Prince Harry, Meghan to return to UK with children this month

London: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have decided to move back to the UK with their two children later this month but will remain non-working members of the royal family, according to UK media reports.

Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, relocated with his family to the US six years ago after stepping back from frontline royal duties.

The 41-year-old and his former Hollywood actress wife are expected to reside in a non-royal residence outside London, media reports said late on Wednesday, August 19.

The couple are said to have enrolled their children, seven-year-old Prince Archie and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, in a British school from the start of the new term in September.

Buckingham Palace said it does not comment on developments related to non-working members of the royal family.

However, it is understood that the King was made aware of the move, first reported in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ and ‘The Sun’, on Sunday, August 16.

The matter had not been discussed when Harry and Meghan, 45, were hosted at Charles’ Highgrove home in Gloucestershire for a “private family occasion” last month, when the King met his two grandchildren after a long hiatus.

While it is expected that the King naturally welcomes the opportunity to see more of his younger son and his family in a private and personal capacity, there will be no alteration to their role and status as private individuals.

This is seen as in keeping with the couple’s clearly expressed wishes and agreement since 2020, as there remains no “half in and half out” option in terms of official royal duties.

There have been no official statements from either the palace or the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s representatives.

Harry has previously expressed serious concerns for the security of his family, with him even resorting to legal avenues to ensure high-level armed protection despite being a non-working royal.

The UK Home Office insisted the government’s protective security system is “rigorous and proportionate”.

“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security,” a spokesperson said.

After losing a court battle over the security issue last year, Prince Harry had said he hoped to rebuild relations with his family.

“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore… I don’t know how much longer my father has,” he told the BBC, referencing the King’s ongoing cancer treatment.

The Sussexes, as the couple is known, have had a tumultuous relationship with the royal family since relocating to a mansion in the exclusive southern California enclave of Montecito in 2020.

Harry, who remains fifth in the line of succession to the British throne, has had a particularly stormy relationship with his older brother and future king William.

In his explosive memoir ‘Spare’, he said he left Britain to escape the restrictions of royal life and criticised palace officials for being insensitive to his wife’s mental health.

There had also been allegations that at least one member of the royal family had expressed racist views when Meghan Markle, who is bi-racial, was pregnant with their first child.

The palace had described the claims as “concerning” and famously issued a statement to say that “recollections may vary” and will be dealt with privately.

Timeline of Harry and Meghan’s royal rift

• July 2016: Prince Harry and American actor Meghan Markle meet on a blind date set up by a mutual friend.
• November 8, 2016: Harry confirms Markle is his girlfriend and condemns press coverage of her. He says he fears for her safety and says press coverage crossed the line and used “racial undertones” in its stories. His comments remind many that his mother, Princess Diana, had died in a car crash while being pursued by photographers.
• November 27, 2017: Harry and Meghan announce their engagement.
• May 19, 2018: Meghan and Harry get married in a grand ceremony at Windsor Castle.
• 2019-onwards: Harry launches lawsuits against three newspaper groups — Rupert Murdoch’s News Group, the Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers. He claims stories about his school days, teenage shenanigans and relationships with girlfriends were obtained by hacking, bugging, deception or other forms of illegal intrusion.
• May 6, 2019: Harry and Meghan’s son Archie is born.
• January 8, 2020: Harry and Meghan announce they plan to “step back” as senior royals and become financially independent. The decision soon becomes a major rift, and the couple moves to Meghan’s native California.
• February 2020: The committee that oversees royal security decides Harry will not receive the same level of taxpayer-funded protection as he did when he was a full-time royal. Harry later launches legal action against the UK government over the security decision.
• February 11, 2021: Meghan wins an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over publication of a letter she wrote in 2018 to her estranged father.
• June 4, 2021: Meghan and Harry’s daughter Lilibet is born.
• September 8, 2022: Queen Elizabeth II dies, aged 96, after 70 years on the throne. Her eldest son becomes King Charles III.
• January 10, 2023: Harry’s ghostwritten memoir “Spare” is published and becomes a bestseller. It recounts Harry’s grief at the death of his mother when he was 12, his frustrations in his royal role and anger at his father, brother, stepmother and the media, among others.
• May 6, 2023: King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey. Harry attends without Meghan or the children.
• June 6-7, 2023: Harry testifies in his case against the Mirror Group, becoming the first British royal in more than a century to appear in the witness box.
• December 5, 2023: A three-day court hearing begins on Harry’s claim over his security. Lawyers for the prince argue the decision to downgrade his protection was “unlawful and unfair.”
• December 15, 2023: Harry wins his case against the Mirror Group when a judge rules that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade. He is awarded legal costs and 140,000 pounds (USD 190,000) in damages.
• February 5, 2024: Buckingham Palace announces that King Charles has cancer and will receive treatment. Officials don’t say what form of cancer the king has.
• February 7, 2024: Prince Harry arrives in the UK from California to visit his father. He departs the next day.
• February 28, 2024: The High Court dismisses Harry’s security claim. He appeals the decision.
• January 22, 2025: The publisher of tabloid newspaper The Sun settles a lawsuit, offering Harry “a full and unequivocal apology” for intruding on his private life between 1996 and 2011, including incidents of unlawful activities.
• May 2, 2025: Three Court of Appeal judges dismiss Harry’s case, saying the security decision was “sensible.” Harry responds in an interview, saying the decision means he can’t bring his wife and children to his home country.
• May 3, 2025: In a long and at times emotional television interview, Harry says he wants reconciliation but also re-airs grievances against the royal family, the UK government and the media.
• September 8, 2025: Harry arrives in the UK to visit his charities amid signs of a thaw in the frigid relationship between him and the rest of the royal family. The trip corresponds with the third anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
• September 10, 2025: Harry joins King Charles for tea in London, marking the first time they’ve met in more than a year.
• October 17, 2025: Prince Andrew announces that he is giving up his royal title of the Duke of York and other honours after his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the headlines.
• July 10, 2026: King Charles hosts Harry and meets with his family for the first time in years as they try to repair the rift. Harry, Meghan and their two children met with the king and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, a country estate west of London.
• August 19, 2026: Plans are revealed that Harry and Meghan will return to the UK, but they won’t resume their roles as working members of the royal family.

Inputs from Associated Press