Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Rep Confirms Their U.K. Move and Addresses Its Length
3 min readTHE RUNDOWN
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s rep has confirmed their U.K. move, revealing how long it will be in a statement.
- Sources also spoke to The Times about when the couple made the decision, along with the current status of their relationship with Prince William and Kate Middleton.
- The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to move to Britain at the end of this month before their children, Archie and Lilibet, begin school there in September.
Days after reports broke last week that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be moving back to the U.K. with their children, the couple’s spokesperson has officially spoken out about their relocation, clarifying that it won’t be permanent. Sources also spoke to The Times about why the couple made the decision so last-minute and where their relationships with Kate Middleton and Prince William stand.
In a statement shared with The New York Times, their rep said, “On the heels of a wonderful trip with family and friends this summer, Harry and Meghan have decided to spend an extended period in the U.K. this autumn. They are excited to have their children spend more time in the country that’s such an important part of their family’s story.”
The spokesperson confirmed that the couple’s businesses will remain unchanged and based in the U.S. Meghan and Harry will also keep their home in Montecito, California.
A source close to the couple echoed the rep, telling The Times that Harry and Meghan really did start making plans to move to the U.K. after their July visit with King Charles III at Highgrove. They had privately discussed returning to Britain for years.
The move came together relatively last minute because they were waiting to see if their children, Archie and Lilibet, were accepted into the private school they applied to.
“They had to wait to be told whether or not their children had got in—just like many other people waiting in mid-August,” a source close to the couple explained. “They weren’t able to confirm their plans until very late in the day, because the school—rightly—works to their own timetable. There was no special treatment.”
Two sources close to Meghan and Harry told The Times that they don’t believe the couple will be in the U.K. “forever,” with one of the sources echoing the rep’s language that Harry and Meghan will be in the U.K. for an “extended period.”
“It’ll be an extended period of time—it could be six months, it could be a year, it could be more—I don’t think even they know yet,” the insider said.
The source called them an “international couple,” pointing to their other homes in Portugal and Montecito. “They might suddenly go: ‘Why don’t we try Canada for a while? Why don’t we try Australia?’ It’s one of the great things about being private individuals [that they can live where they choose].”
While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have more time with Harry’s family ahead of them in the U.K., a royal source made it clear that Harry’s brother, Prince William, is not yet open to reconciliation, which may affect how involved Harry and Meghan can be in royal family activities. (Multiple outlets, including Entertainment Tonight and The Telegraph, have stressed Harry and Meghan will remain private citizens, with a royal source outright telling Entertainment Tonight, “There remains no ‘half-in, half-out’ arrangement.”)
“William’s relationship with Harry is in cold storage and is not coming out any time soon, let alone [the relationship between] the Princess of Wales [Kate Middleton] and Meghan,” a royal source told The Times. “If those issues don’t heal, there’s a limit to how much they can be brought back into the royal fold.”
An ideal scenario, a royal insider said, would be a “private royals plus” status for Meghan and Harry, though that doesn’t seem all that likely now.
“It needs all sides to agree on a template for ‘private royals plus,’” the source explained. “It needs them to be much more ‘private’ than ‘working,’ and be seen at family occasions, like Christmas at Sandringham. That requires William and Catherine to say ‘yes please’ and how on earth does that happen? Just saying it out loud sounds implausible.”
