royal visit to sussex today

Harry and Meghan: everything we know about their Jubilee visit to the UK

After months of meticulous planning, amaretti trifle baking and stringing up bunting, the Jubilee weekend is finally upon us.

But the big question still remains: what role will Meghan and Harry have in all the celebrations? Today, after much will they, won’t they speculation, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are due to jet into the UK. Though they will reportedly be keeping a “low profile”, in order to not to upstage The Queen .

The Sussexes’ return to the UK marks their first public appearance together in the UK since their departure for California in March 2020. Although the couple paid a private visit to the Queen in April this year before the Invictus Games in Holland.

Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK also marks the first time their youngest daughter Lilibet, 11 months, will meet her great-grandmother the Queen and grandfather Prince Charles , as well as taking her first steps on British soil.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

The Sussexes are due to fly into the UK today and will be staying at their former residence Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, which is currently being rented by Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank and their one-year-old son August.

Despite their return, Prince Harry, Meghan, and their two children will not be appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Trooping of the Colour on Thursday, after Her Majesty announced that would be reserved for working royals only. This includes Prince William and Kate, Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Camilla and Prince Edward and Sophie.

However, according to Buckingham Palace after “careful consideration” the Queen has made exceptions for Princess Anne’s husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, her two youngest grandchildren Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, whose parents are the Duke and Duchess of Wessex. Prince Louis, Charlotte and George will also be on the iconic balcony overlooking the Mall.

Meanwhile, the Sussexes and rest of the royal family, including Prince Andrew, are expected to watch the military parade from the royal box in the grandstand, at the Queen Victoria Memorial, outside the palace.

Harry and Meghan are expected to make an official appearance the following day at the service of thanksgiving for the Queen at St Paul’s Cathedral and the open-air concert to be held at Buckingham Palace on Saturday evening. The Platinum Party features a roster of performances by musical legends including Diana Ross, Queen + Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys and Nile Rogers.

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Her Majesty is expected to celebrate her youngest grandchild and namesake Lilibet’s first birthday in a more intimate setting on Saturday. This is expected to be the first time the monarch meets her granddaughter. ​​There has been speculation that Harry and Meghan will host a small birthday party for Lilibet at Frogmore Cottage in the afternoon before the open-air concert, which the Queen will forego her favourite horse racing event the Epsom Derby to attend.

The Jubilee celebrations will round off on Sunday with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant procession , which will include a musical tribute by Ed Sheeran, a 3D bust of the Queen and puppet corgis.

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Russia mulls labelling Pugacheva, queen of Soviet pop, a 'foreign agent'

Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to consider labelling Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a "foreign agent", a move that would officially designate Russia's most famous star a foe of the Kremlin.

Russian missile and drone attacks hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine, power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday, in the latest barrage targeting the country's already damaged power infrastructure.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are Headed to Canada This Month

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will celebrate one year to go until the 2025 Invictus Games.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are going to be in Canada later this month!

This past fall, the Sussexes were in Düsseldorf, Germany for the 2023 edition of the Invictus Games , and to share the news of their upcoming engagements in Vancouver and Whistler, they released two new photos of the 2023 Games photographed by their friend, Misan Harriman ( see above ).

Next year's Invictus Games will be the first winter edition of the sporting event. "The Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 will offer a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sports. With deep respect, I’m also pleased to share that the Games in Canada will be held in partnership with the First Nations, in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with indigenous communities," Prince Harry said in a statement.

The location has a special meaning for the couple as well; back in 2019, the Duke and Duchess, along with baby Archie, vacationed on Canada's Vancouver Island just before announcing their decision to step down as senior working royals. (There are glimpses into their time in Vancouver in their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan .) And, recently, Harry and Meghan were in Vancouver for a Canucks game , where they celebrated the Invictus Games coming to the city.

The Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 will take place from February 8 through 16, 2025.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Royal Rebel on a Mission: Prince Harry Seeks to 'Win Back' Prince William's Trust During U.K. Trip

Harry, Duke of Sussex , is on a mission to "win back" his estranged brother Prince William's trust.

