The Royal Family’s Balmoral Summit Agenda Is Going to Go Way Beyond Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — Report
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aren’t the only issues on the agenda for the royal family’s upcoming “summit.” King Charles III reportedly has other things to discuss with Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Kate Middleton during their Balmoral Castle stay.
The king has reportedly called for a meeting at Balmoral Castle
Although he’s already at Balmoral, ending summer with time at Queen Elizabeth II’s beloved Scotland retreat, King Charles has a big meeting planned. He’s reportedly called a meeting to discuss the monarchy’s future with the three other most senior royals (via Mirror). That includes the king’s wife as well as his oldest son and daughter-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales.
As for the topics on the agenda at the so-called Balmoral summit, the king’s believed to want to talk about the future. Not to mention the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and one other member of the royal family.
Prince Andrew’s on the Balmoral Summit agenda, King Charles worried about further damage
First up on the Balmoral Summit agenda is the king’s 63-year-old brother, Prince Andrew. King Charles doesn’t want the Duke of York “to come out of the freezer,” a palace aide told The Times. Rather, he sees his Andrew as “more of a long-term problem than Harry and Meghan,” a source said.
“It feels like more stuff is going to come out on [Jeffrey] Epstein. And there are still unexploded bombs there,” they explained. Despite being a “problem,” King Charles reportedly invited Andrew to stay at Balmoral with him as a show of goodwill. Furthermore, Andrew’s said to be the first royal to join the king there, which the Mirror called “a significant move towards improving their relationship.”
After a disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, Andrew was stripped of his royal patronages and military titles. And now it’s being made into a movie.
The Commonwealth and republicanism are also on King Charles’s Balmoral list of things to discuss
Topics for the Balmoral Summit continue with the Commonwealth, officially known as The Commonwealth of Nations. Comprised of 56 countries, 15 are classified as “realms” because they recognize King Charles as monarch. As for the rest, they’re republics.
The king reportedly wants to discuss bringing the Commonwealth together and putting it “at the very heart of his reign.”
“He sees it as his utmost duty to fulfill the sincere wish of his late mother, that one of his central roles must be to ensure not only the survival but the robustness,” a source said.
King Charles’s goal is “to use the symbolism tied into his mother’s legacy to offer a hand of friendship, which might get harder as the years go by,” per a senior civil servant. Hence, why the king has visits to Canada and Australia planned for 2024.
Balmoral Summit agenda: Working royals’ workload
Last but certainly not least is the royal family workload. Specifically how it’s risen as the number of working royals has dwindled in recent years. Currently, William and Kate are the youngest at 41, while the oldest are in their 80s.
Speaking on True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat, royal expert Katie Nicholl shared that despite the king’s desire for a slimmed-down monarchy, things may have to change.
They “have to be realistic about how much they can take on,” Nicholl said. “Maybe the thousands of patronages and engagements that they carry out and have always done between them is something that’s going to need to be redressed.”
“You look at the Prince of Wales and the model that he’s adopted, which is very much consolidating,” Nicholl continued. “And you wonder if perhaps there’s going to have to be an element of that for the wider royal family, too.”
