would be a healer. 

He went on to claim he was ‘on different paths’ to William, saying: ‘I love William to bits, he’s my brother. We’ve been through hell together, we have a shared experience, but we were on different paths.’

Following the interview, CBS presenter Gayle King claimed she had spoken to the Sussexes who told her that Harry had talked to the Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales after its airing – but she said the conversations were ‘not productive’.  

The Duke of Cambridge was the first royal to personally respond to the tell-all days after the interview aired when he spoke about mental health during a visit the School21 in east London. At the time, he revealed that he had not spoken to his brother since it came out, but added that he ‘will do’. 

A royal insider revealed William’s friendship with ITV News at 10 host Tom Bradby is another casualty of the fall out, explaining how the duke reportedly ended his two-decade friendship with the journalist after he sided with Harry and Meghan in the increasingly bitter transatlantic war of the Windsors.

The source told MailOnline: ‘The friendship between William and Tom is very much over. The Duke feels let down by Bradby and the way he’s acted over the past few months. William is a sensitive soul and believes it’s in times of crisis when you find out who your true friends are. It would be fair to say Bradby hasn’t been one of them.’ 

However, ITV viewers expressed their sadness over William and Harry’s relationship after seeing their closeness in film The Day Will and Kate Got Married.

The programme, which marked 10 years since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s big day in Westminster Abbey, showed the brothers smiling at one another as they made their way to the altar ahead of Kate’s arrival.  

It comes as senior royals continue to pay tribute to Philip, with his daughter-in-law saying how his passing was ‘just like someone took him by the hand and off he went’, accompanied by her husband Prince Edward and their daughter Lady Louise Windsor. 

Also at the Sunday service was Prince Andrew, who called his father Philip ‘the grandfather of the nation’ in what is thought to be the first time he has spoken in public since his ‘car-crash’ Newsnight interview in 2019 on his friendship with convicted billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Queen is understood to have said private prayers for her beloved husband, a World War Two hero to whom she was married for 73 years, at a Sunday mass in Windsor Castle. The 94-year-old monarch was later spotted arriving at the Windsor estate after taking her pet corgis out for a walk. 

In a statement, Anne, the Princess Royal and the Queen’s only daughter, described how ‘you are never really ready’ for the loss of a close one. In a statement, she called her father ‘my teacher, my supporter and my critic’. ‘Mostly it is his example of a life well lived and service freely given that I most wanted to emulate,’ she added.   

Speaking to mourners outside the chapel, Sophie said: ‘You know it’s going to happen but when it happens it’s just this massive, massive hole. It was so gentle, it was just like someone took him by the hand and off he went. 

‘Very, very peaceful and that’s all you want with somebody isn’t it? I think it’s so much easier for the person that goes than the people left behind, we’re all sitting here looking at each other going ‘This is awful’.’ 

The countess also called all the tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh ‘amazing’ and even shared a joke about the manicured lawn of the church yard. Pointing to the sky, Sophie remarked: ‘Well we know if [staff] had not done such a great job, there is one person who would have noticed!’ 

Edward, the Queen and Philip’s youngest son, emotionally revealed: ‘However one tries to prepare oneself for something like this, it’s still a dreadful shock and we’re sort of trying to come to terms with that.

‘It’s very, very, sad, but I have to say, the extraordinary tributes and the memories that everybody’s had and been willing to share has been so fantastic and it just goes to show, he might have been our father, grandfather, father-in-law, but he meant so much to so many other people.

‘And just being here this morning with everybody from Windsor Great Park and he was a ranger here for, I think, more years than any other ranger and he means so much to so many people here and it’s the same for those who lived and worked at Balmoral and Sandringham. 

‘For all those past and present, he means a huge huge amount to them… they all have their own personal memories and stories and our hearts go out to all of them as well.’

Sophie added: ‘He always exchanged words with everybody because it didn’t matter what anybody was doing in and around the estate, here and everywhere else, they all meant a lot to him and he always took a very personal interest in everything that they were doing. So they’ve all got stories to tell and most of them are quite funny as well’.   

Separately, Edward added that his mother was ‘bearing up’ and the royal family appreciated ‘the wave of affection’ for the Duke of Edinburgh from the public since his death was announced on Friday.

The earl said: ‘That wave of affection for him and just those lovely stories. They just mean so much and the tributes have been just fantastic. That’s really, really important and we really do appreciate it.’ 

