Meghan Markle was reported to be staying away while Prince Harry spent a difficult week in the U.K. alone, making hospital visits in London and Birmingham on Wednesday and Thursday after a court defeat and a fresh push for a reunion with King Charles III.
That is why her name is being searched now: Harry, 41, was also denied rooms at Buckingham Palace during the trip, while reporters said he was trying to make the meeting happen with King Charles III before Friday's Invictus Games event in Birmingham. Royal sources said the king remained open to seeing Harry and Meghan in the next few days, and senior aides were told to reach out about a first meeting with Archie and Lilibet in four years.
The week, though, was being judged less by what was said in private than by who was not there. People reported that Meghan had been scheduled to accompany Harry to at least one of the events, yet he appeared on his own throughout the hospital visits. That fed the question already hanging over the trip: whether Meghan would actually cross the Atlantic for a reunion that had been discussed around the king, the children and the possibility of a family reset.
Commentators did not hide their doubts. Charlotte Griffiths, Kate Mansey and Kinsey Schofield all said they were skeptical Meghan would join Harry this week, and Schofield put it bluntly: “Meghan is MIA. She's nowhere to be found.” She also said she did not think Meghan wanted to be “on the arm of a loser,” a remark that landed harder because Harry had just lost a court battle over security in 2025 and a separate case against the Daily Mail was described as another major blow.
That legal backdrop has shadowed the Sussexes for years. Harry and Meghan lost automatic taxpayer-funded police protection six years ago when they quit working royal life and moved to California, and some royal journalists have long argued that their security fight was as much about optics as safety. Now the optics are plain enough: Harry traveled without Meghan, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet were said to have been vacationing in Portugal, and the reunion that had been teased all week still has not been confirmed.
For now, the strongest reading is that Harry is trying to keep the trip moving forward while the family question remains unsettled. The king may still be open to seeing them, but unless Meghan changes course, the week in London and Birmingham will be remembered less as a reunion and more as another royal visit defined by absence.
