[imagesource: AP Photo / Peter Dejong]

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are making their way over to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations which officially begin tomorrow.

The public and the media are eager to see what kind of hullabaloo the former royals will cause as they make their first official appearances since leaving to start new lives in Los Angeles.

Will there be signs of rift or rapport between the Sussexes and the working royals? Will they overshadow the Queen and her record-breaking 70 years on the throne? Will they go off-schedule and cause a commotion?

The anxiety is mounting.

The recent past proves ample cause for anxiety. There was the bombshell Oprah interview that “polarised the nation”, per The Guardian, alongside multiple legal battles with the British press, the death of Prince Philip, the birth of their second child, Lilibet, the establishment of their organisation Archewell, Harry’s forthcoming tell-all autobiography, and deals with Netflix and Spotify.

All of that has added pressure and raised the stakes for the upcoming royal reunion quite substantially.

Especially, if the “fab four” being visibly uncomfortable together at the 2020 Commonwealth Day is anything to go by:

However, the former royals are aiming to keep things relatively low-key with limited security personnel and a tightly monitored schedule on this trip.

First up, the Sussexes are expected to attend the Trooping the Colour event on Thursday morning, which will be their first public appearance.

However, they will not be allowed to attend the “balcony moment” as it is reserved for working royals only.

The lip-readers and body language experts will then need to be most observant at the service of thanksgiving for the Queen at St Paul’s Cathedral that the Sussexes will attend on Friday.

Behind closed doors, the Queen will finally meet little Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday.

It is probably a good thing that they don’t have anything big planned as the couple, particularly Meghan, are still rather unpopular with much of the UK media and public.

They’ve already been accused of stealing the limelight from the Queen, with The Telegraph assuming the possibility of a “Sussex bomb” that may “cause a right royal headache”:

Yet while the palace remains in control of the “official” engagements the couple plan to attend… the powers that be appear to have little knowledge of any of their “unofficial” plans.

Their habit of making unpublicised appearances, such as the Duchess’ recent visit to the memorial for murdered primary school children in Uvalde, Texas, has naturally led to concerns of a “circus” following their every move during the four-day extended bank holiday weekend.

Being indirectly told that you can’t put flowers down for slain children is likely the kind of control that Meghan was trying to escape by leaving the UK, but anyway.

The worry continues:

The prospect of a Netflix film crew also making an appearance is said to be causing consternation, although the streaming giant has not applied for accreditation to film the public jubilee events.

Meanwhile, per Newsweek, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are not faring well in a new poll by UK-based YouGov.

Meghan was viewed negatively by 63 percent, almost two thirds, of 1,692 British adults surveyed between May 18 and 19.

By contrast, 23 percent viewed her positively giving the duchess a net approval of -42, down from -39 in the pollster’s last survey.

Prince Harry was disliked by 58 percent and liked by 32 percent giving him net figures of -26, down a point since YouGov’s last survey.

Since the royals know they will be closely watched, perhaps they will be sticking to the script and taking one for the team.

They kind of have to at this stage, don’t they?

[sources:guardian&telegraph&newsweek]