Why Meghan And Harry May Not Visit The Queen For Christmas, According To An Expert

The last time Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spent Christmas with Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the royal family was in 2018, and during their first year of marriage. But the cracks beneath the surface in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's relationship with the rest of the family began to show, even then.

According to ET Online, Harry and Meghan, along with Prince William and Kate Middleton, managed to put their differences aside and put smiles on for the cameras during the royal traditional walk from the queen's Sandringham Estate to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on Christmas morning. Royal expert Katie Nicholl even said at the time, "For Christmas Day at least, William and Harry are going to have to bury the hatchet, put a few wobbles behind them. It's not like they're not talking — they're still incredibly close as brothers — [but] there have been fallouts, there has been tension."

Well, as much as the Cambridges and Sussexes managed to hold their grievances to the side that Christmas Day, they decided to skip the royal holiday festivities in both 2019 and 2020 (amid both family drama and a worldwide pandemic). And now it's been reported that Harry and Meghan might not make the trip to London to celebrate Christmas with Queen Elizabeth this year. Here's why.

According to Page Six, while an invitation has been extended to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to join the rest of the royal family for Christmas this year, it seems unlikely that it will happen — despite Harry and Meghan's own desire to see Queen Elizabeth (particularly due to the queen's recent health issues).

For Queen Elizabeth, it's bound to be a rather emotional holiday, seeing how it will be the first one she'll spend without her husband Prince Philip. And while the monarch would no doubt love to see Harry and Meghan, as well as great-grandchildren Archie and her namesake, Lilibet (whom the queen has not yet met), that might not be possible, according to one royal expert. "Harry and Megan won't be able to because of their own particular arrangements," royal biographer Stewart Pearce revealed on Us Weekly's "Royally US" podcast (via Express). "They're very, very busy with the next project or the series of projects because there's a lot going on."

One source close to the situation put it this way to Page Six. "There's a lot that goes into the logistics and the planning of the family Christmas, so of course, staff know that Harry and Meghan are not coming," they said. "If they were, they would have communicated it to their family by now. But this is Her Majesty's first Christmas without her husband, so one would have hoped they would want to be with her." Based on Pearce's notion, it may just have been because their schedules made it impossible.