Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning to move back to the U.K. despite years of public criticism of royal life and the British press.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to relocate their family to a private residence outside London later this month, according to multiple reports. Their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are set to attend a British school beginning in September, according to the BBC.
King Charles III has been informed of the move and reportedly welcomes the chance to spend more time with his grandchildren. Prince William and Princess Kate have also been informed.
The move is not expected to bring Harry and Meghan back as working royals. But it does put a fresh spotlight on the couple’s long list of explosive claims about life inside the monarchy.
Here are some of Harry and Meghan’s most explosive claims and remarks about royal life, the British press and the U.K.
Nearly a year after walking away from their working royal roles, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down for a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
Opening up about the immense pressure that drove them across the Atlantic, Harry didn’t hold back when describing the reality of life behind palace walls.
The Duke of Sussex said he would not have walked away without Meghan, explaining, “I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped. I didn’t see a way out.”
“I was trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped,” Harry told Winfrey at the time, before adding, “My father and my brother, they are trapped.”
The explosive interview revealed the extent of Harry’s strained relationships with his family. He said he felt “really let down” by his father and described himself and Prince William as being on “different paths.”
The Sussexes’ tell-all quickly escalated tensions with the royal family when Meghan made a staggering allegation about conversations behind palace doors.
During their March 2021 sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan made allegations about concerns within the royal family over the skin color of her firstborn son, Archie.
Meghan said it was the palace — not her and Prince Harry — that decided Archie would not receive a royal title or royal security. She also claimed they were never asked to pose for the traditional hospital steps photo after Archie’s birth.
KING CHARLES ‘FED UP’ WITH PRINCE HARRY DRAMA AS REUNION WITH GRANDCHILDREN HANGS IN BALANCE: EXPERT
Meghan also addressed security concerns surrounding her son’s birth:
When Winfrey pressed on who made the remarks, Meghan refused to name names, saying that revealing the identity of the royal involved would be “very damaging” to the family.
Meghan also rejected comparisons between the press scrutiny she received and the negative coverage Princess Kate faced before marrying Prince William.
Meghan and Prince Harry said racism in the U.K. media and a lack of support from the palace contributed to their decision to leave. In a follow-up clip on “CBS This Morning,” Meghan explained her view:
Meghan, whose father is White and mother is Black, said Princess Kate had a press team that could publicly defend her, while she and Harry did not receive the same support.
MEGHAN MARKLE COMPARES HER RACIST TABLOID COVERAGE TO KATE MIDDLETON’S RUDE HEADLINES
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The royal scandal reached a harrowing peak when Meghan Markle said she experienced suicidal thoughts while serving as a working royal.
When Oprah Winfrey asked if relentless media scrutiny drove her to the edge, the Duchess said:
Prince Harry said he entered a “very dark place” watching his wife suffer. He has repeatedly drawn parallels between the media attention surrounding Meghan and the treatment of his late mother, Princess Diana, and said his requests for help from his family were met with “total silence” and “total neglect.”
When asked whether she was “silent or silenced,” Meghan didn’t hesitate: “The latter.” However, she praised Queen Elizabeth II as “warm, inviting and really welcoming.”
PRINCE HARRY SAYS MOM PRINCESS DIANA WOULD FEEL ‘VERY ANGRY,’ ‘SAD’, ABOUT ROYAL FAMILY FALLOUT
In a candid look at his relationship with his father, Harry said:
The Duke revealed that the royal family cut him off financially in early 2020 after he and Meghan announced their step back, leaving him to rely on his inheritance from Princess Diana to pay for security.
Meanwhile, the fallout was immediate. Just two days after the interview shook the monarchy, then-Prince Charles stepped out to visit a London vaccine clinic. When reporters shouted questions about the bombshell conversation, the future king at the time simply chuckled, remained silent and carried on walking.