"Prince Harry will do all he can to 'win' back his brother Prince William on his trip to England, but he knows it will take time," a royal insider spilled.

"He will do all he can to let his brother know he is there for him and to repair that bond," the source added. "He knows it won't be easy. He wants nothing more for them to get back to how they once were. He knows it will take time, and Harry is ready to put in the work as he is determined to have his family back and show support."

This May will mark both the 1-year anniversary of King Charles III's coronation, as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's "near catastrophic" car chase in Manhattan . But the month may also become unforgettable once again thanks to a proposed meeting between Harry and Prince William, who reportedly have not spoken to one another since September 2022.

"Given Kate's cancer diagnosis , Harry will certainly make efforts to see his brother and Kate when he returns to the U.K. in May — if it happens at all it's to be a very brief carefully choreographed meeting and organized to last a short time so that the brothers can avoid any difficult conversations," royal author Tom Quinn dished.

He continued: "At the same time, Harry knows how it will look if he comes back to the U.K. and doesn't see his brother and Kate. It's going to be a very awkward time."

This meeting would come after Harry's "blink, and you'll miss it" meeting with King Charles III on February 6, following the monarch's cancer disclosure. It would also allow the Montecito Duke to meet with his sister-in-law, Kate, Princess of Wales, since she announced her cancer diagnosis to the world on Friday, March 22.

"We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace," the Duke and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex shared to media outlets through their representative about HRH's diagnosis.

The royal rebels did not release any further information on the princess' condition, or if they planned to visit with her like Harry did when King Charles announced his battle with cancer. Their plea for Kate to have a "peaceful" treatment process comes amid one of their friends pushing a conspiracy about Her Royal Highness.

Like her husband, the Princess of Wales is believed to be estranged from both royals and reportedly has not spoken to Meghan since Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September 2022.

Daily Mirror spoke with the insider.

King Charles stresses importance of friendship 'in a time of need' after Princess Kate cancer diagnosis

LONDON — King Charles III delivered an Easter message Thursday stressing the importance of friendship, “especially in a time of need” — his first public remarks since Kate, the Princess of Wales , revealed she had become the second senior royal to be diagnosed with cancer .

The pre-recorded audio message comes ahead of the king’s attend ance at a service on Easter Sunday , in what will be his most significant public appearance since his own cancer diagnosis in February.

Charles, 75, was heard at a traditional Maundy Thursday service at Worcester Cathedral, near Birmingham in the West Midlands, some 130 miles northwest of London.

He spoke of how Jesus set an “example of how we should serve and care for each other,” and how “we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need,” according to the Press Association, a British news agency that typically reports royal announcements.

Buckingham Palace confirmed Wednesday that the king will attend the Easter Mattins Service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle — one of the most important spiritual events in the royal calendar.

The king did not address his daughter-in-law’s health directly or name her in his brief personal message on Thursday. But royal watchers may interpret his words in the context of the ongoing family health crisis.

He also delivered a Bible reading.

The king did not appear in person at Thursday’s event — instead Queen Camilla deputized for him. Charles has stepped back from public engagements on medical advice.

The king’s public relations team also released a new picture of the monarch sitting at a desk in Buckingham Palace’s 18th Century Room, apparently recording his address into a microphone.

Charles has spoken of how touched he is by the outpouring of messages and cards from well-wishers from across the United Kingdom and beyond as he undergoes treatment for cancer, the exact type and stage of which the palace has not disclosed.

The king released a statement after Kate revealed her diagnosis last Friday, saying that he had become closer to his daughter-in-law through their shared hospital stays.

The king was “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did,” the statement said.

The Royal Maundy service is part of the king’s role as the head of the Anglican Church. The monarch hands out specially made coins in white and red purses to 75 men and 75 women to reward them for good deeds such as charity work, a reference to the king’s age. Camilla performed that role on Thursday.

