Six years after their high-profile departure from official royal duties and relocation to North America, Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, are preparing to move back to the United Kingdom in the coming weeks, multiple British media outlets have confirmed. In a development that has taken the British public and royal watchers by surprise, the couple plans to leave their United States base by the end of August to take up permanent residence in a private, non-royal property reportedly located outside of London, according to a report from The Daily Telegraph.
Multiple British news organizations, including the national public broadcaster BBC, have added that the couple’s two young children — 7-year-old Prince Archie and 5-year-old Princess Lilibet — have already been enrolled in a local British school, ahead of the new academic year that begins in early September. Sources familiar with the couple’s plans confirm they have finalized selection of their new home, which will not be one of the British royal family’s many owned or official residences across the country.
Since stepping down as working members of the royal family in 2020, Harry and Meghan have resided in Montecito, California, and their children have not seen King Charles III, Harry’s father and Britain’s reigning monarch, since 2022. The couple’s 2020 exit, widely dubbed “Megxit” by British tabloid media, followed a highly public bitter rift between the couple and other senior members of the royal family. That rift deepened significantly after Harry sat for a bombshell, unfiltered interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2021, and later published his critically discussed autobiography *Spare* in 2023, which detailed personal grievances against his family.
The UK’s Press Association (PA) reports that 77-year-old King Charles was notified of the couple’s plans to return to live in the UK last Sunday. According to PA, the monarch “welcomes the opportunity to see more of the family in a personal capacity,” though the couple’s official status will remain unchanged: they will not return to carrying out public duties as working royals.
The unexpected announcement of their permanent return comes just weeks after the couple made a short, low-key visit to the UK in early July, which included a private meeting between Harry and Charles. Last year, Harry publicly stated that he hoped to repair his relationship with his father, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer two years ago and has continued to receive ongoing treatment. As of Thursday, it remained unclear whether Harry’s older brother William, the Prince of Wales and first in line to the British throne, and William’s wife Catherine had been informed of the move. The two brothers have been estranged for years, and multiple insider reports confirm they no longer hold regular conversations.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told GB News that the move marks “an extraordinary development” for the couple and the monarchy. Speaking on the broadcaster Wednesday night, Fitzwilliams argued, “My first thought frankly is… they failed to make it in the US… essentially they failed to be A-listers in Hollywood.” That assessment aligns with public reporting on the couple’s media projects: after signing a reported $100 million partnership with Netflix in 2020, many of their original content releases struggled to attract large audiences and critical acclaim. In August 2025, the pair renegotiated their deal with the streaming giant into a more flexible “multi-year, first look” arrangement that requires far fewer original commitments.
The Sun newspaper notes that the couple will retain their existing Montecito home in California, as well as a holiday property in Portugal where they spent part of this summer. Even their July 2025 visit was marred by public confusion: sources close to Harry told multiple outlets the prince would stay at Buckingham Palace during the trip, only for royal officials to publicly issue a formal denial of the claim.
News of the couple’s surprise return also broke one day after Charles Spencer, Earl Spencer and brother of Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, announced he would release a new personal memoir about Diana’s life. Titled *Swan Song: Diana, My Sister*, the book is set for publication in the UK and globally on September 22, and will be translated into 12 languages. Diana died in a 1997 car crash in Paris while being pursued by paparazzi, and Harry has repeatedly publicly blamed aggressive press behavior for his mother’s death.
In a statement announcing the book, Spencer explained that approaching the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death has led to a new wave of interview requests, prompting him to publish his own account. “With the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death on the skyline, I’ve been inundated yet again with requests for interviews about my sister,” Spencer said. “This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all,” he added, noting that many popular narratives about Diana are “based on untruths that have become accepted over time.” Spencer, 62, has remained close to both of his nephews, and during the couple’s July visit to the UK, Harry, Meghan and their children visited Althorp, Spencer’s ancestral home in central England, where Diana is buried, multiple sources confirmed.