The Royals with Roya and Kate - Harry and Meghan are moving back to the UK – why now?

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Harry and Meghan are reportedly moving back to Britain with Archie and Lilibet, more than six years after leaving royal life for California. But why now — and how will their return work in practice?Roya Nikkhah is joined by Rosamund Urwin, chief news correspondent of The Sunday Times, to discuss the Sussexes’ shock decision, the King’s reaction and what it could mean for Prince William. They also examine Harry’s security concerns, the couple’s life in America and whether their return risks creating an alternative royal court — blurring the “half-in, half-out” boundaries established at Sandringham six years ago .If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to press follow at the top of your podcast app.What do you want to know about Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK? Get in touch: [e-mail]: GettyProducer: Robert WallaceVideo Producer: Eve ChadbournExecutive Producer: Priyanka DeladiaWatch us on YouTube.Read more: Prince Harry's third act: will it be a drama — or cause a circus? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, it's a story that very few of us saw coming. Harry and Megan are moving back to the UK from America. More than six years after leaving Royal Life, a bombshell announcement last night that they are within a matter of weeks, relocating back from California to the UK. Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie are already enrolled in UK schools. what does this mean for the royal family, Harry and Megan's role within it, what's the reaction going to be like from the king, from Prince Williams,

so many questions to ask. I'm Royneika, this is the Royals. Well, Kate's away this week, and I am delighted to join me for this massive news story. I mean, they don't get much bigger than this in terms of royal news stories. Rose Irwin, Chief News Correspondent for the Sunday Times. Thank you for joining us on the Royals. Oh, thank you for having me, Maria. Should we try and defuse the bombshell as best we can?

Yes. Because the information has been coming thick and fast since 10.30 last night when my phone bombshelled, ping, bing, bing. And I thought, my heart always sinks when I hear that. I was just literally about to turn the light off, looked at my phone. Boom, there it was. Harry and Megan are moving back. So what we know so far is they're moving back by the end of August to the UK. Archie Neely are already enrolled in UK schools, which suggests there's been a

certain amount of planning going on here. It's going to be for a significant period of time, but we don't know how long. They're going to be living somewhere outside of London, we don't know where, not in a royal home, in a private residence. They only informed the king of their decision on Sunday. This was announced, of course, on Wednesday night. The Prince of Wales and the Princess of Wales apparently have been informed of the decision. I mean, Ros, my jaw really hit the ground

when I read that on my WhatsApp from various sources. What was your reaction? Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I mean, it was just shock. I bumped into one of our colleagues on the way here and she said that she was convinced It was sort of a Waggather Christie scenario where they had tried to flush out, you know, who was leaking stuff by putting out this ludicrous story that couldn't possibly be true.

But of course, it is true. But yeah, complete shock and surprise. And I think that was really widespread. I mean, I've had lots of messages from people saying they can't quite believe this. I mean, it's been six years since they left these shores for what they described as a different kind of life. They were, you know, off to pursue their financial independence, their creative independence. they've brought up Archie and Lily, who are seven and five so far in California, and yet they're coming back.

Now, the very fact that Archie and Lily have been enrolled in UK schools already suggests there's been a certain amount of planning in this. But what is absolutely intriguing about that is that we know that Harry and Megan saw the king and queen just a few weeks ago. Last month, when they were back over here, they had that reunion for tea at Highgrove, with the kids, first time Charles had seen his grandchildren for more than four years, and yet we know Harry didn't mention it to his father at that point.

He only told him about it three days ago. What do you read into that? Oh, that's kind of crazy, isn't it? I mean, it is possible, isn't it, that they had two possible options here, that their kids could have stayed in the schools they were in or they could. So you can apply without definitely intending. to move, right? But the idea that they saw them only last month that started July, and don't mention it to your father that you're returning home, which has profound implications, not just for your

immediate family, but also, you know, in terms of media and the royal family, that does seem quite extraordinary, but perhaps they wanted to keep it under wraps. And I'm sure that they thought their father may have thought that his, you know, other son deserved to know this. And so maybe they thought that the only way to keep this completely on the down low was clearly not to tell almost anyone, but they must have told the schools. And of course, if they have bought a house or a renting house, you know, there are other ways this could have slipped out anyway. I think it's quite extraordinary that it stayed under wraps until now. I mean, we're saying the end of August, well, that's next week. You know, it is immediate to this.

