Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving back to the United Kingdom for an extended period within the next two weeks, according to a royal expert who described the decision as a crisis for the monarchy.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will move into a non-royal residence and will not act as working royals. Their children, seven-year-old Archie and five-year-old Lilibet, are already enrolled at a British school and will start classes in September.
King Charles was only informed by his son on Sunday of his plans to move back within the next two weeks. No mention of the move was raised when Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, met with the King at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire earlier this summer during a private family reunion.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told the Daily Mail that the announcement suggests King Charles may have been blindsided by the decision. He said the situation provokes a crisis for the monarchy because the monarchy's responses are often poor when they don't know what to expect.
Fitzwilliams added that it is utterly ruthless if Harry told the King of his plans to move on Sunday. He said the decision was evidence the Sussexes were a disastrous failure in the US after relocating to California six years ago, stating that Meghan's career hasn't taken off at all.
Fitzwilliams suggested that Harry feared how his brother, the Prince of Wales, would receive him and his family when or should Prince William take the throne. He said the Sussexes clearly chose the reign of King Charles knowing their options might be very limited when and if William becomes king.
The expert added that William would likely look very closely at their titles and the titles of their children, viewing the sudden relocation as total proof they couldn't be trusted for a single second.
Royal reaction and public response
Sources insist that returning to the royal fold is not part of the plan for the Sussexes. However, Fitzwilliams noted that having the couple in Britain could lead to a massive charm offensive, adding that the British public can change their views, like they did with Camilla.
The expert speculated that the return was driven by Harry's lack of a role in the United States. Fitzwilliams said he did not believe Meghan wanted to come back, but Harry did because he had no role, doing pathetic cameo performances in Meghan's shows.
Fitzwilliams warned that the couple's high-profile brand would make life difficult for William and Catherine and their family. He added that the sudden relocation news knocked publicity around Queen Camilla's account of keeping King Charles's cancer diagnosis secret during its early stages.
Fitzwilliams said the Sussexes do not care about that, noting that William described the period of having two senior royals suffering from cancer as absolute hell and brutal. Sources, however, suggest that King Charles welcomes the opportunity to see more of his family.
Living arrangements and security questions
The location of the family's new home in Britain has not been revealed for privacy reasons. Archie and Lilibet have enrolled in school, and the family plans to stay until the children finish education, though it is not yet known whether the move will be permanent.
The couple will keep their 11 million pound mansion in Montecito, California, where they have lived since moving across the Atlantic Ocean. They also still own a property at the Costa Terra resort in Melides, Portugal, where they holidayed last month.
Harry was already scheduled to visit Britain next month to attend a WellChild Awards event and was set to stay in a room at Buckingham Palace. However, the couple no longer requires accommodation for patronages, and questions remain over who will fund their security while living in the UK.
Harry hopes King Charles will open next summer's Invictus Games alongside him in what would be a major move towards reconciling their relationship. It is currently unknown whether the King will attend.
Six years of royal strain
The surprise move comes six years after the couple stepped down as working royals. Following a 12-month review, Queen Elizabeth II confirmed they would not continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service, adding they would not maintain a half-in, half-out approach. Harry was later stripped of his honorary military titles.
The couple, who wed in 2018, announced their decision to leave after returning from a six-week break in Canada without consulting Charles, Camilla, or William, in a move accused of pressing the nuclear button. They moved to Vancouver Island in 2020 before permanently settling in California in March 2020 during the period known as Megxit.
Relationships between Harry, his father, and his brother have remained strained. Royal author Phil Dampier told the Mail that William and Harry put aside their differences for the unveiling of the statue of their mother Princess Diana five years ago, but things are much worse now.
Dampier said William would find it very hard to meet Harry, even for the upcoming 30th anniversary of Diana's death. He added that William regards Harry as the past and is only concerned about the future for his wife Catherine and their children George, Charlotte, and Louis, adding that William will never forgive Harry for allegations in his memoir Spare, the Netflix show, and the Oprah Winfrey interview, which led to Catherine being smeared as a racist.
Past workplace allegations
During her time living in Britain, Palace staff reportedly gave Meghan the nickname Duchess Difficult. She was accused of bullying and making staff cry, leaving workers in a psychologically delicate state.
Veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low, who broke the bullying story in March 2021 before the couple's interview with Oprah Winfrey, said former staff were still in a very fragile state years later, viewing Meghan's capacity for revenge as infinite. Low noted that staff knew Meghan was angry about those stories and challenged that narrative.
Meghan vehemently denied the allegations, describing the claims as an orchestrated smear campaign. The couple first appeared in public together at the Toronto Invictus Games in 2017, and representatives for the Sussexes have been contacted for comment regarding their return.
