Prince Harry is opening up about his family’s transatlantic return to England for the first time.
“My highlight so far? Do I have to share it with you?” Harry, 42, quipped during a Thursday, September 17, interview with Hello! at the Invictus Spirit Awards. “Look, the last few weeks have been … eventful.”
Us learned in August that Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, planned to relocate from their home in Montecito, California, to the U.K. in time for their two children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to enroll in a local British school for the fall semester.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in England later that month, eventually offering a first glimpse of the move via Meghan’s Instagram page on September 12.
Captioned with a heart and a Union Jack flag emoji, Meghan, 45, uploaded a montage of the family of four exploring undisclosed grounds in the U.K.
Meghan, who hails from California, relocated to Britain upon her engagement to Harry in 2017. The couple stepped down from their duties as senior working royals in 2020, opting for private life, and left the country with son Archie in tow. Their daughter, Lili, was born the next year in California.
Despite their six years living abroad, Harry and Meghan have not disclosed their reasons for moving back. Harry’s father, King Charles III, has since maintained that the duo are still no longer working royals. (Harry was estranged from his dad following the move, but they have since been working toward reconciliation.)
“The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity,” Charles, 77, wrote in a letter sent to Harry and Meghan’s team, obtained by multiple news outlets, earlier this month. “In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”
The king continued, “It is well known that, in January 2020, the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of The Sovereign, and are no longer working Members of The Royal Family. This position, distinct from the State and Royal duties undertaken by the working Royal Family, and with the personal latitude it brings the couple in respect of financial independence and protection of their privacy as they would wish, will continue to be fully respected.”
A spokesperson for the Archewell cofounders subsequently told the BBC that Harry and Meghan were “a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.”