In December 2022, Prince Harry dropped a blunt reality check on the monarchy, calling out internal media manipulation and vicious palace leaks in his Netflix documentary, “Harry & Meghan”:
Meghan delivered a chilling realization to their explosive project: “I realized, ‘They’re never gonna protect you.’”
Drawing an eerie parallel to the tragic fate of his late mother, Princess Diana, Harry spoke out about the brutal psychological toll placed on women marrying into the royal family:
Fighting back tears in a London courtroom in January 2026, Prince Harry delivered a blistering indictment of the British press, testifying that aggressive tabloid intrusion reduced his wife’s life to “an absolute misery”:
Taking the stand for a grueling two-and-a-half-hour testimony in his high-profile privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, a visibly shaken Duke of Sussex choked up while condemning the relentless commercialization of his private life. Harry blasted the notion that he has no right to privacy as “disgusting,” framing the bitter legal battle as yet another grueling chapter for his family.
Recalling the bitter fallout of the emergency summit called by Queen Elizabeth II at the time, Prince Harry recounted the harrowing showdown where compromise was quickly thrown out the window:
The Duke of Sussex detailed how the 90-minute sit-down with Queen Elizabeth II, then-Prince Charles, and Prince William failed to find common ground after his proposed “half in, half out” model was flatly rejected. The explosive Netflix documentary also spotlighted claims of deliberate negative briefings against the couple to protect other royal interests.
In his memoir “Spare,” Prince Harry detailed a 2019 physical altercation with Prince William at Nottingham Cottage after the Prince of Wales labeled Meghan Markle “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive.”
According to Harry, a shouting match quickly escalated between the two:
Harry wrote that William later returned to apologize — while bizarrely urging, “You don’t need to tell Meg about this” — prompting Harry to reply, “You mean that you attacked me?” to which William reportedly fired back, “I didn’t attack you, Harold.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle detailed the rigid, unyielding protocol of the British monarchy, revealing how jarringly formal traditions felt even behind closed doors in their 2022 Netflix documentary.
Royal commentator and True Royalty TV co-founder Nick Bullen highlighted how the series deliberately contrasts the family’s public image with a much colder private reality, pointing specifically to Meghan’s description of her initial, highly formal meeting with Princess Kate and the carefully curated visuals meant to emphasize the family’s sternness:
Critics note that the narrative leans heavily into painting the institution as an unwelcoming, rigid environment, though Bullen also pointed out that the series sidesteps the immense privilege and luxury that came with their senior royal status.
Battling to bring his children to Britain, Prince Harry argued that losing taxpayer-funded police protection left his family facing unacceptable dangers.
In September 2021, Prince Harry originally applied for a judicial review of a Home Office decision that kept him from personally paying for police protection while he and his family were in the United Kingdom.
Legal teams told the High Court that Harry refused to bring Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet to the U.K. because he does not feel safe under current security arrangements. Harry offered to personally finance his own police detail out of pocket.
However, the U.K. Home Office and government lawyers successfully blocked the bid, arguing wealthy individuals cannot “buy” police security.
In May 2023, the legal defeat locked Harry out of official state-backed protection, leaving the Sussexes to rely entirely on private security during a battle that coincided with fresh security threats in the U.S.
As the royal blasted his latest legal defeat as a “stitch-up,” Prince Harry admitted in May 2025 that he can no longer envision bringing Meghan Markle, Archie and Lilibet back to Britain.
Following a crushing blow to his long-running security appeal, Harry told BBC at the time:
While claiming King Charles refused to speak to him over the ongoing feud, Harry confessed he was ready to drop the legal warfare, noting: “I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point continuing to fight anymore, life is precious.”
Setting the record straight on who orchestrated “Megxit,” Prince Harry confessed he was the one who pulled the plug on royal life.
Facing what he called “total silence and total neglect” when seeking institutional help, he recalled the final straw: “I said that we need to get out of here.”
Years after fleeing to America as they built a home in Montecito, California, amid fierce security battles, the Sussexes’ saga has come full circle with reports that the couple is moving back to the U.K.
