(VIDEO) Meghan Markle Photographed in UK for First Time Since Move, Lunching With Ellen DeGeneres

LONDON — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was photographed Monday at an Oxfordshire pub with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, the first public pictures of her since the Sussexes returned to Britain last month.

Page Six published images of the trio at the Three Horseshoes, an 18th-century inn near Burford, at about 2 p.m. An eyewitness told the outlet they were “chatting and laughing” and that Meghan said goodbye before leaving. She wore white trousers, a light blue shirt with rolled sleeves, white sneakers and sunglasses. A security officer walked behind her.

The Sussexes’ office was asked to confirm the sighting. There was no immediate public comment. Earlier this month she was reported at Soho Farmhouse; those accounts produced no photographs.

Prince Harry attended the WellChild Awards on Monday night at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London without her. Asked by a reporter whether he had spoken to his uncle Charles Spencer in recent days, he smiled and waved and did not answer.

DeGeneres, 68, and de Rossi, 53, left California for the Cotswolds in 2024. They were Montecito neighbors of the Sussexes. Meghan appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2021. The couples attended DeGeneres and de Rossi’s 2023 vow renewal. Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, are in British schools after the family arrived Aug. 26.

The pictures landed as “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, was published Tuesday after Daily Mail serialization. Spencer writes that days after Diana’s death in 1997 he argued with the then-Prince of Wales over whether William, 15, and Harry, 12, should walk behind their mother’s coffin. He called the plan something Diana would not have wanted.

In the book he says Charles “went nuts” and said, “That’s the problem with your family. They’ve got no bloody sense of duty.” He writes that Charles then “unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana” and said, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!” Spencer writes that he answered, “I can’t believe you just said that,” and hung up. He also writes that on the night of the crash Charles “sounded giddily elated, like a lottery winner.” Penguin Random House confirmed to CNN that Mail excerpts match the book.

Buckingham Palace issued a rare response: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.” The palace later said it had nothing further to add.

Spencer told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he stood by the account. “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.” On the palace line he asked: “Well, is he furious? Is he furious, or is he embarrassed?” He also said press treatment of Harry and Meghan echoed criticism of Diana. “She was really brought low by all that criticism. I suppose it’s a pity when I see echoes of that now.” He spoke of a “lack of obvious care” for Harry in 1997.

A palace rebuttal of a family memoir is uncommon. The king’s friends, speaking anonymously to magazines, have described anger; those remarks are not on the record from the palace. William has not commented in the excerpts’ wake.

Monday’s split itinerary — Meghan in the Cotswolds with California friends, Harry at a children’s charity in London — is the first visual of how the couple are moving through Britain after six years in California. It is not a statement on Spencer’s book. The book is a statement on 1997. The two stories share a week and a surname. They do not share a quote from Meghan.