Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been invited back to the UK to spend Christmas here but it's unlikely that the pair will make the move with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lillibet.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been invited to celebrate the festive season at Althorp House with Harry's maternal uncle, Charles, Earl Spencer, the Express revealed earlier this month.

But with the Prince in an ongoing legal battle with the government regarding the couple's tax-funded security detail, which was cut after the pair dropped their royal titles and duties, it's not probable they will return.

If on the small chance they did come to the UK, it would mark Meghan's first official return since she last came in 2022 for Queen Elizabeth's funeral.

Former BBC Royal correspondent Jennie Bond said if Harry and Meghan accept the Spencer family's Christmas offer that it would contradict everything Harry has said about security and safety in the UK.

She claimed it would be "odd" for the Sussexes to travel to the UK for Christmas, especially while Harry's legal appeal is still on-going.

Speaking exclusively to OK!, Ms Bond said: "Well, if an offer has indeed been made — which seems quite logical — and if they accepted, it would fly in the face of everything Harry has said about security. He has repeatedly said he believes it’s unsafe to bring his wife and children to the UK without a guarantee of official security."

Ms Bond added: "That situation is extremely unlikely to change at all, and certainly not before Christmas. So I think it would be very odd indeed if the family suddenly fetched up here. It would surely mean that Harry was going to abandon his legal appeal against the ruling? Therefore, I do not think that we shall be seeing them in the UK for Christmas, or indeed anytime soon."

Though Meghan has not made any significant returns, Harry has been in the UK a few times, including for the Invictus Games and for his uncle's funeral, Lord Robert Fellowes' memorial service in Norfolk in August.

Prince Harry paid a visit to Althorp House - the ancestral home of the Spencer family and the final resting place of his late mother - during his recent trip to the UK.

Prince William, also attended the funeral, but according to eyewitnesses, the two brothers maintained their distance and sat separately at the back of St Mary's Church.