Meghan Markle has spent years trying to keep Prince Harry’s orbit cleanly separated from the Windsor family’s worst headlines. So the idea of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—freshly arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office—testing the waters for a chummy reconnection with Prince Harry lands less like a reconciliation fantasy and more like a dare.
This isn’t a story about warm family dinners. It’s a story about contamination. About who gets close to whom, and what that closeness costs when the royal brand is already fraying at the edges.
Andrew, according to multiple reports, has been angling for a way back into relevance by leaning on a familiar royal ache: the “spare” narrative. The claim—relayed by The News and amplified by the UK’s tabloid ecosystem—is that Andrew sees himself and Prince Harry as kindred spirits, both allegedly sidelined, both allegedly wronged.
Meghan Markle, as the telling goes, is having none of it.
Meghan Markle never married Harry for love – the signs were blatant from day one.
When they first started dating, she was already planting “easter eggs” on her Instagram, practically begging followers to connect the dots that she was seeing a prince.
While visiting Harry at… pic.twitter.com/CXCChQwvHu
— British Royaltea (@BritishRoyaltea) January 19, 2026
In The News account, a palace insider says Andrew has been feeling “a lot of kinship” toward Prince Harry and believes “they are both ‘spares’ that have been terribly mistreated.” The insider adds, “Andrew still can’t believe his own brother and family have turned on him this way, and now he sees they’ve done it to Harry, too.”
If that sounds like a pitch, that’s because it is.
The “spare” label isn’t just a biographical footnote in this family; it’s a weaponized identity. Prince Harry turned it into a thesis statement for his life—one that sold books, set Netflix cameras rolling, and helped justify a break from royal duty. Andrew, who has spent years trying (and failing) to outrun scandal, reportedly seems to think the same storyline can buy him sympathy.
But there’s a glaring difference that the insider framing politely sidesteps: Prince Harry walked away. Andrew was pushed. And in a family where optics are oxygen, being pushed is the one thing you can’t admit without bleeding out.
Dear Royal Family,
Please do Prince Harry and Meghan Markle the ultimate favour and finally remove them from the burden of any connection with the royal family.
They have spent years publicly criticising the institution across interviews, documentaries, books, & commercial… pic.twitter.com/MGHuDAcSly
— Queen Esther (@XOQueenEsther) February 5, 2026
Andrew was arrested Thursday by UK police on suspicion of misconduct in public office and later released while the investigation continues, according to reporting from BBC News and NBC News. That isn’t background noise—it’s the context that makes any attempted “bonding” with Prince Harry feel less like a healing gesture and more like a reputational life raft.
The bluntest line comes from The News, which quotes a source saying, “The issue that he’s going to face is that Meghan is disgusted by him.” The source continues: “She thinks he’ll tarnish her brand and will want nothing to do with him – and what she says goes when it comes to Harry.”
That last clause—“what she says goes”—is doing a lot of work. It’s the kind of line that flatters people who want Meghan Markle cast as the household’s executive producer, the one who calls “cut” and decides which characters stay in the show. It’s also the kind of line that conveniently erases Prince Harry’s agency, which is a recurring sport in royal-adjacent storytelling.
Meghan Markle is a grifter always looking for a handout and Prince Harry is her royal to seal the deal
Doesn’t this remind you of Fergie using Andrew to get freebies as well
Credit @partlyc2 pic.twitter.com/o9sCS5a3Dr
— MeghansMole©️ (@MeghansMole) November 17, 2025
Still, even if you roll your eyes at the palace-insider theatrics, the underlying point is hard to dispute: Meghan Markle has built a public identity on control—of narrative, of image, of proximity. The Express framed that control in explicitly commercial terms, reporting that Meghan Markle believes Andrew would “tarnish her brand [As Ever]” and that she “will want nothing to do with him.” Separate reporting has described “As Ever” as Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand venture, part of her broader post-royal business footprint.
And Andrew is, in brand language, a walking crisis.
What cannot be ignored here is how little of this reads like “family” and how much reads like risk management. The modern royal story is often sold as tradition and duty, but the real engine is perception: who looks loyal, who looks cruel, who looks desperate. Andrew trying to clasp hands with PrinceHarry—however tentative, however back-channel—would be a gift to anyone who wants to blur moral lines and muddy distinctions.
Meghan Markle’s reported reaction, then, isn’t just personal disgust. It’s a refusal to let Andrew rewrite his own story by borrowing Prince Harry’s. In the war of royal narratives, that’s not pettiness. That’s strategy.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding was on May 19, 2018. Meghan had wanted a red carpet running down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel. Catherine had a red carpet for her wedding to Prince William, and Meghan saw herself as Catherine’s equal.
Queen Elizabeth had a say in the… pic.twitter.com/qA7oeZXFAs
— Suburban Duchess (@SuburbanDuchess) June 24, 2024
Inquisitr has reached out to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s reps for comments.