What is intriguing about the dynamic of this announcement coming just a couple of weeks after they saw the king, I think, is that although that was described to us by the palace as a private family occasion and startlingly, no details have emerged, no pictures have emerged, both sides have kept that very quiet. It was briefed at the time, and I wrote it certainly in the sunny times that we can, that Harry was very happy, boyed, energized after seeing his father and particularly after his children seeing the king. And I suspect he's been giving a lot of thought to wanting to do a lot more of that. I know that he's been very keen to come back here a lot more. I'm thinking that probably he thinks, I want my children to know my grandfather. That was a really

lovely meeting, but we can't do that sort of, you know, twice a year. The only way to do it is a very radical move to bring them back. And what is fascinating about the decision so far is the response from sources close to the king. And sources close to the king were telling us last night, Okay, the king was informed about it on Sunday. He's delighted, obviously, that he gets to spend more time with the Sussexes in a private personal capacity. But the point that was absolutely rammed home to us was that this doesn't change anything. This doesn't change Harry and Megan's position in the royal family. It doesn't mean they're going to suddenly become working members of the royal family. It was rammed home from sources close to the king that they will be non-working members of the royal family and, crucially, that they're is no half in, half out way of doing this. So what was agreed at the Sandringham Summit, of course, when Meggs it happened and Harry and Meghan put forward this pitch of being part-time working royals, part-time in the UK, part-time in America, the king is letting it be known. That's not going to happen here. So the prodigal son returns, but there's no fatted calf

being killed, essentially. So no return to the working fold to them for now, but the reality is, What we are going to see is two senior members of the royal family back on these shores, with their children, with an alternative royal court effectively in the UK. There's no way they're not going to be going out to charity gala. We know that Harry, I wrote this last week, wanted to spend more time here because he wants to spend much more time in person with his charities, like the Invictus Games, like Scoffice Little Soldiers, like the Halo Trust. So he is definitely moving back here going to be much more.

more visible in terms of going out and about and doing the royal thing. And so we are going to have whatever the royal family might think, an alternative royal court. And again, you know, what does that look like? Well, we've already seen all the problems that it created when they sort of did their quasi-Royal tours, not really royal at all, tours in Africa when they went to Nigeria, I think back in 2024. And, you know, there's a lot of criticism at the time at that because it was sort of like, well, what capacity are they here? You know, this isn't really a diplomat. mission, but it sort of is. So it is quite complicated what this actually is going to look like and how many problems it's going to create as well. Obviously, when you see Harry doing his charity

stuff, I mean, I think of that sort of heyday in 2012 with the Olympics and you remember those funny videos with him and you're saying, well, he's really good at that stuff. I mean, he's charismatic. People are quite charmed by him. I mean, I think he's obviously lost all of this element by going to California. We don't really see that. that side of him and obviously he's expended a lot of energy on other things, including obviously his sort of campaign, his war with the media really. But he's good at that stuff. And I think, I think we've slightly forgotten that, frankly, in the recent years. So I can understand him wanting to do more of that. He's got great charities that he works with interesting causes that he cares

about. My bigger question, I guess then, is what nurse does Megan do over here? I mean, she hasn't got many links here. Obviously, the speculation she might be somewhere in the Cotswolds where, you know, there are some other sort of Trump refugees living, you know, wealthy Americans who've, and I wondered slightly something hasn't been touched on in what I've read, if perhaps the political climate in the US was one of the reasons she's agreed to come over here. You know, there's another 880-something days of Trump, and that could seem a long time. Well, we know there is no love lost between Trump and the Sussexes. I mean, there's been a war of words between both sides for years. Yeah, exactly.

But what does her life look like over here? When she clearly is very settled in California, she's got friends there, she's got a life there, and also a sort of world that sits well with her, which obviously we've seen that her time in the UK did not go well for her. Or she doesn't feel it went well for her, certainly. Well, what source is close to them are saying is that she will continue to run her as ever brand of, homewares and, you know, that whole thing that we've seen her build up in California from the UK. Nothing is actually on sale in the UK as things down. So perhaps this is going to be part of a big move of selling the produce here. But I'm intrigued by that too because, you know, it's always been

clear that since they left, Harry has wanted to maintain links here. He's kept coming back. He's repeatedly said publicly, the UK will always be my home. I have never thought, personally, that Megan has shown any real inclination to rebuild a relationship with the UK or with members of the Royal Family over in the UK. And there's a much more complex relationship between the British public and Meghan than there is with the British public and Harry. And we have seen that play out, I think, in the last few years. And even if you just look at kind of, you know, a few of their sort of joint returns, we saw them come back for that service of Thanksgiving for High Late Majesty's Platinum Jubilee at St. Paul's. And they were both