Referring to the warm wishes that have poured in from around the world, Sophie said it had been ‘so lovely for so many people to learn about what he did’. She added: ‘I just think quite a lot of things that have come out will have surprised some people and how intrinsic he was to every element of society, if you look at it.’

The couple recalled some of the scrapes Philip got into while carriage driving around the Windsor estate. Smiling, Sophie said Philip had been ‘pulled out of a few ditches here I seem to remember as well’.

Laughing, Edward said: ‘In the early days, yes, he used to have a few problems.’ Sophie added: ‘More recently too.’ Philip took up carriage driving after being forced to retire from polo in 1971 due to a wrist injury.

He was driving competitively just two years later and would go on to teach Sophie, while Lady Louise is also a keen participant. The sport can be dangerous and Philip had what he dubbed his own ‘annus horribilis’ in 1994 with ‘no less than eight disasters’.   

The Duke of York, who stepped down from royal duties after his interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, revealed how the ‘incredibly stoic’ Queen had described the loss of her husband as having ‘left a huge void in her life’. He said Philip’s death has left the 94-year-old monarch grieving, adding: ‘She is feeling it more than anyone.’  

Andrew said of his father: ‘He was a remarkable man. I loved him as a father. He was so calm. He was always someone you could go to. We have lost the grandfather of the nation.’

He said of the Queen: ‘She described his passing as a miracle and she’s contemplating, I think is the way that I would put it. She described it as having left a huge void in her life but we, the family, the ones that are close, are rallying round to make sure that we’re there to support her.’   

The Duke of York also added: ‘It’s a terrible loss. My father said to me on the telephone a few months ago, ”We are all in the same boat and we must always remember that, but occasionally we, the family, are asked to stand up and show compassion and leadership”. 

‘And unfortunately, with my father’s death, it has brought it home to me, not just our loss, but actually the loss that everybody else has felt, for so many people who have died and lost loved ones during the pandemic. And so, we are all in the same boat – slightly different circumstances because he didn’t die from Covid, but we’re all feeling a great sense of loss.’ 

Anne said: ‘His ability to treat every person as an individual in their own right with their own skills comes through all the organisations with which he was involved. I regard it as an honour and a privilege to have been asked to follow in his footsteps and it has been a pleasure to have kept him in touch with their activities.

‘I know how much he meant to them, in the UK, across the Commonwealth and in the wider world.  

‘I would like to emphasise how much the family appreciate the messages and memories of so many people whose lives he also touched. We will miss him but he leaves a legacy which can inspire us all.’ 

Canon Martin Poll, chaplain to Windsor Great Park, greeted Edward, Sophie, their teenage daughter and Andrew before the service yesterday. 

Looking sombre and reflective, the royal party spoke to workers from the Windsor estate and the congregation when they arrived at All Saints, which the Queen normally attends outside of lockdown.

The royals thanked everyone for their support particularly over the last few days following the duke’s death on Friday.  

Philip’s funeral at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, next Saturday will be like no other royal funeral, with the Queen and her family wearing face masks and socially distancing as they gather to say their final farewell amid coronavirus restrictions.

Buckingham Palace has announced that Prince Philip’s ceremonial royal funeral will take place on April 17 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, and a national minute’s silence will be observed as it begins at 3pm. The funeral service will be broadcast worldwide. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury also led a solemn remembrance service for Prince Philip at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday. 

The service started at 10.30am with Justin Welby paying tribute to the duke after his death on Friday morning. 

It was a small, socially distanced gathering with the Queen represented by Lady Colgrain, the Lord-Lieutenant of Kent. Also in attendance was the High Sheriff of Kent, the Lord Mayor of Kent, the Sheriff of Canterbury and the chief executive of Canterbury. 

Edward Elgar’s stirring Nimrod was played, the piece of music that accompanies many British funerals and memorial services and is played annually at the Cenotaph in London to mark the National Service of Remembrance.  

In his sermon, the Archbishop said that the Duke of Edinburgh had a ‘remarkable willingness’ to ‘take the hand he was dealt in life’. However, he added that the Duke ‘would have been the first to harrumph strongly at over-spiritualisation of himself’. 

The Reverend Canon Tim Naish spoke after the Archbishop and added: ‘We pray for all those who mourn Prince Philip’s death. We pray for comfort and strength for Elizabeth our Queen.’ 

