The Earl of Dumbarton has returned to the UK for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, it has been reported.
The Sun said Harry, wearing a black face mask, landed at Heathrow on a British Airways flight from Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon.
It was believed he was whisked to Kensington Palace, where he could be spending his quarantine in his former home, Nottingham Cottage, the newspaper said.
Harry is entitled to attend his grandfather’s funeral due to a provision in the law that allows mourners to leave quarantine on “compassionate” grounds.
The Duchess of Sussex, who is heavily pregnant with her second child and previously suffered a miscarriage, has remained in California after being advised against flying.
It is the first time the 36-year-old duke has been in the UK since last March, when he stepped down as a senior working royal for a new life of personal and financial freedom in the US.
His trip in honour of Philip, who died on Friday at the age of 99, comes just weeks after Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they accused the royal family of racism and the institution of failing to support the suicidal duchess.
It is understood Harry will be following all procedures to ensure he complies with Covid-19 regulations.
As Philip’s funeral is due to take place on Saturday, Harry will not have time to complete the full 10-day quarantine period.
The rules, however, do allow a person to temporarily leave their place of quarantine on compassionate grounds – which includes funerals.
Harry will have had to return a negative coronavirus test result in the three days before he travelled, and will have completed a passenger locator form with details of where he will be spending his quarantine.
He will also have had to book a travel test package, which involves two tests – one to be taken on or before the second day of his quarantine, and the second on or after his eighth day of quarantine.
Harry could also participate in the “Test to Release” scheme.
Under the scheme, if he pays for a private test from an approved supplier five days into quarantine, he may be free to leave if the result is negative.
Tests cost around £130.
If Harry was to break the quarantine rules, he would risk a penalty of up to £10,000, and if he fails to take the tests on day two and day eight, he could be fined a maximum of £2,000.
Some commentators have suggested the funeral could allow Harry to spend some quality time with his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, in a bid to heal their rift.
But as they are from different households, they will still have to maintain social distancing of two metres.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said previously that the royal family would be following coronavirus rules throughout the funeral.
Mourners are also advised to be respectful of those who are clinically vulnerable to Covid-19 and “avoid close contact at any point” – potentially limiting Harry’s time with his 94-year-old grandmother, the Queen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here