Queen Camilla Reportedly Offered Prince Harry an “Olive Branch” at Recent Meetup Through This Simple Gesture

Rachel BurchfieldMon, August 24, 2026 at 1:37 PM UTC

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Queen Camilla and Prince Harry on June 13, 2015.Credit: GettyThe Gist -

Queen Camilla was present for the July 10 meeting at Highgrove that reunited her husband, King Charles, with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet.

Though there have been tensions between Camilla and her stepson Harry over the years, royal biographer Tom Bower reported that the queen politely offered the Duke of Sussex a cup of tea.

The simple gesture is understood to be somewhat of “an olive branch,” and preceded the Sussex family’s August 19 news that they are moving back to the United Kingdom.

Admittedly, the relationship between Prince Harry and his stepmother Queen Camilla hasn’t always been picture perfect—but the queen apparently offered the Duke of Sussex “an olive branch” at their recent meetup in the form of a simple gesture.

Queen Camilla and Prince Harry on June 16, 2012.Credit: Getty

On July 10, Harry—along with his wife Meghan Markle and their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5—visited King Charles’s country home, Highgrove, in Gloucestershire. The closed-door meeting was kept firmly under wraps, but Camilla was also there. Notably, it marked the first time Charles had seen Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet face-to-face in four years, since 2022.

According to royal biographer Tom Bower, Camilla approached Harry with a “fixed smile” and “offered him tea,” Bower wrote in The Daily Mail. The meeting, a source said, was “polite with no recrimination.”

Prince Harry and Queen Camilla on June 15, 2013.Credit: Getty

In 2005, Charles and Camilla married in April; Harry turned 21 that September. In an interview celebrating his birthday, Harry called Camilla a “wonderful woman,” and joked, “she’s not the wicked stepmother.”

But there has been plenty of water under the bridge since then. In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry wrote that he and his brother Prince William “long harbored suspicions about the ‘Other Woman,’” and later labeled Camilla “dangerous” during a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper.

Queen Camilla and Prince Harry on May 17, 2008.Credit: Getty

“She was the villain, she was a third person in the marriage [of Charles and Princess Diana], she needed to rehabilitate her image,” he added. Not surprisingly, one of Camilla’s friends later told The Times that the queen was left hurt by the comments. “Of course it bothers her,” said Lady Lansdowne, one of Camilla’s six royal companions (per Hello!).

Speaking on Good Morning America in 2023, Harry said that he and Camilla “haven’t spoken for a long time. I love every member of my family, despite the differences. So when I see her, we’re perfectly pleasant with each other.”

“She’s my stepmother,” he continued. “I don’t look at her as an evil stepmother. I see someone who married into this institution and done everything she can to improve her own reputation and her own image, for her own sake.”

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Meghan Markle, Queen Camilla, Prince Harry, and King Charles on June 19, 2018.Credit: Getty

Charles kept their July reunion a secret, only telling Camilla that it was happening “so that she could be by his side,” Vanity Fair reported. The news seemed to reach Camilla rather last minute, as the queen—who was at her Ray Mill House estate when she learned about the meeting—rushed over to Highgrove in “quite a hurry,” Vanity Fair reported.

“Charles wanted Camilla to be there for moral support and because she has been a pillar of strength for him throughout all the drama with Harry, and she dropped everything,” a source told the publication. “She told no one—not even her family. She just got in the car and headed over. They were all on a mission to keep the meeting as watertight as possible.”

Royal historian Catherine Mayer told People that Camilla “is a non-negotiable part of Charles’s life,” adding of Charles and Harry’s ongoing efforts at mending their relationship, “There’s no reconciliation with him without her.”

King Charles, Queen Camilla, and Prince Harry on July 10, 2005.Credit: Getty

Since that July meetup, the bombshell news that the Sussexes are relocating to the U.K. imminently dropped on August 19. “Harry has been really keen for the children to experience life in the U.K., and Meghan will support this as well,” a friend of Harry’s told Hello!. “They feel the time is right. They’ll want to get the kids settled. Obviously, the longer you leave it, the harder that becomes because of the age they are.”

The family of four “had a wonderful time this summer, and that was part of what went into the decision,” a friend of Harry and Meghan’s added. “They realized that they wanted to take the opportunity to bring their kids home and share his family’s history with them. They saw a lot of friends and family during their visit. They’re excited to give the children more time in a country that’s important to them, and they have the flexibility to be able to do that while the kids are young.”

As for a reconciliation with the wider royal family, a friend told Hello!, “One step at a time. But having the opportunity to have relationships with friends and family that are harder from the other side of the world? The driver is there.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on September 20, 2025.Credit: Getty

“I don’t think anything will be immediate,” the friend continued. “They’re obviously going to move and get the kid into school, and we’ll see how it goes from there. But I hope there’s a way that this could all work harmoniously. Hopefully, there is space for positive working opportunities for everybody.”

Harry, Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet are expected to be moved into a private, non-royal residence outside of London by the end of August. The children will begin school in September, and Harry and Meghan are not expected to return to their working royal roles. The move is not being billed as permanent, and Harry and Meghan have retained their Montecito, California home, as well as a vacation home in Portugal.

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