As someone quipped on Twitter yesterday: America 250 finally has something to celebrate. Either that, or Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies will get more popular. Who says self-deportation won't work?
Six years after coming to the US to launch a self-promoting media empire while claiming to shun the spotlight, Britain's part-time royals have decided to return to the United Kingdom after all. Fox News gives a brief rundown of the timeline of their oh-so-brief run in the A-list circles of Tinseltown:
ROYAL RETURN: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are returning to the U.K.
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) August 20, 2026
After six years in California, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly moving back to Britain, setting up a house outside London.
Archie (7) and Lilibet (5) are already enrolled in a local school, but… pic.twitter.com/3z4CsqXneR
When was the last time Harry and Me-Again made headlines in the US? That may answer the New York Times' expressed befuddlement at the sudden lurch back across the pond:
Fifteen months ago, Prince Harry said he could not “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had fled to America amid a seemingly irreparable royal rift, a vicious media environment and a British public that was angry about their criticism of the monarchy. Harry told the BBC that it was “really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.”
Now, he will. In a move that appears to have caught even King Charles III by surprise, Harry and Meghan are planning to settle back in Britain in the coming weeks. Their children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, will enroll in school here. Royal watchers said the family would live in private accommodations outside of London.
The question that everyone in Britain seems to be asking is: What changed?
Isn't it obvious? The Sussexes came to the US seeking fame, fortune, and validation as poor victims of the Establishment, complete with complaints about racism and classism. The American media and celebrity clique ate it up – for a couple of years. Harry and Megan got a development deal with Netflix that went nowhere, and the two of them palled around with Oprah and the A-list for a while.
And then ... nothing happened, in the most brutal way possible. Their narcissistic and commercial antics wore thin among the celebrity set. The $100 million Netflix deal produced nothing except Markle's embarrassing "lifestyle" show that drew derisive hoots from most observers. Netflix cut ties in March of this year, and no one stepped up to fill the supposed demand of Harry-Meghan drama. Other business ventures flopped as well, and the constant whining about media from a couple desperate for attention likely killed off any charm left.
It took a while for reality to set in: the only value these two had was as royals. When they renounced that status, their main value was novelty. Had they approached that status with some groundedness and fewer mercantile machinations, they could have succeeded in building a lasting brand. Instead, the two of them put on a performance-art tour of entitlement and arrogance that quickly sapped the commercial value and appeal of the Sussex "brand," which was never authentically theirs in the first place. It belonged to the family that Harry and Megan snubbed as racists and classists.
Having discovered that they're nothing special without the royalty, Harry and Megan now apparently want back in. Or maybe they're just trying to jump-start their moribund celebrity status, as Alexander Larman speculates at The Spectator:
The stories in the newspapers seemed so bizarre that I had to check that it wasn’t April Fool’s Day, but both the Sun and the Daily Telegraph have the same scoop. (Pedants might argue that it isn’t a proper scoop if it’s in multiple papers, but the Sussexes have never discriminated in their briefings.) The narrative is that the family will be retaining their Californian home but moving to a non-royal residence next month (next month!) with a view to having Archie and Lilibet educated in England. While Harry and Meghan will not be resuming their previous life as working royals, they are hoping to build on the rapprochement that they established with the King recently and allow him to see a great deal more of his grandchildren, and indeed his younger son, in the future.
This is, to put it mildly, a bombshell announcement. It is also uncertain whether this has been a carefully planned initiative or simply something decided on the hoof to attract as much publicity as it undoubtedly will. That it makes a mockery of Harry’s many, many statements of how he will never live in Britain ever again because it isn’t safe for his family, or indeed the lengthy and expensive legal battles that he has fought to obtain security for Brand Sussex on their supposed returns to his native country, is not the point of the revelation. Instead, as with the original Megxit, the publication of Spare, the Oprah Winfrey interview, the suggestions of royal racism and everything else that the dynamic duo have done ad nauseam, it is a dramatic statement that will attract worldwide attention for the coming days and weeks.
The Wall Street Journal also suspects that the reasons are mainly focused on a "brand refresh":
Another reason for the sudden decision to up sticks and jump across the pond could be commercial. The Sussexes needed a “brand refresh,” says Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty Magazine, noting that the couple’s efforts to build a media empire in Hollywood have run out of steam.
Netflix recently pulled funding for the couple’s production company and Meghan’s As Ever brand, an online seller of jams, dried flowers and other home goods. The couple are looking for ways to monetize their brand while continuing their charitable work. Harry, for instance, is increasingly giving keynote speeches, including recently to a Canadian real-estate company.
Hmmm. Has the money run out?
According to the NYT and Larman, the news took the royals by surprise. Yes, there had been a measured rapprochement with the king, but it didn't appear to be anything more than that. Suddenly, not only will Harry and Meghan return to live in the UK, but Larman hears that they want to plug back into the family business to some extent. Is that out of family loyalty, or to refresh the brand and give the Sussexes another opportunity to gripe about the oppressive nature of the most privileged environment imaginable?
Maybe we'll eventually get an answer to that question, but Netflix won't be paying $100 million for it again.
Addendum: The Twitter analyst of all things British, VBSpurs, posted a good explainer for the sudden retreat to the British Isles based on her expert observations over the past few years. Harry's visa status has nothing to do with it, but his status as a king's son does. Read it all and track the conversations that are still ongoing for more insight.
There are five main reasons why the Sussexes left to the UK*:
— vbspurs (@vbspurs) August 20, 2026
1) Money. The Netflix deals were not renewed and nothing of its like was incoming. Hollywood wasn't buying what the Sussexes were selling. The mortgage and property taxes in progressive California were untenable.
2)… pic.twitter.com/fpu0o5BN1Z
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