Royal lovebirds Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to spend festive season apart as the Suits actress returns to Canada
The couple were seen holding hands in the West End earlier this week before buying a Christmas tree in Battersea Park
PRINCE Harry and girlfriend Meghan Markle are set to spend Christmas apart.
After their romantic mini-break in London this week, the Suits star will return home while Harry will go to Sandringham.
He’ll celebrate with other senior royals at the Queen’s Norfolk home and go to church on Christmas Day.
Meghan, 35, is due back in Toronto before spending Christmas with her family in Los Angeles.
The Sun exclusively revealed the pair’s first public date on Wednesday night.
Dressed down in beanie hats and jeans, they then enjoyed the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at London’s Gielgud theatre.
They’d slipped out of Harry’s two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace where they’d spent most of their time since Meghan’s arrival early on Monday morning.
That evening they were spotted buying a Christmas tree in Battersea Park.
A pal said: “They’ll be apart for Christmas as they’re both spending the festive season with their families.
“Meghan has loved her time in London, but she’ll be going back home next week.
“Harry has the traditional royal family Christmas at Sandringham.
“They’re hoping to go on holiday together in the New Year.
“They won’t be apart for long.”
An invite to the Royals’ Christmas at Sandringham, the Queen’s private home, is only given to those who have married into the family.
Prince William’s wife Kate had to wait until after her 2011 wedding, despite dating Wills for almost 10 years.
And although the pair got engaged in November 2010, she wasn’t invited for Christmas Day until the year after.
But any talk of a wedding is too soon for Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine.
“The first problem is she will have to decide whether she wants to be an actress or a princess” said Ingrid, who was friends with Harry’s mother Princess Diana.
“Harry might have told her she can do both but in reality she can’t.”
She also suggested that, although time has moved on since the days when Koo Stark’s roles in two soft-porn films meant her relationship with Prince Andrew had to end, Meghan’s record as an actress was already a problem.
“She has simulated sex on screen,” she said.
“You know what the British are like about their royals. They feel they own them.
“They don’t like seeing them going on flashy holidays, which is why we see them in the rain in Scotland, and they don’t really like seeing them with too flashy women.”
She added: “I just can’t see it (a wedding) happening but that doesn’t mean it won’t hot up. Harry may be with her for five years but I would say she is not Mrs Right, though she might be Mrs Right For Now.”