Prince Harry has ended his tumultuous week at home in Britain with an uncomfortably close encounter with a goat.

The Duke of Sussex turned out for Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity that supports children who have lost a parent serving in the armed forces on Saturday (local time) – only to be confronted by “goat yoga”.

In photos from his visit to a festival for the charity in Warwickshire, Harry can be seen doing poses on his yoga mat while surrounded by curious goats and children wearing matching shirts.

Since then, video has emerged of one overly keen goat jumping on the royal groin as Harry lay on the ground.

“Ow,” the duke shouted before covering his crotch and asking the wayward goat “what are you doing?” – prompting laughter from those around. One person in the surrounding crowd joked that Harry’s security team had failed to protect the “crown jewels”

Prince Harry was quick to protect his ‘crown jewels’ after the goat encounter. Photo: AAP

The prince visited the festival less than 24 hours after taking his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, for a private family reunion with the King and Queen.

The keenly anticipated meeting, which reportedly lasted about an hour, was held at the King’s private Highgrove home. It was the first time the monarch had seen his grandchildren in nearly four years.

It is not known how long the duchess and the children were in Britain, or where they stayed while they were there. Harry had earlier been denied accommodation at Buckingham Palace after a “will he or won’t he” to and fro that lasted several weeks.

No photographs or further details of the visit with the King have been released.

Earlier in the week, Harry lost his High Court claim, made with a group of celebrities, against the Daily Mail‘s publishers over alleged unlawful information gathering.

In a lengthy decision, Judge Matthew Nicklin said in his ruling that the claimants had needed to prove that information published about them had been obtained unlawfully, but suspicion was not enough.

Harry, 41, has long blamed the press for the 1997 Paris car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana. In a lengthy statement issued after last week’s judgment, he said it was an “obvious whitewash”.

“We came to court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither,” the statement issued with fellow claimant Doreen Lawrence said.

“It is a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected.”

On Friday, Harry started the one-year countdown to his Invictus Games for wounded, injured and sick military service personnel and veterans, in host city Birmingham on Friday.

Prince Harry proved brave enough to work with both children and animals. Photo: AAP

On Saturday, he was meeting goats at the Scotty’s festival.

“Let me in!” Harry shouted as he approached the animal pen.

“Is there health and safety? Do they bite?”

Reassured that goats “love love”, Harry took his place on a blue mat and performed a variation of the tree pose, standing on one leg while making goat ears with his hands.

The prince also gave hugs and posed for selfies, revealing during a Q&A session how he marks key anniversaries for his late mother and how he recovers from bad days.

Poppy, nine, whose father, Able Seaman Daniel Turnbull, died in July 2020 from leukaemia, asked: “What makes you laugh when you’ve had a difficult day?”

Harry patted his heart, saying: “You know what, sometimes it’s just a difficult day. It’s not always possible to laugh but my dog makes me laugh, my children make me laugh, and if I need to laugh I’ll probably put something really funny on the television.

“But, and this goes for all of you, there are some days when you’d like to laugh but it might not always be possible to laugh.

“But you’ve got brothers and sisters, friends, this community… but yes, I think the point is that a laugh at the end of a hard day is the best medicine served.”

-with AAP