Six years after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down from their official royal roles and relocated to North America, a shocking new development has emerged: Prince Harry, his wife Meghan, and their two young children are preparing for an extended stay in the United Kingdom – a move that has fueled widespread speculation about a potential thaw in the long-running rift between Harry and his immediate family, including King Charles III and heir to the throne Prince William.
The 41-year-old prince, who remains fifth in the line of British royal succession, has not publicly addressed details of the upcoming move when approached by the Associated Press during a public event Wednesday evening. But insiders close to the couple confirm that key preparations are already underway: Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, have been enrolled at British schools and are set to begin classes this coming September. Multiple sources familiar with the Sussexes’ plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, have confirmed the enrollment to the AP.
Contrary to early rumors that the couple might be seeking a return to official royal duties, the Sussexes have no plans to resume working roles within the monarchy. The family will reside in a private, non-royal residence outside of London, while retaining their existing luxury home in the exclusive Montecito enclave of Southern California and their vacation property in Portugal’s Costa Terra resort. The couple will continue their independent commercial ventures: Meghan will oversee her lifestyle brand As Ever – which produces premium jams, teas, and wines – from the UK, while Harry will expand his work with UK-based charitable organizations.
Since relocating to the US in 2018, Harry has only made sporadic, short trips back to the UK, many of which were tied to his ongoing legal battles with British tabloid publications. A notable shift came just last month, when Harry, Meghan, and their children made a private visit to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla at the monarch’s Highgrove House country estate. That meeting marked the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations in 2022.
According to British media reports, King Charles was only officially notified of the couple’s extended stay plans this past Sunday – a detail that has surprised veteran royal commentators. “If I was the king, I’d actually be thinking, ‘Hang on, you came to tea with me, and we sat down and we chatted, and you didn’t even mention this?’” former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told Sky News. “I find it entirely odd.” Buckingham Palace has maintained its longstanding policy of declining to comment on private matters involving non-working members of the royal family, and has issued no official statement on the news.
The extended stay comes after Harry has publicly pushed for reconciliation with his family, particularly as King Charles undergoes ongoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” Harry told the BBC in a 2023 interview, adding “I don’t know how much longer my father has.” While relations between Harry and Charles have warmed noticeably in recent months, mending ties with Prince William is expected to be far more complicated.
The rift between the Sussexes and the royal family widened dramatically after the couple’s 2021 tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they alleged that a senior royal had made racist comments about Meghan – who identifies as biracial – during her first pregnancy, and that senior palace officials had failed to address Meghan’s struggles with mental health. The divide deepened further with the 2022 release of Harry’s unflinching memoir *Spare*, in which he claimed William had physically attacked him during an argument over Meghan, and labeled Queen Camilla a “dangerous” figure who cultivated ties with tabloids to improve her public image at the expense of other family members.
Veteran royal journalist Peter Hunt, another former BBC correspondent, argues that the unexpected announcement of an extended stay will put enormous pressure on William to engage with his brother. “In the short term, Harry will be able to deepen his rapprochement with his father,” Hunt told the Press Association. “And his presence back home will make it harder for his brother to duck a reconciliation.”
The return also raises major questions about Harry’s long-held stance on security. For years, Harry has argued that the removal of his automatic publicly funded police protection detail when he stepped down as a working royal was the “heart” of his dispute with the palace. Citing the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash while being pursued by paparazzi, Harry has long insisted that he and his family face ongoing threats from the media, and previously stated he could not imagine bringing his wife and children back to the UK without formal security guarantees. It remains unclear whether the UK government’s VIP protection committee has revised its risk assessment for Harry, or if he will rely solely on his privately funded security team during his extended stay.
Harry’s high-profile legal battles with British tabloids over phone hacking and privacy invasion have concluded for the most part, with mixed results. He secured a favorable ruling against the publisher of the *Daily Mirror*, and reached a settlement with News Group Newspapers, publisher of *The Sun*, that included an unprecedented public apology. But last month, Harry and a group of co-plaintiffs that included musician Elton John lost a high-profile privacy case against the publisher of the *Daily Mail*. A judge is set to rule this Friday on how much the plaintiffs will be required to pay to cover the *Daily Mail*’s 34.5 million pound ($47 million) in legal costs, leaving Harry facing a potentially massive financial bill on top of his own team’s legal fees.
While former correspondent Bond has suggested the move is driven primarily by Harry’s desire to be closer to his father during his cancer treatment, noting that “Perhaps Meghan is taking one for the team here, because I’m not sure this is her life’s desire to live back in the U.K.”, the full implications of the Sussexes’ extended UK stay for the future of the monarchy remain to be seen.