Prince Harry ‘Never Really Stopped Missing Home’: Inside His and Meghan Markle’s Shocking U.K. Return (Exclusive)

Sources tell PEOPLE why the Sussexes are starting a new chapter in Britain—and what their return could mean for a royal family still divided

NEED TO KNOW

• Sources tell PEOPLE Prince Harry “never really stopped missing home” as he and Meghan Markle prepare for a return that once seemed unthinkable
• King Charles hopes the move could bring his sons closer, but major obstacles to a royal reconciliation remain
• Meghan is returning to the country where her royal life unraveled — but insiders say this time will be very different

They called it their “Freedom Flight.” Six years ago Prince Harry and Meghan Markle headed west, leaving Britain and a royal life they said had become impossible to endure. As recently as last year Harry suggested there was little chance of ever reversing course. “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point,” he told the BBC in May 2025. But this fall Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, are doing just that.

As PEOPLE exclusively revealed on Aug. 19, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are relocating to Britain for an extended period with Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, who are enrolled in school there and starting classes in September. The family, due to arrive in late August, will establish a private, nonroyal home base believed to be
outside London — though they have not purchased a home — while retaining their residence in Montecito, Calif.

“Step by step, they want to be in the U.K.,” a source close to Harry tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “They want to have the time and give the kids the opportunity to be here.”

The surprising return opens possibilities that seemed unimaginable just weeks ago. Harry will be back in the country he has long missed; Archie and Lilibet will have a chance to experience the traditions and family history he grew up with; and Meghan is stepping into an unexpected new professional chapter, with talks underway for a role on Netflix’s The Gentlemen, which films in the U.K. For King Charles, 77, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, it brings his younger son and two grandchildren close again — an opportunity he welcomes — and raises fresh hope that the royal family’s painful rifts might finally begin to heal. 

Moving back does not mean returning to royal life. Charles has made it clear that there will be no change to Harry and Meghan’s status as private, nonworking members of the royal family, in keeping with the agreement reached when they stepped back from official duties in 2020. Nor will this be a simple welcome home. Harry and Meghan are returning to a skeptical British public, a relentless tabloid press and family relationships deeply damaged by the accusations they leveled after leaving royal life.

“I don’t think they will be welcomed back with open arms,” says Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Alisa Anderson. “They will have to rebuild that trust and affection — with the family and the public.” 

The move, sources stress, isn’t sudden. It has been in the works for about a year, and with Archie and Lilibet now school-age, those close to the couple say the timing increasingly made sense.

“It’s something Harry has been thinking about for a while,” says a source close to the duke.

There were clues. At the WellChild Awards last September, Harry quizzed British singer Joss Stone about her family’s return to Britain after years in Tennessee. “He asked about how we were settling back in and was genuinely interested in our move home,” Stone said at the time. “He was saying how wonderful the schools are here and how important community is for children.”

Meghan’s potential acting project helped the pieces fall into place. Harry, meanwhile, has his own work pulling him toward Britain, including his remaining patronages and preparations for the Invictus Games in Birmingham in July 2027. “He will be in the weeds on it every day,” a source says.

But beneath the professional considerations is something more personal. Despite building a life in Montecito, Harry never fully found his footing there, according to sources in California. He struggled to establish a close social circle of his own and missed the longtime friends and community he had in Britain.

“Harry never really stopped missing home. He’s missed that sense of connection and belonging. Britain is still home in many ways,” says a source close to the couple.

The decision, however, was “taken as a family,” says another source.

For Meghan, part of the appeal is what Britain can offer their children. “Meghan feels very fortunate that they’re able to give Archie and Lilibet the opportunity to experience both worlds,” says a Montecito insider. 

Their summer visit offered a glimpse of what that could look like. The children reunited with their grandfather at Highgrove in July, before spending time at Althorp, Princess Diana’s childhood home and final resting place, with Harry’s uncle Charles Spencer, his wife, Cat Jarman, and several cousins from Diana’s side of the family.

For Harry, giving his children a connection to his mother’s roots matters. “He wants them to understand the world he grew up in and where their family comes from,” says a source.

That doesn’t mean the life they built in California hasn’t worked for them. Montecito gave Harry and Meghan what they wanted when their children were little — privacy, space and distance from the scrutiny of royal life — while serving as a base for Meghan’s business ventures, including As ever, which has new product launches planned. But as their children have grown, so have the family’s priorities. The U.S. political climate has also been a factor, according to sources, as Harry and Meghan have made no secret of their disillusionment with the current administration.

However, the move is not permanent, several insiders caution. Their $14 million Montecito estate remains home, they are keeping their vacation property in Portugal, and plans remain fluid. “It’s not necessarily a forever thing,” says a source.

