When I disclosed last month that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had bought a home on the coast of Portugal, the reasons behind the purchase remained shrouded in mystery.
Why had the couple bought their first European property after being evicted from Windsor’s Frogmore Cottage by King Charles early last year?
Now, things may have become clearer: Prince Harry and Meghan could have been seeking an escape route if Donald Trump returned to the White House.
A royal source told me earlier this year that the Sussexes were making increasingly ‘desperate’ efforts to extend olive branches across the Atlantic. It followed a string of hostile comments from the Trump family.
And the same insider yesterday said: ‘We can expect to see more of Harry back in Britain in years to come.’
During a visit to the Trump International Golf Links in Scotland in August, the President-elect’s son Eric called the Duke and Duchess ‘spoiled apples’ and echoed his father’s claims that Harry could be deported if the Republicans won.
Prince Harry and Meghan, pictured here in Dusseldorf last year, could be seeking an escape route in Portugal now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House
‘You can happily have those two,’ Eric added. ‘We might not want them anymore; it feels like they’re on an island of their own.’
Donald Trump had previously suggested that Harry – who has lived in California since 2020 – would not get ‘special privileges’ and indeed may be deported if he is found to have falsified information on his visa form.
In his memoir, Spare, the prince revealed that he formerly took drugs including cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms – which under US law would typically be grounds for a visa application to be rejected.
Last month, a conservative US think-tank attempted to reopen its court case to force the Department for Homeland Security to disclose the prince’s immigration records, on the basis that it had not been allowed to see private submissions to the judge made by the Biden administration.
The previous case brought by the Washington DC-based Heritage Foundation had been dismissed in September, after an almost two-year legal battle, when the judge ruled there was not a strong public interest in releasing the records.
Meghan has previously blasted Trump as ‘divisive’ and a ‘misogynist’, while his son Eric label the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as ‘spoiled apples’
There is, of course, previous between the Trumps and Meghan. When she was still an actress, Meghan described Trump Snr as ‘divisive’ and a ‘misogynist’.
While living in Toronto during the filming of legal drama Suits, she declared she might prefer to stay in Canada rather than return to her American homeland with Trump as President.
Someone who worked for the royals while the couple were still part of ‘The Firm’ told me in August: ‘It seems quite clear that the Sussexes are desperate to start healing the rift [with the Royal Family].’
As evidence, the source pointed to the string of stories that had recently appeared in People magazine, a favoured outlet of Harry and Meghan. They included an article in July about Harry’s despair that his father was not accepting his phone calls and another claiming that his rift with Prince William was not ‘irreparable’.
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These comments followed an interview Harry gave in February, suggesting that the King’s cancer diagnosis could help them put their differences aside.
Following his 26-hour visit to see his father earlier that month, Harry said: ‘Throughout all these families I see it on a day-to-day basis, the strength of the family unit coming together. I think any illness, any sickness brings families together.’
Of course, no one doubts Harry’s genuine concerns for the health for his father.
The re-elected President is seen here beside the Queen during a visit to the UK in 2019. He was challenged for walking in front of Her Majesty
The prince has claimed that Britain is too dangerous a destination for his family since his automatic, taxpayer-funded security was withdrawn by the Government after he stepped back as a working royal and moved to the US. He apparently remains keen to appeal against the High Court’s ruling on the matter.
The purchase of their house in Portugal may have allowed the couple to acquire a so-called ‘golden visa’, under which they would gain passport-free access to Europe’s Schengen Area of nearly 30 countries.
This could have been a major attraction to Meghan in particular. When the pair got engaged in November 2017, Kensington Palace said Meghan planned to apply for British citizenship in due course, with a spokesman confirming that ‘she will go through the process [which] takes a number of years’.
However, the idea was eventually abandoned after she and her husband left the country in March 2020 – less than two years after their wedding.
Reconciliation with the Firm aside, acquiring a golden visa would help Meghan, should she and her husband develop their plans to become the ‘rival royals’ across the water, enabling them to travel easily through Europe. We have already seen them undertake ‘quasi-royal’ tours of Nigeria and Colombia, with more overseas trips in the works.
If the Sussexes find life in California too uncomfortable under Trump, then Portugal – which overthrew its monarchy in 1910 – could soon find itself hosting a new royal court.
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