This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The Duke of Sussex has appeared in public for the first time since announcing he and his wife are to step back as frontline royals.

Prince Harry returned to Buckingham Palace, the heart of the institution rocked by the bombshell announcement last week that he and Meghan would leave their senior roles as full-time royals and move part-time to Canada.

His first official engagement, as he and Meghan began a period of “transition”, was to conduct the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021, and announce a mental fitness charter for the tournament.

Timeline Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan Markle Show Hide

The pair meet in London through friends and begin a relationship. News breaks that the prince and Markle are dating. Kensington Palace confirms in an unprecedented statement that they are dating. The prince attacks the media over its “abuse and harassment” of his girlfriend.

Markle reportedly meets the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte for the first time in London.

The engagement looks set when Markle graces the cover of US magazine Vanity Fair and speaks openly about Harry for the first time, revealing: “We’re two people who are really happy and in love.” Markle makes her first appearance at an official engagement attended by the prince when she attends the Invictus Games opening ceremony in Toronto, Canada – although the pair sit about 18 seats apart. It emerges that the prince has taken Markle to meet his grandmother, the Queen, whose permission they need to marry. They met over afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace. The prince’s aides are reported to have been told to start planning for a royal wedding, with senior members of the royal family asked to look at their diaries to shortlist a series of suitable weekends in 2018. Clarence House announces the engagement, and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh say they are “delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness”.

The couple marry before a celebrity-studded congregation at St George's Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

The couple's first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, is born in London. They announce that they are to step back from life as 'senior' royals, triggering a row with Buckingham Palace. After a crisis meeting with the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William at Sandringham, the Queen issues a statement saying the couple will have a 'transition period' before ending their royal duties. It is announced that Harry and Meghan will drop their HRH titles and repay £2.4m of taxpayers money used to refurbish Frogmore Cottage.

Before the draw for the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments, Harry met schoolchildren on a makeshift rugby pitch in the palace’s back garden. One of the assembled reporters shouted to him: “How are the discussions going on your future?” Harry, who was making his way into the palace, only smiled at one of his entourage and did not reply.

A video of behind-the-scenes footage of Harry’s engagement was posted on the Sussexes’ Instagram feed edited to the soundtrack of the Stone Roses’ This Is the One. Commenters, referencing that the song’s lyrics contain the line “I’d like to leave the country, For a month of Sundays”, speculated if there was a subliminal message in this choice.

Meanwhile his wife, almost 5,000 miles away in Canada, has undertaken private visits to two women’s organisations in Vancouver, with photographs of her appearing on social media sites.

Harry’s appearance, as patron of the Rugby Football League, could be his last in public in the UK for the immediate future as he prepares to join Meghan, and the couple’s baby son Archie, in Vancouver. It is thought he has some private engagements in the UK early next week, but nothing in the official diary after that.

The engagement also raises questions over how he and Meghan intend to honour their commitments as patrons to their organisations if they are to spend significant amounts of their time in Canada.

The Queen, who has given a reluctant blessing to the couple’s plans, has asked that senior aides find workable solutions to the complex issues involved in the couple’s future in days, not weeks. These include how the couple intend to fulfil their ambition to earn an income, and who will pay for their armed personal protection, as they carve out new “progressive” roles.

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Following Monday’s family summit at Sandringham, the Queen announced the duke and duchess would undertake a “period of transition” , splitting time between the UK and Canada, as they work to become “financially independent” of the taxpayer.

But though Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said the majority of Canadians would welcome the Queen’s grandson and his wife, the message was less encouraging elsewhere, indicating significant challenges for the couple as they enter their brave new world.

Play Video 3:42 Prince Harry and Meghan's 'bombshell' plans explained – video

The Globe and Mail, the country’s biggest-selling national newspaper, urged the Canadian government to deny the couple’s request to move there.

“Our royals don’t live here. They reign from a distance,” it said in an editorial. “A royal living in this country does not accord with the long-standing nature of the relationship between Canada and Britain, and Canada and the Crown.

“This country’s unique monarchy, and its delicate yet essential place in our constitutional system, means that a royal resident … is not something that Canada can allow.

“Canada is not a halfway house for anyone looking to get out of Britain while remaining a royal.

“In response to the sudden announcement of a vague and evolving plan for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to move to Canada while remaining part of the royal family, the Trudeau government’s response should be simple and succinct: No.”

It remains unclear how the couple intend to operate as semi-detached royals, but Meghan hasmade two private visits to women’s organisations in Vancouver.

Kate Gibson, from the Downtown Eastside women’s centre, said she had received an email on Monday from an unknown person, who turned out to be an “assistant” to the duchess, asking if a VIP could drop in on Tuesday.

Meghan also visited the Justice for Girls organisation, which posted two black and white photographs of her having tea on its site.

Gibson told Canadian media Meghan had stayed for one hour, and discussed issues such as women’s housing and welfare. “We found her to be very genuine, just really comfortable,” she said.

The photographs were posted as the Mail on Sunday filed its defence documents to legal action by the duchess for publishing extracts from a letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. The case raises the prospect of her father giving evidence against her. Meghan’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, told the BBC: “If he’s called, he will come.”

Ahead of his appearance, in a video on the couple’s Instagram account, Harry launched the tournament’s mental fitness charter, saying: “Rugby league isn’t just a sport, it’s a community. And one that takes care of its own.”

He said he was proud to launch the charter. “This charter will build on the brilliant work already happening in rugby league by committing to training and educating all those involved in the tournament, and the wider rugby league family, not only in how they can look after their own mental fitness but also support others to do the same.”