Harry also returns with some of his biggest battles in Britain unresolved. After losing automatic taxpayer-funded police protection in 2020, Harry repeatedly said he could not safely bring Meghan and the children to Britain without it. (While the family has armed private security in the U.S., private security in the U.K. cannot legally carry firearms.) He intends to “continue fighting for that,” says a source, but insiders warn it could ultimately affect how long the family stays.

His struggle with the press continues too: On Aug. 21 Harry, Elton John and five others were ordered to pay approximately $13 million toward the Daily Mail publisher’s legal costs after losing their privacy case, with the group potentially facing up to $47 million as they weigh an appeal.

For Meghan, returning to Britain isn’t the only major reversal. Asked in 2022 whether she would ever return to acting, the former Suits star appeared to close that door. “I’m done,” she said. “I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.” Four years later Meghan is in early talks for what could become her most significant acting role since leaving Suits — a role in season 3 of The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s hit Netflix crime drama about an aristocratic family caught up in a drug empire.

Insiders say the couple had been discussing Meghan’s return to acting for some time before the opportunity arose. Yet even the potential comeback has brought drama: Soon after news of the talks emerged, reports claimed the deal was already off — but PEOPLE understands the conversations remain ongoing, though nothing has been finalized.

It follows a Hollywood chapter of early successes and headline-making setbacks, from the hit Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries to the end of the couple’s Spotify partnership. Now she is returning to the profession she once thought she had left behind — and the country where her royal life began and ultimately unraveled.

It could be a formidable reentry. Recent polls place both Harry and Meghan near the bottom of the royal family’s popularity rankings in Britain, just above the former Prince Andrew, while the British press they have repeatedly confronted shows little sign of losing its intense interest in them.

Britain is also where Meghan has said she became so isolated and unhappy as a working royal that she experienced suicidal thoughts. “My biggest concern is the level of media attention she’ll face in the U.K.,” says a source close to Meghan. “I’m worried for her.”

This time, however, the circumstances are markedly different. Meghan returns not as a working royal navigating the palace hierarchy but with her own pursuits, team and support system — and greater control over her public life.

“She has been vocal about how she felt about it before, but that doesn’t mean things are going to be exactly the same again,” says an ally. “It doesn’t mean it can’t be different and can’t change.”

Another says her network is better prepared and “stronger now than it ever was to protect her — to protect them.”

No one may have more at stake in the return than Charles. The King’s relationship with Harry has quietly improved, culminating in July’s private reunion at Highgrove, when he saw Archie and Lilibet for the first time in more than four years. “That was a real positive,” says the ally.

Now, as Charles continues cancer treatment, his younger son and grandchildren will no longer be on the other side of the globe. “The King would love to have Harry around,” says a source close to the royal household.

For a father who has watched his sons become estranged, the possibilities extend beyond spending more time with his grandchildren. In Spare, Harry recalled Charles pleading with his sons after Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021: “Please, boys, don’t make my final years a misery.” Five years later the King’s hopes of seeing his sons find their way back to each other remain.

“He will want to see his sons together over time,” says the source. “This is the best opportunity we have seen in recent years.”

Yet their relationship remains complicated. Charles learned of Harry and Meghan’s plans only days before they were publicly revealed, underscoring the distance that still exists between father and son.

William is another matter entirely. While Harry has repeatedly spoken of wanting reconciliation, several sources say the brothers remain in “no contact,” with the Prince of Wales showing no sign that he is ready for a change. The silence when news of the Sussexes’ return broke was notable: William and Kate, who were at Balmoral with the King and other royals, made no public acknowledgment of the move.

After years of upheaval in their own lives, “they have suffered a lot,” says a palace insider. Their priority remains their three children — Prince George, 13, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8 — their growing royal responsibilities and Kate’s continued recovery from cancer.

“They have been dutiful, doing what they do well and keeping the family together,” says the source. “Anything else, from their point of view, isn’t critical.” For now, their focus includes preparing George to start boarding school at Eton College in September. 

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But Harry’s return will change one thing dramatically: distance. Since 2020, an ocean has made avoiding one another relatively easy. With Harry and Meghan in Britain—and Archie and Lilibet nearby—the estrangement becomes almost impossible to compartmentalize.

“It’s going to be very hard for the family to ignore their presence—the kids, especially,” says a California source.

The same could prove true for Meghan and Kate. “There are bound to be moments where their worlds overlap,” says a source, “and everyone will be watching how those encounters unfold.”

Proximity alone won’t erase years of hurt and mistrust, and neither side appears to have offered the apology the other believes is owed. But for Charles, having both sons — and all five of his grandchildren — in the same country changes the equation. Whether his sons seize the opportunity is up to them. However, they will be close enough to find out. “In time,” says one source, “there is a chance it will all heal.”

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