Prince Harry's Surprising Return to England and What It Means for His Family

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped down from their responsibilities as senior working royals in 2020 and settled across the pond in Montecito, California, before deciding to move back to the United Kingdom. “It was never walking away, it was stepping back rather than stepping down. It was a really difficult environment as I think a lot of people saw,” Harry clarified on The Late Late Show With James Corden in 2021. “It was destroying my mental health. … I did what any husband and what any father would do, which is [say], ‘I need to get my family out of here,’ but we never walked away. As far as I’m concerned, whatever decisions are made on that side, I will never walk away.” After six years abroad, news broke in August 2026 that Harry and Meghan planned to relocate to England with kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who were already enrolled in a local school for the fall semester. While neither the Duke nor Duchess of Sussex have publicly addressed their decision, a source exclusively told Us that Harry was “not as happy” living in the United States as his wife. (Meghan was born and raised in California before moving to England upon her May 2018 wedding to Harry.)

“They aim to be somewhere outside of London, not in, like, the city proper,” the insider told Us. “They are open to a new chapter.” Looking forward, Harry and Meghan will reportedly keep their home in California as well as their vacation property in Portugal. Even before the move, Harry had been candid about stateside life. Scroll below for more:

Down-to-Earth Life During Harry’s February 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show, the prince offered a rare glimpse of the family’s life abroad. “Depending on how the day’s been, we do Archie’s tea, give him a bath, read him a book, put him down, go downstairs,” Harry said. “Meg might cook a meal, might order a takeaway, go upstairs, sit in bed, turn the TV on, watch some Jeopardy!, maybe watch a little bit of Netflix.”