Palace IS irritated as Harry and Meghan's Nottingham walkabout looks every inch a royal engagement
Meghan greets well-wishers outside Nottingham's Community Recording Studio, telling fans "it's great to be back" at her first UK public appearance since the late Queen's funeral in 2022.Prince Harry with a young attendee at Epic Partners in Nottingham, as the couple's charity schedule prompted the palace to clarify the Sussexes are acting as private citizens, not working royals.Irene Hardman, 90, was kissed by Meghan during the Nottingham visit — she had kept a framed photograph from Harry and Meghan's 2017 walkabout in the city.Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pictured with Prince Harry during their Nottingham visit, which included an emotional reunion with four Grenfell women who featured in her community cookbook.Meghan on her Instagram Story, posted during the Nottingham visit on which she declared "it's great to be back" and kissed 90-year-old Irene Hardman, who had kept a framed photograph from their 2017 walkabout.Prince Harry and Meghan at the Himmah food bank, one of three charity visits on a day in Nottingham that mirrored their pre-Megxit royal duties nine years after their first walkabout there.
Harry and Meghan drew a crowd of around 150 supporters in Nottingham on Thursday, returning to the city where they first appeared together publicly as a couple in 2017. Buckingham Palace, which has written to government departments and the military to make clear the Sussexes are private citizens, is said to be irritated by a visit that bore all the hallmarks of an official royal engagement. A friend of the couple said they "never agreed" to the ban on a half-in, half-out arrangement and that King Charles III's ruling was "foisted upon them."
King Charles was given only days' notice before the Nottingham trip was announced publicly in August.
As Charles and Camilla contended with an arrest outside the Welsh Senedd, Harry and Meghan were greeted with flags, flowers and cries of 'I love you Meghan.'
Harry declared himself "the chef in the family" after struggling to ice cupcakes — then licked the glaze off his fingers.
