Prince Harry is coming home to Britain and bringing his wife Meghan and their children for an extended stay that could help repair a rift with the royal family.
The bombshell news comes six years after the couple’s tumultuous decision to leave their roles as working members of the family, abandon the trappings of royalty and depart for America in a move that widened the gulf between Harry and his father, King Charles III, and older brother, Prince William, heir to the throne.
It’s not clear what inspired the return and Harry refused to comment about the move to The Associated Press during an event Wednesday night. But the 41-year-old, who is fifth in the line to the throne, has recently expressed an interest in reconciliation so he could spend more time with his father, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.
Details of their return remain sketchy but the couple has already enrolled their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, at British schools and will start classes in September, a person close to the Sussexes who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press.
Many other questions remain.
Harry and Meghan are not returning to royal life
The family plans to live at a private, non-royal residence outside of London. They will maintain their home in the tony Southern California enclave of Montecito and their Portuguese vacation property in the resort of Costa Terra, south of the capital of Lisbon.
The couple won’t resume roles as working royals, having abandoned that life to earn their living through lucrative contracts with Netflix, Spotify and other ventures.
Meghan will continue heading her As Ever company, which sells high-priced jams, tea and wine, from the U.K., while Harry can spend more time working with his British-based charities, a person close to the Sussexes said.
“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.,” Jennie Bond, a former BBC royal correspondent, told Sky News.
King only learned of the move in the past few days
Harry has only sporadically returned to the U.K. since his move, partly to pursue a series of lawsuits against the British tabloids with mixed results and unsuccessfully challenge the government’s decision to strip him of his security detail.
Visits to his father have been few and brief until recently. Harry and Meghan and their kids visited the U.K. last month and spent time with Charles and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, a country estate west of London. It was the first time the children had seen their grandfather since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee in 2022.
Charles, however, was only informed of the couple’s plans on Sunday, according to British news media.
“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?’” Bond, the former royal correspondent, said. “I find it entirely odd.”
Buckingham Palace has a policy of not commenting on speculation about non-working members of the royal family.
Repairing a royal rupture
Harry has made overtures to reconcile with his family and there has been a notable thaw recently in relations with Charles.
“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” Harry told the BBC last year. “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
But healing some wounds, particularly with his brother William, could be difficult.
Harry and Meghan left their ties to the crown in tatters after a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey and a Netflix series that aired grievances that Buckingham Palace officials were insensitive to Meghan’s mental health. They alleged at least one member of the royal family expressed racist views when Meghan, who describes herself as biracial, was pregnant with their first child.
Harry’s unsparing 2023 memoir “Spare” did further damage by alleging his “archnemesis” brother physically attacked him in an argument over Meghan. Harry described Camilla as “dangerous” and said in interviews promoting the book that she had cozied up to the tabloids to rehabilitate her own image in the press at the expense of others.
Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, said the surprise announcement would make William “apoplectic.”
“In the short term, Harry will be able to deepen his rapprochement with his father,” Hunt told Britain’s Press Association. “And his presence back home will make it harder for his brother to duck a reconciliation.”
Harry said he wouldn’t return without security detail
Harry has blamed the palace for stripping him of his police protection detail on visits to the U.K., and said that was at the “heart” of the family dispute.
Harry, who blames the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, has said he is similarly hounded by the media and faces other threats.
His security had been at the highest tier before he gave up royal life but it was downgraded to being evaluated on a case-by-case basis each visit home. But he appears to be accompanied on most visits by his private security team.
Harry previously said he couldn’t “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K” without a security guarantee.
His return raises questions about whether there has been a change in his requirements — or, perhaps, the government committee that reviews protection of VIPs has provided a new assessment of his risk.
Facing big legal bills for last tabloid battle
Harry has fought a long-running legal battle with Britain’s tabloid press over allegations they invaded his privacy by hacking his phones and hiring private eyes to tail him and dig up dirt on his life.
Those battles are now behind him, with one rather big exception.
After winning a judgment against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and a settlement with an unprecedented apology from Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, Harry and a group of other famous people, including Elton John, lost a case against the publisher of the Daily Mail last month.
A judge will rule Friday on how much to make them pay the Mail for their 34.5 million pounds ($47 million) in legal costs. He, presumably, also faces large bills to his own lawyers.