cheered and booed as they walked into St. Paul's Cathedral hand in hand. So it is going to be a very interesting time, I think, for her, your right question, what does her life look like here? But this is clearly a decision they've taken as a family. Now, we've heard a little bit from sources close to the king in terms of his response, how he's delighted he gets to see a little bit more of them. You know, we don't know how much the king's health has played into Harry's decision to come back. The king is, of course, still. receiving cancer treatment. We keep being told his health is moving in a very positive direction, but the fact is he is still having treatment two years post-diagnosis. And it's understandable

how he'd want to keep seeing much more of his father and be able to spend more time with him more freely. What we don't know is how William has reacted to this news, having presumably only just found out about it a few days ago or quite recently too. I think that's a much more complicated question because, you know, Harry and his father, for everything that's been said and done, the Oprah interview, the Netflix documentaries, 417 words of his memoir spare, laying every family secret bear, well, many of them. It's always been said by those close to the king, the king will always keep the door open for him. He'll always keep the door ajar. Someone said to me the other day, you know, after that meeting at Highgrove, it just shows that the king thinks, blood is blood.

I've not got that feeling from William over the last few years. And I suspect, he will not be that thrilled about the fact that the rival Californian court is now coming to these shores. I think he will feel quite conflicted about that. I suspect he might feel quite annoyed about it. And we've had no indication at all so far that William and Harry have been in touch at all. And really, as far as I understand,

they've been on non-speakers for the best part of four years. That move back is going to have profound consequences is for the whole family dynamic, I think. And what that looks like for the real family, I think, is going to be quite complicated. What, if you're William, you're not going to be thrilled by this possibility, clearly, of this rival court, this sort of shadow court setting up.

And it's a distraction from what he wants to do as well, isn't it? Obviously, the father-son relationship can be very different from a brotherly one. And I think also with William, what we've seen, is he sees the family's mistakes around Andrew, I think more clearly than other members of the family did and do. And so he's hyper aware of the damage that somebody not doing what they, you know, in royal terms should be doing,

can do to the family and to the bigger institution of the monarchy. Yeah. So now I'm not suggesting that anything Harry has done is on a par with anything that Andrew has done by any stretch. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly, yes. Key word, allegedly.

He denies all wrongdoing. However, I think he has learned the lesson, perhaps, of what the family is faced over that and the criticism of sort of particularly slow handling and does not want the next generation facing the same issues, you know, that he wants to put a stop there. And he has his own ideas about what the monarchy should look like, which you've obviously written about extensively. And where does Harry fit into those? Well, he doesn't really seem to in my mind. you know, he has a view of what the monarchy should look like, you know, a slim down, what it should be doing, what its energy should be focused on. And I don't see where Harry and Meghan fit into that.

Coming up. The other thing that keeps coming back to me is how critical Harry has been publicly of England, of his life here. You know, what is their relationship going to be like in terms of publicity and the media when they're here? Because, I mean, you know, they don't much like us. Let's remind ourselves the terms of the Sandringham summit. So when the now king, the then-Prince of Wales, the late Queen Elizabeth the second, William, Harry, all sat down around a table at Sandringham, you know, with private secretaries there and various press secretaries milling around

to thrash out the deals of Harry Megan's exit from the royal family, we know that what they pitched, half in, half out by Harry Megan, was resoundly rejected by the Queen, by Charles and by William, who were all singing from the same hymn, there that there's no half in half out. You cannot be a member of the royal family and do your sort of, you know, fun stuff that you want to do and do your commercial stuff. The fact is, we are going to have Harry and Meghan as senior members of the Royal Family on these shores, and that is what it is going to look like. And whether, you know, the king and queen and William

and Catherine like it or not, we are going to have Harry and Megan out and about doing their thing, looking like members of the Royal Family, doing charity engagements. It is going to going to seriously blur the lines of what was agreed at the Sandringham summit. And that is where I think William is going to take huge exception to that, notwithstanding the personal dynamic of the fact that the brothers clearly don't get on, don't speak, haven't seen each other or spoken to each other for the best part of four years, their children don't know each other, the cousins don't know each other. For William, it is going to be that. William is all about the institution, as you've has said what the institution looks like going forwards into his reign and this is going to

blur the lines and that I predict is going to be enormously problematic for the institution and for the future king. It is incredibly sad though. We've got a family split here and there is always a great sadness. I find it, I mean, I'm very, very close to my brother and sister. There is a family dynamic here that is pretty devastating. The idea that the cousins don't know each other. I mean, that is a very sad state of affairs. So maybe there is a positive thing here that there is a possibility, at least some of those other relationships being easier to build, even if, you know, the fraternal one is marred. You know, there are other relationships here that have the opportunity of being rebuilt. And obviously, the king with his grandchildren is a primary one,

