As reported by The Telegraph, King Charles III’s younger son Prince Harry and his wife plan to leave the US by the end of the month and settle in a private residence outside London that does not belong to the royal family residences.
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Several UK news portals, including the BBC, reported that the couple’s children – 7-year-old Prince Archie and 5-year-old Princess Lilibet – have already been enrolled in a British school where the academic year starts in early September.
It is reported that the couple has already chosen a new home, but it is not one of the many royal residences.
Harry and Meghan have lived in California since 2020, when they stepped down from royal duties, and their children have not met their grandfather since 2022.
41-year-old Prince Harry and 45-year-old Meghan left Britain for North America in 2020 amid tense relations with his family, which worsened further after the release of the prince’s memoir “Spare”.
The relationship was also strained by an open interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
The Press Association reported that 77-year-old King Charles III was informed on Sunday about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s plans to return to live in the UK.
The monarch is pleased with the opportunity to see his family more often in person, but their status will not change and the couple will continue not to be working members of the royal family, the agency said.
Prince Harry previously said he did not feel safe bringing his family to Britain after losing a legal battle over state-funded police protection.
“It is impossible for me to safely bring my family to the UK,” he said last year after the court ruling.
A Home Office spokesperson said the UK protection system is “strict and proportionate,” adding that decisions are made by a committee including representatives from the Home Office, Metropolitan Police, and the royal household.
“An extraordinary turn”
This unexpected news came after Prince Harry visited the UK with Meghan and the children in early July, where they privately met with King Charles III.
Prince Harry said last year he wanted to reconcile with his father, who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and has been undergoing treatment since. The type of cancer has never been disclosed.
It is not yet clear whether Prince Harry’s elder brother and heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Catherine were informed. The brothers are estranged and reportedly do not communicate.
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Royal family commentator Richard Fitzwilliams called it “an extraordinary turn” on GB News television.
“The first thought, frankly, is that they failed to establish themselves in the US (…) essentially they failed to become Hollywood A-list stars,” he speculated.
Although the couple signed a high-value deal with Netflix in 2020, reportedly worth $100 million (about €85 million), many of their projects struggled to attract audience attention.
And the new contract signed with the US broadcasting giant in August 2025 was of a looser nature, described as a multi-year collaboration agreement.
“Not true”
The Sun newspaper writes that the couple will keep their home in Montecito, California, as well as a residence in Portugal, where they are believed to have spent this summer.
Even preparations for Prince Harry’s visit in July were accompanied by confusion – media citing sources claimed the prince would stay at Buckingham Palace in London, but the palace itself denied this.
The news of the couple’s unexpected return after leaving Britain, dubbed “Megxit” by the British tabloid press, appeared the day after Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer revealed he had written a book about his sister’s life.
Prince Harry has long blamed the media for his mother Princess Diana’s death. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while trying to escape paparazzi.
The book “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” will be published in the UK and other countries on September 22; it has already been translated into 12 languages.
“As the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death approaches, I am again receiving many requests for interviews about my sister,” Spencer said.
“This convinced me once and for all to write down my thoughts and memories,” he said, adding that many opinions were “based on falsehoods that have become accepted over time.”
62-year-old Spencer has maintained close relations with both nephews, and Prince Harry with Meghan and the children visited the Earl’s ancestral estate at Althorp in central England in early July, where they are believed to have visited Princess Diana’s grave.
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