It’s interesting that People Magazine didn’t devote this week’s cover to the Queen and the Jubilee, right? Perhaps they didn’t want to devote a cover to the Sussexes, who were arguably the biggest story to come out of the Jubblyshambles. If People had made Harry and Meghan the cover story, there would be panic at the palace and People might lose access for a few months. So in the end, they avoided putting any royals on the cover, but they’ve still got some exclusives out of the Jubbly. Exclusives like this piece, in which a source close to Harry and Meghan speaks about why they weren’t out and about much during their four-day visit.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s trip to the U.K. was focused on Queen Elizabeth.

“They aren’t part of the [working] royal family anymore, and that’s a decision they have taken — but maybe [the public] hasn’t quite accepted that yet,” a source who knows the couple tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Yes, they were low-key. They paid their respects and went home.”

The source adds, “They were really here to see the Queen, and they did.”

During the Jubilee outings, Harry and Meghan — who shared the strain they’d experienced within the family in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey — didn’t spend time with Harry’s immediate family members, including his father Prince Charles and brother Prince William.

[From People]

I still find it sad that Prince Charles didn’t make any kind of public sign of “attempted reconciliation” with his son. We don’t even know if Charles saw his Sussex grandchildren, but I strongly suspect he did not, just as I suspect that Charles was invited to spend time with his grandchildren but he declined. Then again, I also think it’s a good sign that Clarence House hasn’t leaked a bunch of sh-t about the Sussexes after they left. Charles could have easily gone to a friendly royal reporter to let them know what was said during Harry and Meghan’s visit to Clarence House last Friday, or how Charles is “sad” about not meeting his grandchildren, etc. There’s been none of that. Which leads me to believe that Harry and Charles actually do have some kind of understanding. It’s not peace and it’s not a full reconciliation, but they agreed to get through this visit without father-son drama. All of the drama seems to be coming from Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace.

As for that BP and KP drama… again, I love that Harry, Megan and the kids simply did a breezy four-day visit. They avoided being used as inclusion props for the colonialist machine, they honored Harry’s grandmother and spent private time with her and that was that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.