The Queen is likely to meet her great-grandchild Lilibet for the first time this Christmas, a royal expert has suggested.
After quitting as senior royals and moving to California early last year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly keen to visit the UK.
Harry has only returned to the UK twice since the move, while Meghan and two-year-old Archie have not been back so far.
A Christmas return by the Sussexes would be a chance to work towards healing the rift in the Royal Family, according to royal author Katie Nicholl and author of Harry And Meghan: Life, Loss, And Love.
Katie told Closer magazine : "When Harry and Meghan left, they made it clear they didn’t want to give up their home in Britain. They still have Frogmore Cottage and their plan was to come back to the UK.
"Christmas is being looked at as an opportunity. There may be a softening, which could pave the way for a healing of the family rift.
”It’s certainly what the Queen wants. Prince Charles would like to see his grandchildren. A meet-up suggests they hope to move on and sort things out."
Harry and Meghan's newborn daughter Lilibet has not been to the UK since her birth in June and has yet to meet her great-grandmother or her grandfather Prince Charles.
The last time the couple spent Christmas in the UK was in 2018, seven months after their wedding.
The pair have made few appearances since the birth of their most recent child but it has been reported that they are set to enter a “new era of visibility”.
This weekend they are due to join a team of celebrities for a 24-hour global TV show in New York City, which organisers say is intended to “continue their urgent work with world leaders in the pursuit of global vaccine equity to end the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere".
The trip to New York comes after they were also named in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in 2021.
The magazine praised the pair for having "compassion for the people they don't know", adding: "They don't just opine. They run towards the struggle.”
Their inclusion on the list was marked with a series of striking photos of the pair shot at their £11million mansion in California.