Marking the third of eight days of national morning, people also gathered at royal palaces to leave flowers despite calls from the palace and the government to stay away to maintain social distancing guidelines. 

Paying tribute to the late Duke at the special service, Mr Welby said: ‘It is God who creates, God who calls, and God who sends. For His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, there was a willingness, a remarkable willingness, to take the hand he was dealt in life, and straightforwardly to follow its call. To search its meaning, to go out and on as sent, to inquire and think, to trust and to pray. 

He added: ‘For the royal family, as for every other, no words can reach into the depth of sorrow that goes into bereavement. We all know that it is not simply a factor of age or familiarity. It is not obliterated by the reality of a very long life remarkably led, nor is the predictability of death’s arrival a softening of the blow. Loss is loss.’

The archbishop urged prayers for the family and others who are grieving. 

He said: ‘Our lives are not completed before death, but their eternity is prepared. So we can indeed pray that the Duke of Edinburgh may rest in peace and rise in glory. We may pray for comfort. We may pray and offer love for all who find that a great life leaves a very great gap. 

‘For the royal family and the millions who have themselves suffered loss, we can know that the presence of Christ will bring peace, and the light of Christ will shine strongly, and it is in that light that we can strengthen one another with eternal hope.’

The Duke will be taken to St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on a Land Rover he helped to design, and will be flanked by pall bearers from the Royal Marines, Regiments, Corps and Air Stations. 

The decision to carry Philip in the custom-built car comes after he is said to have told the Queen: ‘Just stick me in the back of a Land Rover and drive me to Windsor.’

Immediately behind the Land Rover, the Prince of Wales and other members of the family, likely to be the Duke’s other children and some of his grandchildren including Harry and William, will proceed on foot.

Prince Harry will travel to the UK to be with his family for the service, but his pregnant wife Meghan will remain at their home in California after being advised not to travel by her doctor. 

Official royal mourning will then take place for two weeks after the funeral.  Only 30 people – expected to be the Duke’s children, grandchildren and other close family – will attend as guests. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be among guests, having stepped aside to allow for the attendance of as many family members as possible during coronavirus restrictions, No 10 said last night.  

The Land Rover’s poignant role in the funeral proceedings always formed part of Operation Forth Bridge – the codename given to the plans following Philip’s death. 

A senior Palace official said: ‘The Duke of Edinburgh had a hand many years ago in the design of these vehicles.’ The official added that there were two Land Rovers for ‘belt and braces’.

The Queen has approved the Prime Minister’s recommendation of national mourning, which began on April 9 and runs until and including the day of the funeral.  

Originally 800 people would have been due to gather to pay their respects to the nation’s longest serving consort, but Philip is known to have wanted a low key affair. 

The first guest confirmed by the palace was the duke’s long-standing close aide, his private secretary Brigadier Archie Miller Bakewell, who will be one of the few, and possibly only, non-royals invited to attend.

Brigadier Miller Bakewell had been the Duke’s right hand man for 11 years, taking on the role in 2010. 

And brothers William and Harry are expected to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ a they come together for the first time since Harry’s bombshell Oprah interview.   

All public elements of the funeral have been cancelled, and it will be televised but take place entirely in the grounds of the castle, the Palace said. 

The Queen has decided the royal family will enter two weeks of royal mourning, and engagements will continue appropriate to the circumstances, a senior royal official said. 

No uniform for Prince Harry at the funeral? Duke of Sussex is expected to attend the service in a suit after being stripped of military roles following Megxit 

By REBECCA ENGLISH, ROYAL EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL  

Prince Harry is unlikely to wear a military uniform at his grandfather’s funeral.

He was stripped of his role as Captain General of the Royal Marines, which he took over from Prince Philip, after deciding to quit royal duties last year.

He also lost two other honorary military positions. This means he cannot wear the corresponding uniforms at official events.

It is likely he will dress like other former servicemen in a suit and medals.

Harry spent ten years with the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals), rising to the rank of lieutenant and served in Afghanistan.

He wore his Blues and Royals uniform when he married Meghan at Windsor in 2018.

Other members of the Royal Family, notably Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and the Earl of Wessex are expected to attend in regimental dress.

The only other male senior royal in a suit is likely to be the Duke of York, who stepped back from public life in 2019 over his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Buckingham Palace has said it will confirm details later this week.