Six years after the «Megxit», the flight that seemed to have taken them definitively away from Great Britain has completed the opposite path. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their children Archie and Lilibet have returned to the United Kingdomlanding on Wednesday 26 August at Birmingham Airport aboard a private jet from California. It is not a visit of a few days, at least in the intentions declared so far, but the beginning of a prolonged stay that brings the family of King Charles III’s second son back to the country abandoned in 2020 after the traumatic exit from the front line of the monarchy.
Various British media confirmed the arrival, from the BBC to Telegraphwhile the Sussexes’ spokesperson chose the line of maximum discretion: “It’s not something we would comment on”, explaining that the family’s private travels are not discussed for privacy and security reasons. The jet would have landed shortly before midday and in the following hours the family would have left the airport with a small convoy headed towards the new accommodation.
It is an almost mirror-image scene compared to that of six years ago. Then Harry and Meghan left the Windsor system convinced that they could build an economically independent life on the other side of the Atlantic, free from protocol and above all from the pressure of the British press. Today they return with two school-age children, an American career built between Netflix, podcasts, books, charities and Meghan’s lifestyle brand, and a relationship with the Royal Family that remains profoundly different from the one before 2020.
Archie and Lilibet will start school in Britain
The most concrete sign that this is not a simple holiday is represented by Archie, seven, and Lilibet, fivealready enrolled in British schools and ready to start the new school year in September. The choice of the institute has been kept confidential and, according to the English press, traditional photo shoots linked to the first day of school will not be organized or permitted.
Above all, the decision changes the lives of the two children. Archie left the UK when he was just a few months old, while Lilibet was born in California in 2021. Their British experience, until now, had therefore been almost exclusively linked to occasional visits. With the move they will instead be able to spend much more time in their father’s country and close to a part of the royal family from which they remained physically distant for a long time.
Precisely the desire to guarantee their children a more direct relationship with Great Britain and with their family would be one of the central reasons for the return. Some media speak of an open and potentially very long stay, others of a sort of trial period. One thing, however, now appears clear: the Sussexes they will also keep the Montecito housein California, in addition to the property owned in Portugal. It is therefore not necessarily a question of the definitive abandonment of the United States, but rather of the construction of a life spread across several countries.
The Sussexes’ new home in the Cotswolds
The destination most cited in the British press is that of Cotswoldsthe English countryside west of London has become in recent years one of the favorite refuges of aristocrats, millionaires, film stars and international celebrities.
The location would have several ideal characteristics for Harry and Meghan: it is far enough from London to guarantee greater privacy, but remains relatively close to the capital; it is also located not far from Highgrovethe private residence of King Charles III in Gloucestershire. Landing in Birmingham, rather than one of London’s airports, inevitably strengthened speculation about settling in the area.
However, there is currently no official confirmation of the precise location. The British media have been asked not to identify the family’s home and not to disclose the school attended by the children, precisely to prevent the Sussexes’ new beginning from immediately turning into a media siege.
Harry and Meghan are not going back to being working royals
Perhaps the most important point is what Not will change. Returning to the UK does not mean Harry and Meghan’s return to working for the monarchy.
The Sussexes will remain members of the royal family without official functions and will continue to support themselves through their private businesses. There is therefore no resurrection of that “half in, half out” model that Harry and Meghan had initially proposed in 2020, imagining they could divide their lives between royal commitments and independent commercial activities.
Buckingham Palace does not seem willing to reopen that dossier. Carlo would be happy with the possibility of seeing his son and especially his grandchildren more often, but the institutional line remains the one agreed after Megxit: Harry and Meghan can live in the United Kingdom, but they will not represent the Crown.
Meghan, for her part, will continue to take care of the American activities and above all of the lifestyle brand As Ever. A particularly significant coincidence: a few hours after arriving in Great Britain, the brand launched a new product, confirming how the European return does not at all equate to an abandonment of its entrepreneurial dimension.
King Charles knew of the return, but only for a few days
The Palace had been informed. But not too far in advance.
According to British reconstructions, King Charles would learn of the decision in early Augustjust a few days before the news became public. In July, Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet had already returned to Britain and met the sovereign at Highgrove, in what was Charles’s first personal meeting with his grandchildren since 2022. The transfer project, however, would not have been discussed during that visit.
The detail tells well about the delicacy of family relationships. On the one hand there is a rapprochement between Harry and his father, made even more significant by the sovereign’s health conditions; on the other hand, there remains a clear separation between private life and the institutional structure of the monarchy.
Carlo, according to sources cited by British newspapers, would be happy to be able to see Archie and Lilibet more. But the return of the second son will not change the priorities of the Crown, currently focused on Prince William, Kate and their children, that is, on the line destined to guarantee the future of the monarchy.
And with William the cold didn’t end
If some bridges seem to have been rebuilt with Carlo, the relationship between Harry and William remains the real black hole of the Windsor family.
The two brothers continue to be distant and there is currently no scheduled meeting. William and Kate have been informed of the Sussexes’ return, but have not commented publicly. The wounds accumulated after the interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Netflix series and above all Sparethe autobiography in which Harry also recounted the physical clash with his brother, have not been recomposed.
It’s not a minor detail. Living in the same country again will inevitably make it more difficult to maintain that almost absolute distance which in recent years has allowed the two families to proceed on separate tracks.
The big issue remains security
And it is precisely here that the return becomes politically more delicate.
When Harry and Meghan gave up the role of working royals in 2020 they also lost the automatic right to state-funded British police protection. Harry fought against that decision for years, arguing that the level of threat to him and his family made normal private security insufficient.
However, the dossier cannot be considered closed. The evaluation is up to the Ravecthe committee that decides on the protection of royal figures and public personalities based on concrete risk, with the involvement of the Home Office, Metropolitan Police and Royal Household. On the eve of the return, the review was still under discussion and the authorities, as per practice, did not provide details on the devices possibly granted.
The topic is also politically explosive. A YouGov poll cited by Times shows that the 71 percent of those interviewed would not want Harry and Meghan’s security to be paid for by taxpayerswhile 87 per cent believe the Sussexes should finance it directly.
It is therefore premature to talk about a public supply already granted or a definitive agreement with the government. What has changed is the factual situation: Harry and his family are no longer occasional visitors but people who intend to spend a significant part of their lives in the United Kingdom, and this requires a new risk assessment.
Six years after Megxit, another story begins
When they left Britain in 2020, Harry and Meghan presented that choice as the beginning of a new freedom. They arrived first in Canada and then in California, settling in Montecito and building a completely different existence from the one they lived inside Buckingham Palace.
Six years later, however, Harry returned home with his wife and two children.
He will not go back to being the prince who cut ribbons on behalf of the Queen, Meghan will not take his place next to Kate on the royal balconies and Archie and Lilibet will not be raised as little working royals. The return does not erase Megxit and does not automatically reunite the Windsor family.
But something substantial changes: for the first time since 2020 the Sussexes and the rest of the Windsors will return to live in the same country.
And for a family in which, for the past six years, even a few miles apart has seemed enormous, that’s no small thing at all.