but actually also maybe the cousins. So maybe there are chances here for other members of the family to be more united too, simply by virtue of being. closer to one other. I mean, there is a real question, obviously, where he's going to live. I mean, one possibility that's being, that I've seen sort of discussed is, you know, someone near or in the Cotswolds, and that would obviously be fairly near High Grove. And then there's the option of living fairly near Allthrop, where his mother's child at home. And obviously, Harry feels very tied still to there. We saw them, you know, take his family there. The other thing that keeps sort of coming back to me is how critical Harry has been publicly of

England of his life here. You know, he made that comment, didn't he, about how his life was somewhere between a Truman show and a zoo. And what is their relationship going to be like in terms of publicity and the media when they're here? Because, I mean, you know, they don't much like us. We've heard from Harry, you know, he's, that famous quote from him a few years ago that every time he comes back to the UK and sees the flashbulbs of photographers, he takes him right back to the bad old days and, of course, reminded him of his mother's big suit. But, you know, but you. you've hit the net on the head there because as members of the real family that are not working members of the real family, they are not going to get the same level of protection. And when I say protection, I mean from, you know, the palace. There will be no protection from the palace. There'll be no protection or setting up of engagements from the palace. And there's a whole issue there in terms of, as you say, access, what does that look like? The interest from the media is going to be enormous. The interest from the public is probably going to be quite which also brings us on to the issue of security.

Probably the second most important thing to Harry in the last few years over the sort of discord with his family has been the security issue. He has raged and waged a war against the government and the home office about his security, long-running battle with the home office, which he lost last year, to have his automatic peace protection reinstated when he came back to the UK. Went to the Court of Appeal, he lost. he then wrote to the Home Secretary asking for a review of the threat level against him. He's been waiting for that for a long time. We're told recently that's been put on permanent sort of hold and is not being done. But he repeatedly said in that interview with the BBC last year after losing the case and he's repeatedly left to be known and be briefed,

he couldn't see a world in which he could ever bring his wife and kids back here is what he said just last year because of the security. Because there wasn't enough security for him. Now, nothing around his security has changed, as far as we know, in terms of police protection. He doesn't get it automatically when he comes here. He has a private security team around him. And fascinating, we've heard just in the last few minutes from Andy Burnham, asked about Harry and Megan to move back to the UK. The Prime Minister has said their security is a private matter for them, which makes you think there isn't going to be any great change from the government there in terms of giving him taxpayer fund of security.

So again, that's a massive you turn there, isn't it? Well, yes. I mean, it's so recent to say that your family can't be safe here. And then to bring them over about 18 months later does seem a bit inconsistent since nothing else has changed. And look, I think he has genuine concerns, as frankly I would in his situation for his family. I mean, obviously, many people have criticised him because he perhaps didn't help himself with some of the things he wrote in spare. that said, you know, of course he's worried about his family. That's a genuine thing.

And you think, I just can't grasp quite why you now think when nothing else has changed that, you know, this issue is no longer an issue when you've spoken so sort of strongly about it. I mean, you know, he really did say they couldn't be safe here. Well, how has that changed so much? I don't get it, to be honest. It doesn't seem consistent. I do think, though, that there's a lot of reasons why. they sort of had to do this now or never, right? So in terms of schooling, Archie could go into a prep school.

He's seven, right? So he's that age. Lilibet would be going into year one. So in case she's missed reception in whichever school. But, you know, there's a sense to that. So age-wise, it would be a time to move the children if you're going to do this. And also, you just get the sense. It's a bit of a sort of almost not quite seven-year-rich, is it?

But almost seven-year-rich of being out there that you think he was bored out there, wasn't he? He was. Yeah. He has looked much happier, and you touched on it earlier, every time he comes back. I know the last week he was back last month was really tricky, because, of course, we had a week in which the very minute

he stepped onto the stage at Chatham House to give that speech about Invictus, the judgment was handed down in the case against Associated Heathleth Limited, and he lost catastrophically on every single claim alongside the other claimants. Then, of course, we had all the war of words with Buckingham Peninsula, of whether he would or wouldn't stay at the palace.

In the end, he didn't because he missed the deadline, but actually they were nervous about him giving that statement, calling it a complete and obvious whitewash, which he did. It was a tricky week for him, but then at the end of the week, he sort of pulled the nose of the plane back up and was on great form doing his stuff in Victor's Games in Birmingham, looking jolly.

