Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s return to the UK has prompted several controversies since they landed in Birmingham on August 26, 2027, with plans to stay in England until their kids, Archie and Lilibet, finish school.
They have been living in a private residence in the Cotswolds and are reportedly looking for a nine-bedroom house in the area with lots of land.
Highlights
- Days after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s return to the UK, King Charles III made his stance on their royal status clear in an official letter.
- The couple had lost their royal titles, patronages, public funding, and security detail, among other things, when they parted ways in 2020.
- A former Buckingham Palace staff member recently shed light on where the Royal Family stands on the rift with Harry.
Now, a letter from Harry’s father, King Charles III, has further stirred the drama, as he laid out the terms of Harry and Meghan’s UK stay in a letter in no uncertain terms.
“Guess Charles doesn’t think the prodigal son story is his philosophy,” one user reacted to the statement.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not serve as working royals during their stay in the UK
This is the first time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will live in the UK long-term since they stepped down from their royal roles in January 2020 and moved to California for more personal and financial freedom.
The decision came with the loss of royal titles, financial support, and eventually their high-priority security detail, among other things, and the couple stopped being working royals, as agreed at the Sandringham Summit.
Many saw their UK return as a sign of potential reconciliation and expected Harry to take on a public role representing the Royal Family.
However, according to the BBC, the royal letter on September 7, 2026, reinforced that Harry and Meghan will continue not to be working royals, will not be able to use the “HRH” titles, and must remain “private citizens.”
The letter, sent on behalf of the King by the Lord Chamberlain to Harry's team, government departments, military officials, and other Lord Lieutenants, clearly stated that any engagements the Sussexes carry out will not represent the British Royal Family.
“The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity. In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests,” the letter said.
It also added that any questions organizations may have about the reception to be given to the Sussexes, “particularly where recourse to public funds may be required, should be directed to Buckingham Palace.”
The monarch also said that “security issues should continue to be directed to the relevant police authorities.”
A Royal insider shared concerns about Harry and his kids’ safety
The UK’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) downgraded the Sussexes’ police protection after their exit from the Royal Family.
Rather than automatic cover, the family was placed on a bespoke arrangement assessed trip by trip, requiring advance notice of visits. Harry took the matter to court twice and lost on both occasions.
Local media reported that private security escorted them on August 26 from Birmingham Airport to the Cotswolds residence, rather than official police protection.
“It's very surprising,” Scott Hamer, a former protection officer for Harry's father King Charles III during his time as Prince of Wales, told AFP.
“There are probably people who are being protected now who are at less threat and risk than he is. So the question would be, why does he not receive that protection as well?”
“The vulnerability aspect needs to be assessed,” Hamer continued.
“The fact that he'll have to take his kids to school at the same time each day, and pick them up at the same time each day, now makes him quite vulnerable.”
Insiders told Page Six that Harry and Meghan’s kids will attend an elite private UK prep school that costs more than $35,000 a year and has state-of-the-art amenities such as AstroTurf sports pitches, an indoor swimming pool, and multiple high-end science labs.
Prince Harry may never find his way back to being a working royal, according to an insider
Although King Charles III learned about Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK only days before the news broke, the move itself was intended for the family to be closer to him because of his 2024 cancer diagnosis.
In July, Charles met his grandchildren for the first time in four years when the Sussexes visited him at his country home of Highgrove.
Despite the reunion and subsequent homecoming, a former staff member recently dismissed any possibility of Harry being welcomed back.
“You can’t just waltz back into a country and expect everything, everybody to roll over,” Dickie Arbiter, former press secretary to the Royal Family from 1988 to 2000, told the Daily Express on September 5.
“It’s never going to be the same as it was; there is always going to be that element of mistrust.”
The couple’s infamous 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, their 2022 Netflix documentary, and Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, have done irreparable damage to the Royal Family and rendered any reconciliation impossible, Arbiter said.
“In trying to settle old scores, he has inflicted new wounds that may never heal,” he said, adding that Harry “burnt his bridges” not so much because they left, but by “rubbishing” his family and his country.
Arbiter clearly stated that Harry returning as a working royal “is not an option,” even though other unnamed insiders have recently claimed that it might still be on the table if Harry personally speaks with his father.
"He just made them regular people," one reader commented
