MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Harry and Meghan will move to the UK without resuming official royal duties

According to the same sources, Meghan will continue running her As Ever company from the United Kingdom

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, will settle in the United Kingdom from this autumn, though they will not resume their roles as working members of the royal family, British media reported on Wednesday. The story was broken by The Telegraph and corroborated to the Associated Press by a person close to the couple who was not authorised to speak publicly. There has been no official statement from the palace or the Sussexes.

Their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are already enrolled at British schools and will start classes in September. The family will live at a private, non-royal residence outside London, while keeping their home in Montecito, California, and a holiday property in Portugal.

According to the same sources, Meghan will continue running her As Ever company from the United Kingdom, while Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, will be able to devote more time to the British charities he works with.

The move comes six years after the couple gave up their official duties, in March 2020, and settled in California. Their departure, dubbed “Megxit” by the British press, followed a meeting convened by Queen Elizabeth II at her Sandringham residence, which concluded that a partial role within the royal household was not workable.

From the United States, the couple maintained a public confrontation with the monarchy. In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey they said a member of the royal family, whom they did not name, had made a comment about Archie's future skin tone before he was born. Elizabeth II responded with a statement saying the issues raised would be addressed privately and that recollections of events “may vary.” Meghan also said the Princess of Wales had made her cry before their 2018 wedding. That same year, allegations that she had bullied palace staff were published, which she denied.

In 2021 the Queen stripped her grandson of his military titles and royal patronages. The criticism continued in a Netflix documentary and in the duke's autobiography, Spare, published after Elizabeth II's death, in which he described a physical altercation with his brother William and called Queen Camilla “dangerous.” The palaces did not comment on those passages.

A YouGov survey in July put favourable views of Meghan at 22%, against 65% unfavourable; for Harry the figures were 33% and 58%. In 2024, after Charles III was diagnosed with cancer, the duke travelled to London to see him and the two spent less than 45 minutes together.