Prince Harry and Meghan are returning to the UK but not the royal fold

On a quiet summer afternoon in July, King Charles III reunited with his prodigal son, wife and grandchildren at a private residence in the picturesque English countryside. The meeting was one few had thought possible six years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made the stunning decision to walk away from the royal family. At Highgrove, far from the prying eyes of the press, the King and his wife Camilla hosted the couple and their children, Archie and Lilibet, for more than an hour. Charles is believed to have gone to great lengths to keep it a secret from everyone but his significant other. His other son, Prince William, and his wife Princess Catherine were reportedly kept in the dark. "The king wanted to see Harry and the children. A time was agreed for the Sussexes to come to Highgrove on Friday afternoon, and it was uncharacteristically last-minute for the king," an unnamed source close to the monarch told Vanity Fair. "Everyone was sworn to secrecy so that the meeting could remain private." Little is known about what took place that afternoon, but it may have helped change the relationship between father and son after years of failed efforts at reconciliation. The revelation Meghan and Harry are now moving back to the UK after six years in the US may be further indication of a shift. A lot has changed since they stepped back as senior working royals and went public with their private battle with the institution in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a Netflix special and Harry's tell-all memoir, Spare. The open feud has sparked anger and hurt on both sides of the Firm, but the passage of time has brought with it changes in the health and circumstances of some of its key aging members. The King's painful cancer diagnosis in 2024 and his son's publicly expressed desire for reconciliation last year could have been the catalyst for a rapprochement, or at the very least brought the relationship between the two out of the deep freeze. But while a move to London now brings the Sussexes in closer proximity to Harry's family, it does not solve the Windsor's complicated dynamics or the deep rift between two brothers. Nor does it address the complex and personal reasons that forced the couple to leave in the first place. Charles may be more forgiving than William When Harry and Meghan left for the US in 2020, their bombshell decision was a clear sign of their rupture with the royal family, and the move appeared permanent. While Prince Harry has visited London frequently since, it was uncommon for Meghan and their children to join him due to security concerns. The young royal acknowledged he could not change, nor escape, who he was and the institution where he had spent most of his life. But he also could not ignore the grief he felt for his children in Montecito, knowing they would not be familiar with the home where he grew up. "I miss the UK … I think that it's really quite sad that I won't be able to show my children my homeland," he told the BBC last year. Prince Harry could have just as easily been speaking about his children's relationship with their grandfather as well as his own. Even amid a very public rift and complicated feelings on both sides, the bond between the father and son seemed unbreakable. Never was this clearer than in 2024 when both men showed a willingness to set their anger aside and talk when circumstances beyond themselves took over. It was Charles, newly diagnosed with cancer, who picked up the phone to call Harry and tell him of the news personally. The Duke of Sussex responded immediately, boarding a plane to London and rushing to be by his father's side. Queen Camilla has only recently revealed how challenging that period was for the entire family as they struggled to keep the king's cancer diagnosis private. In his 70s, and undergoing treatment for a significant health condition, Charles was staring down his own mortality and the health battle may have brought with it a desire to make peace with loved ones. Meanwhile, Harry, now 42, has been very public about his desire for repair. "I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious," he told the BBC last year. The Sussex family’s move was reportedly not discussed when the Duke and Duchess visited Britain and met with the king this summer. And while the relocation brings the family physically closer, a question mark hangs over how other royals will receive the Sussexes. Prince Harry's relationship with William, in particular, which the duke once described as a "private Olympiad", remains unchanged. "I thought it would have perhaps eased a little bit by now, to be honest. But there has been no movement, especially on William's side. There is no contact," a source close to the brothers told People in July. Even so, Harry's return brings the two men back together in the same country, and the potentially awkward dilemma, through family gatherings and events, for the pair to one day be in the same room again. Big questions over Sussex return Meghan and Harry's arrival in the UK also raises pressing questions around the couple's security arrangements, given the Duke of Sussex's long-publicised battle over the issue, and where they plan to live. Harry, a British military veteran, has been the target of an assassination plot by al-Qaeda, while Meghan was vilified by right wing extremists because of her mixed race, Black heritage. The couple's state-funded protection was stripped by the UK Protection of Royalty and Public Figures committee in 2020, a decision that Harry spent five years battling in UK courts to overturn to no avail. The uncertainty over their security arrangements meant that Prince Harry did not bring Meghan or their children to events in London last month, as had been originally planned. The visit with King Charles and Camilla was a notable exception. Last year, the Duke of Sussex claimed after he lost his final legal challenge over his security, that he did not feel safe bringing his family back to the UK. The duke and duchess's security arrangements once they arrive in the UK have not been disclosed, but they have already indicated they will not be living in a royal residence. The couple were asked to vacate their former home, Frogmore Cottage, by Charles in 2023. It was offered to former prince Andrew as a compromise when the King was trying to remove him from Royal Lodge. According to the BBC, the Sussexes will move into a private, non-royal residence outside London and have enrolled their children in school in time for them to start in September. Privacy will no doubt be a top concern for the Sussexes, who said that one of the reasons they exited royal life and traded London for California was because of their deep disappointment and anger with the UK's media intrusion into their lives and their treatment on social media. The couple believed the British media's coverage of the Duchess was relentless, and overwhelmingly negative almost from the moment their relationship was made official. Harry issued an unusually detailed statement in late 2016 that noted the treatment of his then-girlfriend had seen "a line crossed" and that she had been subject to "a wave of abuse and harassment" from the press and online trolls. Despite the rare plea from the royal to do better, the scrutiny continued. Meghan was the target of racism and sexism from social media trolls and in web article comments, while media reports accused her of breaking royal protocol by having a baby shower, feuding with Kate Middleton, bullying palace staff and turning Harry against his family. Prince Harry couldn't help but see striking similarities between his wife's treatment and Princess Diana. "I've seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person," he wrote. "I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces." In the end, the couple decided to walk away, but in returning to the place where it all began, they may once again be left facing the "powerful forces" that forced them to leave in the first place. Their sudden return and their new life in the UK as private citizens is already drawing intense public scrutiny. Living in the same country as Prince William and Catherine, with both their kids in the British school system, is also bound to generate headlines again. The question will be how Harry and Meghan plan to handle this new dynamic and attention years after living in self-imposed exile in the United States. The palace has reportedly been clear that a return to the royal fold is unlikely. The half-in, half-out model they proposed all those years ago to Queen Elizabeth, is still opposed by her successor.