As a procession of luxury cars swept through the gates of the King’s estate in Gloucestershire on Friday – carrying guests for an exclusive Chanel luncheon – one vehicle attracted little attention.

Inside were Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, who had arrived at Highgrove for a private family meeting.

Far from the cameras and public gaze, the Sussexes entered Charles’s 900-acre site unnoticed as dozens of guests turned up for the French fashion house’s event to honour students who had completed an elite 24-week embroidery course.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘There were a large number of cars coming and going from Highgrove for the Chanel event which allowed the Sussexes’ car to blend in and helped them to enter the estate without being spotted.’

Harry and his family are believed to have met King Charles and Queen Camilla between 3.30pm and 4pm, remaining with the couple for more than an hour. The gathering was particularly significant because it marked the first time that Meghan, Archie and Lilibet had seen the 77-year-old monarch – who is still undergoing treatment for cancer – in person since 2022.

Yesterday, the Duke of Sussex, centre, was all smiles as he appeared at Scotty’s Summer Festival at Maxstoke Castle in Warwickshire

During his visit to Warwickshire, Harry said: ‘I love being here, this is the highlight of my month’

Earlier in the day, there had been clues that something important was unfolding when Harry arrived at an engagement for the Invictus Games at the National Exhibition Centre, near Birmingham.

An observer said: ‘Harry turned up at Invictus with a massive smile plastered all over his face.

‘Everybody was looking absolutely delighted. It wasn’t just acting. Liam [Maguire], his UK aide, looked absolutely like the cat that had got the cream as well. Then rumours started to go round that they were going to Highgrove.’

The family reunion at Highgrove had clearly put Harry in high spirits following a week dominated by negative headlines, including a row over his security and a crushing defeat in his court case over privacy against the Daily Mail.

Yesterday, the Duke of Sussex was all smiles as he appeared at Scotty’s Summer Festival at Maxstoke Castle in Warwickshire. Harry is the global ambassador for the charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers, which supports bereaved children from military families.

During the festival, Harry posed playfully with children as he took part in ‘goat yoga’, surrounded by the animals. At one point, he joked, ‘Is there health and safety? Do they bite?’, before taking his place on a mat and performing the tree pose on one leg while miming goats’ ears with his hands. As Harry lay on his back as the goats trampled over his body, someone in the crowd quipped that hissecurity team should step in to ‘protect the crown jewels’.

This weekend, the Sussexes are believed to be staying at the Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire – the ancestral home of

Princess Diana’s family and where she is buried on a private island in the middle of a lake.

Harry and Meghan, who quit as senior royals in 2020 and moved to California, have spoken about their wish to introduce their children to their British roots. During his visit to Warwickshire, Harry said: ‘I love being here, this is the highlight of my month. Actually probably the last few months. It’s very easy to sit in your grief, to sit in your stress but, guys, if you are feeling it, share it.’

Harry is the global ambassador for the charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers, which supports bereaved children from military families

The meeting with the King and Queen came after weeks of speculation and uncertainty about whether Meghan and the children would accompany him to the UK.

The family had reportedly been on holiday in Portugal, staying at a beachside villa they own there.

Harry initially turned down an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace only to change his mind at the last minute. He was then told that the offer had been rescinded because Palace officials said it was impossible to prepare rooms for him at short notice.

The Duke arrived in Britain on Monday. The following day, he lost his High Court case which alleged wrongdoing by Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail. The company was vindicated on all 97 counts brought by Harry and others, including

Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Sir Simon Hughes and Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

Buckingham Palace confirmed on Friday that the meeting at Highgrove had taken place but declined to disclose any details of the ‘private family occasion’.

Earlier in the week, palace officials had privately described the prolonged drama surrounding the Sussexes’ trip as ‘wearying’.

The Chanel event offered the perfect cover for the long-awaited Royal Family reunion. As part of a fellowship co-funded by The King’s Foundation and the fashion house, six graduates were chosen to take part in the course.

During the festival, Harry posed playfully with children as he took part in ‘goat yoga’, surrounded by the animals

During the 24-week residential programme, students are taught the traditional art of hand-beading and embroidering haute couture gowns. Photographs from the event showed some of the pieces created, each of which took more than 400 hours to complete.

Students stay in converted outbuildings at Highgrove to attend daily classes and lectures.

Each of them received a bursary of £1,500 a month towards the cost of living, paid for by The King’s Foundation, and they completed their training at the Chanel atelier in Paris.

The King has long regarded Highgrove as a cherished sanctuary and once called it his ‘place of healing’.

Whether the discreet reunion with his son Harry, daughter-in-law Meghan and the two grandchildren he has rarely seen leads to a more permanent rapprochement with the errant Sussexes remains to be seen.