We had him on the Saturday doing something for Scoffie soldiers. We had great pictures of him doing, you know, go yoga with a load of kids. Right, basically in his element. And then he got what he wanted, which was the reunion with the king and the kids. So, however difficult things, things get for him. When he is back on home soil these days, he just does look a lot happier.

And going back to the family relationships, which you talked about earlier, it's not just with the king. It is with his uncle, Charles Spencer, who he spent time with recently at Ulthrop. He took Megan and the kids to Althrop. We saw photos that Megan put on her Instagram of, them lying on the sunlanders by the pool with Charles Spencer and his new wife, Cat Jarman. We saw pictures of the back of the kids' heads. Archie holding a big bunch of. of flowers with Harry. We believe those were laid on the grave of Diana Princess Wales where she's laid to rest there. So there is that very strong connection. And I suspect he wants to, you know, spend more time with his uncle, Charles and his two aunts who live here, you know,

reconnect with the Diana side of the family too. I think the tricky thing for the royal family is really going to be, if there is no reconciliation with William, but there is reconciliation with Charles, what does that mean for the monarchy? Does. partial reconciliation, is that even worse than total reconciliation? Because you're going to have all these splinter groups of, Harry goes to see the king at Highgrove. You know, William makes sure he's nowhere to be seen. How does it work?

Are they going to go to Balmoral for summer? William's going to have to be somewhere else. What is Christmas at Sandman going to look like? That's an awful lot for the king to manage. And, you know, we do know that in, because Harry wrote it in spare, after Prince Philip's funeral, when, you know, the warring was really starting, Charles said to both his sons, you know, as they were walking, back up to Windsor, please, boys, don't make my final years a misery. And this is going to be very

difficult for him to manage, because, you know, we talked about it in the podcast last week with Catherine Mayer and with Hillary Rose. How can you have, if the king is reconciled with Harry, Harry is not reconciled with William, how does the king keep William on side as his heir? The question everyone is asking is, why now? Why are they coming back to the UK after having made It's such a point of saying royal life or life in the UK is just monstrous for us, the media hound us, no one understands us off we go to America. They've gone, they've made their Netflix documentary. Harry wrote his book. Megan's done her Netflix series with Love Megan to Bury to Critically Acclaim. They've had some success, but do you think they've had as much success in the States

as they thought they were going to as royalty imported or exported to the US? I would guess not. I would guess because I think there's an assumption, isn't there, that the Americans, there's a certain bit of American society that really loves the monarchy and would just embrace them in the way that at some points they embraced Diana, his mother. And I think also, I think people thought there might be,

they may have believed there'd be more sympathy about sort of, oh, it's terrible, we've been driven out of the UK, that kind of narrative. America might have been a bit more receptive to it than it actually in the end seemed to be. Have things worked out? Well, look, I mean, they still made a lot of money out of Netflix, although they do seem to burn through cash too.

I don't think it's been at quite the extreme success it could have been. And then you think, but what would have been the next step? So once you've done that and it hasn't quite gone to plan with Netflix, where's your next avenue? And what's your next? Obviously, she does have her business as ever. And, you know, there's things that she is doing it there. But perhaps as well, there just isn't an obvious. for your next step for her either there.

And they certainly doesn't feel like there is for him. So maybe that gets you to the point where they think, well, if it's this binary choice, it's now or never. This is actually the moment to do it because it doesn't feel like we know exactly what the next step is in America and what our business looks like and, you know, revenue streams as well.

But this does bring them literally and physically closer to the crown again. Yes, it does. And whatever anyone says about Harry and Megan in terms of the other projects they've pursued, there is no doubt that the very fact that they are members of the royal family and their proximity to the crown

tends to be the thing that most people are interested in. I mean, yeah, exactly that. You know, why are you buying her, whatever it is, jam? If it's not because of her real connections, yeah, sure. I mean, so many more questions, Rosic, I could chat to you, and I suspect. you and I will be talking more as the day, the next couple of days go on.

Ros Owen, thank you so much for joining me on The Royals this week. I really appreciate it. It's been fascinating to talk to you about this very big story. We will, of course, be continuing to cover this story. So don't forget to follow the Royals, wherever you get your podcast, and on the YouTube channel.

And you can get all the Royal updates by subscribing to The Times at the Times.com. And I'd love to hear what you think, think about this shock move by Harry and Megan back to the UK. Is it a good idea? Do you want to see them back? You can email us at the Royals at the times.com.uk and we might feature one of your questions in one of the next episodes. For now, thank you for joining us and we'll see you on the Royals next time.