The event symbolizes the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of disciples the day before Good Friday. The custom dates back to 600 A.D. and the coins have been in use since 1662, when Charles II distributed Maundy money.

Charles attended last year’s service at York Minster, following a tradition set by Queen Elizabeth II to hold it in different places across the U.K., not just in London.

The king continues to work behind the scenes while receiving treatment for cancer. On Tuesday, he met community and faith leaders from the Windsor Leadership charity at Buckingham Palace, and he continues to hold a weekly audience with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, albeit on at least one occasion by phone .

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Pamela Paul

The Real Royal Scandal Is on Us

By Pamela Paul

Opinion Columnist

Americans have always loved a royal scandal, even a smidgen more than British royalists do themselves. Some of this is easily attributable to our inborn desire for no more kings . Lately, however, the British royals have been given the same reality-star treatment every microcelebrity in America attracts.

Give us everything. Or you’ll regret it.

Historically, of course, the royals have provided. There was the Duke of Windsor’s abdication and apparent support for Nazism . Prince Charles’s and Princess Diana’s flagrant infidelities and divorce. Prince Andrew’s close ties with the since convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his own accusations of sexual abuse . And a massively popular Netflix series swanned in, dramatizing these and other ignoble ordeals, ready to sully the gleam before watchful eyes.

In this milieu, Kate Middleton’s refusal to cooperate is all the more frustrating. In January, Catherine, Princess of Wales, as she is officially known, stepped back from royal duties with a dissatisfyingly vague and brief announcement from Kensington Palace. The statement said she underwent and planned to recover from abdominal surgery until Easter.

The response was outrage and disbelief. Why hadn’t the princess specified the nature of her surgery? What, precisely, was her diagnosis? How, how could she leave us this way?

“To say she has broken the internet would be only the start of it,” The Spectator noted in an essay about America’s fixation on the British princess. “Rumors of her well-being are making their way into every newsroom, dive bar and church fellowship hour across America.”

Then, this week, in a brief video statement, Kate Middleton revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment. This is a stark contrast with her fellow royal Meghan Markle, semi-Duchess of Sussex and far more attuned to the public’s need for a blow-by-blow of her inner journey, who announced a new lifestyle brand the same week, complete with a new Instagram page and website .

Unlike Meghan, Kate has largely related to the public through her official duties and has otherwise tried to keep her family life private. The point here is not to contrast these two very different women and their respective relationships to the public but rather to point out that while Meghan’s revelations may be perfectly suited to our ravenous internet age, Kate’s approach has clearly failed to sufficiently overstuff the beast.

The American public has become so accustomed to unfettered access to public figures that we expect total self-exposure as a matter of course. Meanwhile, we meet their need for privacy, which belongs to every human, whether humdrum or celebrated, with a kind of rabid suspicion. The moment anyone in the public eye requests a desire to step away from the glare, we collectively make the worst-possible-scenario assumptions.

Now’s a good moment to rethink all of that. Kate’s terrible news shouldn’t just make us feel terrible for Kate; it should also make us feel terrible about ourselves.

Reconsider, in this new light, the outcry that met with Kate’s touched-up Mother’s Day photograph and its strange anomalies . Her efforts to sate those royal loyalists who expected their annual Mother’s Day greeting and to quell the public speculation that had overrun tabloids and TikTok for months only fanned the flames for more information and signaled the need for ever more transparency.

The demands from nonroyals were immediate. What exactly had been done to the photograph and why? What were they covering up? Who was responsible?

“A sign of the monarchy’s deepening instability, ” The Cut warned.

“ Damaging to the public’s trust in the royal family,” said The Telegraph.

It is vital, The Spectator’s royal observer wrote, “for Kensington Palace that the increasing hysteria should be brought under control.”

Someone, the public insisted, needed to take ownership of the catastrophe. In response, The Times of London reported , “a shaken princess told aides that she wanted to make amends and claim responsibility for her mistake.”

