What We Know — and Don’t Know — About Harry and Meghan’s Return to the U.K.

In a move that has shocked the world, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have left California and moved back to the U.K. They will keep their homes in California and Portugal, The Hollywood Reporter understands, and aim to stay across the pond for an undisclosed period of time. A person with knowledge of their plans told THR the couple had “such a wonderful trip” overseas this summer — during which they spent time with the King at his royal residence, Highgrove, as well as the family of Harry’s mother, Diana — that they decided to extend their stay. The pair landed last week with their children, 7-year-old Prince Archie and 5-year-old Princess Lilibet, and two dogs, Mia and Pula, according to the BBC. The family is said to be based in the Cotswolds, in a house “without royal trappings,” and has arrived just in time for Archie and Lilibet to enroll in schools for the start of the autumn term. (Note: They haven’t yet shared which schools, though their cousins, Prince Charlotte and Prince Louis, are at Lambrook in Berkshire, with heir to the throne Prince George just about to start at the prestigious Eton College this month.) It is unlikely that, as the saying goes, time has healed all wounds. So what are we to expect, and will the infamously vicious British press finally give the Sussexes some respite? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle confirmed they’d be “stepping back” as senior members of the royal family nearly seven years ago, in January 2020. What followed were bombshell revelations in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and Netflix’s Harry & Meghan documentary about Markle’s treatment behind closed doors, as well as the malicious onslaught of press coverage that drove the former actress to suicidal thoughts before she and Harry fled to relative privacy in Montecito. The tabloids had not welcomed her with open arms. Much of this can be traced back to what Harry described as the press’s deep-rooted racism — Markle was said to be “fuelling human rights abuses, drought and murder” by eating avocados, accused of “putting Princess Charlotte’s life at risk” by having a potentially toxic flower in her wedding bouquet, and slammed as “a nightmare” for an “awkward faux-pas” at Wimbledon (because she was wearing jeans). Combine that with the now-famous headline “Harry’s New Girl (Almost) Straight Outta Compton” and Markle’s statement that members of the royal household had “concerns about how dark [Archie’s] skin might be when he’s born,” and you’re left with some damning evidence that Markle was treated differently by both the media and the Crown itself. In Harry & Meghan, the Duke tells the cameras that the Palace believed the enduring hostility and media attention were a rite of passage when you join the world’s most famous family. “Members of the family were like, ‘My wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special protection?’ And I said: ‘The difference here is the race element.'” Markle also proved deeply unpopular with a portion of the British public, who were incited into culture-war frenzy by the aforementioned, often right-leaning publications. Seven years on, she might be unable to repair that relationship; a Mirror poll this week has so far accrued over 10,980 responses on a poll titled: “Can Harry & Meghan rebuild their popularity with the British public?” Ninety-percent have opted for: “No, I don’t think so.” The couple’s unfavorable rating with the Brits comes down to a host of issues — chief among them Markle’s “Hollywood” background, Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, and their apparent hypocrisy for wanting to step out of the royal spotlight while continuing to make shows and podcasts with Netflix and Spotify. Ultimately, the couple’s constant complaining and public airing of the royal family’s dirty laundry did not go down well with the U.K. and their head-down, stiff-upper-lip approach to adversity. Their behavior was viewed as disrespectful to the late, beloved Queen Elizabeth II, whose (reported) motto “Never complain, never explain” sums up how the Firm would prefer to deal with hardship. Their return to Britain has raised questions over the pair’s long-standing showbiz ambitions, especially because Harry & Meghan and 2025’s With Love, Meghan lifestyle series are the only well-performing projects to have come out of Archewell’s $100 million deal with Netflix. Others, such as Polo, Holiday Celebration, and Heart of Invictus, failed to make a splash. A year ago, Netflix demoted their deal with the Sussexes to a first-look one. A couple of months after that, the streamer exited Markle’s lifestyle brand, As Ever. It also hasn’t helped that Harry has routinely fought legal challenges over the security he and his family are entitled to while in the U.K. Last year, he lost an appeal against the decision to downgrade his taxpayer-funded security arrangements. In what might have been a hint to the family’s plans to return to the U.K., Harry said in 2023 that England is “central” to Archie and Lilibet’s “heritage,” and that he wants them “to feel at home [here] as much as where they live at the moment in the U.S.” It remains unclear what level of security will be provided for the family as they return to England — and who will pay for it. And then, in July, came one of Harry’s toughest verdicts yet: He and six others, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, lost their privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in London’s High Court. They had accused Associated Newspapers Ltd. of unlawful information gathering, but now face paying up to £34.5 million ($48m) to ANL in legal costs. As Louis Staples of Harper’s Bazaar has astutely pointed out, the Sussexes’ return has also coincided with a fraught, sensitive media landscape in the wake of Jason Arday’s death. The U.K. press has been battling accusations of widespread, systemic racism after the former University of Cambridge professor — the institution’s youngest-ever Black professor — was found to have been the subject of over 250 articles in 22 days surrounding allegations of plagiarism and biographical inaccuracies. The online firestorm had, as Arday said, “reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.” Just a week later, on Aug. 14, the father-of-two was found dead in his London flat. Whether the loss of Jason Arday has prompted any self-reflection for a notoriously ruthless industry remains to be seen, but the headlines about the Sussexes’ move back to Britain have been — so far — surprisingly lukewarm. The Sun‘s front page, for example, read “Harry & Meg coming home,” while a Telegraph op-ed went with “Welcome back, Harry – you might even save the monarchy.” Whisper it, but the U.K. may even be cheering a reconciliation on, especially with King Charles receiving treatment for cancer. A source told Vanity Fair over the weekend that Charles is “genuinely happy that Harry is back, because it means they will see more of him and the children,” although BBC News conceded the King was unaware of their move. In the same report, however, the outlet explains that the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, are “derailed” by the development, and met with the Charles, Queen Camilla and senior royal family members at the Palace’s Balmoral estate to have a “number of talks […] about Harry and Meghan’s plans to make the U.K. their primary residence.” Prince William is said to be pretty unhappy about the situation. Multiple articles have stated that the brothers (and their wives) have clashed over the years. (“I was a hugger, always been a hugger,” Markle said in Harry & Meghan about meeting the then-Cambridges early on in her relationship with Harry. “I didn’t realize that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”) Harry and Meghan have no plans to return to senior royal duties, but the Duke is keen to keep up his charity work, and the Duchess is expected to expand her As Ever business from the U.K. She has even been linked to season three of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, though she was reportedly swiftly dropped from consideration after her involvement was leaked to the press. Whether this move back to England resembles something of an olive branch — to the public, press, or to the monarchy — will likely become apparent in the coming months. The Hollywood Reporter did not hear back from representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the time of publication.