Prince Charles devastated after not being able to see grandson for a year

Prince Charles is reported devastated after news from across the pond in California reached the palace this month.

• Prince Charles is "sad" that he hasn't seen his grandson, Archie, in a year.
• Now, it has been revealed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won't be returning to the UK for Christmas, as they had initially intended to.
• This royal news (opens in new tab) comes as a royal biographer revealed that the Queen might step down sooner from her position than we thought (opens in new tab).

In conversation with the Daily Mail (opens in new tab), a close friend of Prince Charles has revealed that the heir to the throne is feeling upset about not having seen his grandson in a year, since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to the US.

They said, "The Prince of Wales enjoyed popping into Frogmore Cottage to see his youngest grandchild and is sad that he hasn't seen him for so long. He has missed much of his development since he is now growing up in the USA."

"Other members of the family are very sad at not seeing him.

"Everyone misses Archie - they feel it's particularly sad for the Queen and Prince Philip. Harry always said he looked forward to raising his family with William's - which of course is now not happening."

Now with new government lockdown rules (opens in new tab), it's even more unlikely that Prince Charles will get to see his grandson before the year is up. Especially as it's been revealed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle don't seem to have any plans to come back to the UK for Christmas.

A spokesperson for the couple have said, "It is unlikely the Duke and Duchess will be travelling before the end of the year because the focus had been on the trial in January (opens in new tab).

"As that is longer happening, there are no plans to travel at the moment, but any travel plans will be kept under review.

"They haven't finalised any plans for what they are doing over the festive period, but Covid restrictions will need to be taken into account."

The trial referred to is the privacy case filed by Meghan Markle against the Mail on Sunday. The Duchess' claims are for copyright infringement and breach of privacy after the paper published a letter she had to sent to her father, Thomas Markle. According to the documents related to the case, as seen by the BBC, Meghan suffered "tremendous emotional distress" over the incident. Originally scheduled for January in the UK, the trial has been delayed by Meghan's legal team until autumn next year on "confidential ground."

Prince Harry and Meghan moved to America in January earlier this year, after they announced that they would be stepping down as senior members of the Royal Family. While the couple have come back to the UK since then, most famously when they attended the Endeavour Fund Awards in March, they didn't bring their son with them.

Then later in March, both the US and the UK went into coronavirus lockdown so the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had to stay put.