But the response to Kate’s apology on X was yet more skepticism and speculation. Furious gossips sniped about the palace “refusing” to release the original photo. One prolific media critic denounced the monarchy as a “ deep fake ,” “Her disappearance from public view is getting weirder,” Vox wrote ominously. “Was Kate Middleton FORCED to take blame in royal photo scandal?” The Daily Mail blared.

In the eyes of the conspiratorial internet, it was yet another cover-up. Kate was dead . Prince William was having an affair . The self-proclaimed “ Kate conspiracist ” Andy Cohen weighed in with his theories. TMZ blasted out a blurry video purportedly of the royal pair food shopping, which was quickly subjected to a frame-by-frame analysis. Was the female figure, in fact, Kate or, more probably, a stand-in or even the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Rose Hanbury ?

The answer is: Must those questions even be asked? Sometimes a person’s request for privacy is just that, not an invitation for yet more giddy, self-indulgent, obsessive invasiveness.

What we now know is that all this speculation was directed at a woman with cancer. Whatever this news means for the future of the British monarchy, whether one supports or despises it, is of far less consequence than what it means to a young woman with three school-age children, regardless of royal status. In dealing with this terrifying disease, Kate is just another human, with just as much right to handle her illness as she chooses.

Right now Kate Middleton is sick, and the hope is, with proper medical care, she will get better. What, we must wonder, would it take for a culture sick with its own wolfish appetite for self-exposure to try to get better, too?

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

Pamela Paul is an Opinion columnist at The Times, writing about culture, politics, ideas and the way we live now.

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Why was Prince Harry named in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawsuit?

A lawsuit filed by a music producer against Sean “Diddy” Combs names several celebrities, including Prince Harry.

However, the Duke of Sussex is not accused of any wrongdoing in the suit.

Combs is part of a federal investigation following a series of lawsuits since last fall tied to a slew of allegations of wrongdoing, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The lawsuit that names Harry was filed by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones. In the suit, filed in federal court in New York in February 2024, Jones  said  that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him for more than a year while he worked on Combs’ 2023 album.

Jones’ lawsuit, which seeks $30 million in damages, alleges that Combs used his known access to celebrities — such as Harry — as a way to give his sex trafficking parties legitimacy.

In Jones’ lawsuit, Harry is named just once.

“Affiliation with, and or sponsorship of Mr. Combs sex-trafficking parties garnered legitimacy and access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artist, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry,” the initial filing from Feb. 26, 2024, reads.

Jones’ legal team would later amend the filing on March 25, 2024, to accuse actor Cuba Gooding Jr.  of sexually harassing and assaulting him.

“Mr. Combs was known for throwing the ‘best’ parties. Affiliation with, and or sponsorship of Mr. Combs sex-trafficking parties garnered legitimacy and access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artists, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry,” the updated lawsuit reads.

A spokesperson for Prince Harry did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment on March 26.

The lawsuit does not suggest Harry had any knowledge of the allegations against Combs or was involved, but instead seems to name the prince as an example of the type of well-known people to whom the defendants may have had access.

Elsewhere in the lawsuit, Jones alleges that the music executive ordered him to procure sex workers and pressured him to engage in unwelcome sex acts with them and others. Jones also alleges that Combs gave laced alcoholic beverages to people at parties at his homes.

Jones’ case continues to move forward in the legal system. Following the raids on Combs’ homes on March 25, Tyrone Blackburn, the attorney for Jones and another person suing Combs, Liza Gardner, told NBC News that while they “appreciate” the federal government’s raids on Combs, “today’s events are not going to prevent nor delay my clients pending and forthcoming actions for justice and resolution from the Combs RICO Enterprise.”

Representatives for Combs have not commented on the Jones lawsuit to NBC News, but did say on March 26 that the search warrants executed at the musician’s homes were “excessive.”

“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated. Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities,” Aaron Dyer, Combs’ attorney said in a statement.

“Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been restricted in any way. This unprecedented ambush, paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence, leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits. There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”

Sam Kubota is a senior digital editor and journalist for TODAY Digital based in Los Angeles. She joined NBC News in 2019.