When, in January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan made the announcement they would be stepping down as working members of the Royal Family – quickly dubbed “Megxit” by the British press – they announced they would “balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had intended to find a halfway house between being working royals and ordinary citizens, just as they had intended to live in both the US and the UK.
Queen Elizabeth II rejected this suggestion, though – and Harry and Meghan ended up not just entirely outside the Royal Family, but outside the UK, too. Now, even more abruptly than they announced their departure, they have announced they plan to return, and that they have even enrolled their children in UK schools.
The question on everyone’s lips is a simple one: why?
In the months and years that followed their departure, both Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, had plenty to say as to why they had left – laying the blame squarely at the feet of the British media and the institution that is the Royal Family. But none of the issues that drove the pair out of the UK six years ago seem to be any better than when they left – and many look worse.
Harry and Meghan might be returning for family reasons, especially given King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, but relations have hardly fully recovered. According to briefings, the King was only informed – not consulted – about his son’s family’s return to the UK on Sunday. The couple have also been locked in a years-long battle with the Government and Royal Family over security protection when they are in the UK, with both institutions refusing to cover the cost from public funds, ending in a court battle that the Sussexes lost.
They have also spoke about racism in interviews after their departure from the UK, with Harry telling Oprah Winfrey that racism “was a large part of” why they left the country. The Duke claimed that “the UK is not bigoted” but “the UK press is bigoted”. Meghan added that the criticism she had faced from the UK media went well beyond the barrage faced by other women who had married into the family – such as Harry’s mother Diana, and Kate, Princess of Wales. “Rude and racist are not the same,” she said.
The Sussexes’ return to the UK has been revealed amid a furious row about the UK media and racism, spurred by the death of Cambridge professor Jason Arday. Harry has also spent years in an unsuccessful bid to sue the Daily Mail over alleged phone hacking and other privacy intrusions, which has left him facing a bill of tens of millions of pounds to cover its legal costs.
Some have suggested Harry and Meghan may be eager to educate Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, in the UK, since they have already enrolled them in schools for September. But this isn’t an explanation on its own: California has no shortage of superb private schools, many of them used to discreetly and securely educate the children of A-list celebrities. And Harry hardly spoke warmly of the British public school system in his autobiography.
Perhaps the answer lies instead in what went wrong in the USA.
If the Sussexes had hoped for a sanctuary from media attention, things did not work out that way – possibly in part fuelled by their Netflix series, and Harry’s autobiography, drawing fresh attention to their story. The US media was just as interested in their activities as the Brits had been, and the UK press continued to report their every move.
More than that, though, Donald Trump took a personal dislike to Meghan, and made no secret of this – raising the issue repeatedly over a period of years. Trump repeatedly said he was “not a fan of hers”, that Harry had been “used horribly” by her, going so far as to say the Duke was “whipped” by his wife.
Harry and Meghan with Queen Latifah at an NBA All-Star Game in Inglewood, California in February (Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty)Even after returning to the White House last year, Trump still found time to say: “She’s terrible.” Naturally, each time he made remarks of this sort, it reignited a transatlantic media frenzy.
After returning to the US in 2020, Meghan had said she was looking forward to “using my voice in a way that I haven’t been able to of late”, and said of Kamala Harris – then campaigning for the vice presidency – that she was “excited to see that kind of representation”. But Trump’s return to power has coincided with the US going to war in Iran, related economic woes and a crackdown on abortion rights and immigration.
Maybe, suggests longtime royal watcher and biographer Andrew Lownie, they are leaving the US because “they just can’t stand Trump?”
Life in a secluded mansion in star-studded Montecito is also very expensive, even for multi-millionaires like Harry and Meghan. Yes, they are rich – but they are surrounded by people with hundreds of millions, if not billions, in wealth.
www.instagram.com/p/DYNi-N5SEOk/When they first moved to the US, Harry and Meghan signed a five-year deal with Netflix, reportedly worth $100m, and a $20m podcast deal with Spotify. However, the shows the couple produced were far from unmitigated triumphs: Meghan’s podcast interview show was intermittent and poorly reviewed, while Harry’s most recent Netflix show, a documentary about polo, bombed.
The Spotify deal has already been axed, and their Netflix contract has been relegated to a “first look” deal – well known in the industry to be worth little more than the paper they’re written on. It is possible that documentaries, podcasts or other shows about the couple’s return to the UK might be the kind of content the couple need for a new, lucrative media deal. Meghan will also bring her lifestyle brand, As Ever, with her.
Lownie described a return to the UK as “a new start financially” for the family, who will reportedly keep their homes in Portugal and Montecito.
“The story is that Meghan will make millions and Harry wants his children to know his family,” he told The i Paper. “It’s a nightmare for the Waleses, and the Sussexes have got the deal they wanted and the Yorks long enjoyed – of being half-in, half-out.”
The big question would be who will pay the bill for the family’s security – which is likely to be millions of pounds a year. “I don’t think the British taxpayer should do so in some cosy and secret arrangement,” Lownie added.
The reality is that the reasons for the Sussexes’ return will probably not become clear for weeks, if not months. But Harry and Meghan are returning to a UK even more embroiled in furious rows over race, identity, and the media than the one they left – and they know their every move must be scrutinised. If this is what they are choosing to return to, what does that say about the country they’re leaving behind?
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