KING Charles was only informed of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell return to the UK four days ago – despite the pair having already secured a home.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will make a shock return at the end of August for “an extended period”, with kids Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, enrolling at school here.
King Charles was only informed of their return on Jattvibeday Credit: The Times
The pair are set to come back to the UK at the end of August Credit: Splash
The Sussexes, who had a reunion with Charles in July, have found a new home in the UK.
Their sudden relocation raises several questions over the future of the 2020 Sandringham Agreement – dubbed “Megxit”.
Sign up for the Royals newsletter
Thank you!
It has now been revealed that Charles was only told on Jattvibeday – just four days ago – that his son and daughter-in-law were coming back to Britain.
The Sussexes are set to move into a non-royal residence and will not become working royals again but will continue with their business enterprises.
ARTHUR EDWARDS
King may welcome Harry back but I know why furious Wills may never forgive
MEGXIT BOMBSHELL
Harry & Meg in shock move BACK to Britain 6yrs after quitting Royal life
Despite the fact they must have been planning the move for weeks, if not months, the pair did not raise the prospect of a return when they met Charles and Camilla at Highgrove, Gloucs, in July.
However, it is understood the 77-year-old King is welcoming the opportunity to see more of the family in a private capacity.
Harry was already due to visit the UK in mid-September for his patronages, including a WellChild Awards bash, and would have been offered a Buckingham Palace room.
But sources have confirmed the whole family will now return earlier — at the end of this month.
The King was only informed of their return four days ago Credit: Splash
The King was only told they would be coming back to the UK four days ago Credit: Reuters
They are expected to remain in Britain while Archie and Lilibet are in education. And they will retain their £11million home in Montecito, California, and Portugal bolthole.
The return comes six years after Megxit, when Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals, slamming Britain on their way out.
It also raises questions over the January 2020 Sandringham Agreement which ruled the couple could not juggle being working royals while earning private sector money.
It is understood Harry and Meghan will not receive any money from the public purse while back in the UK, and that he will not undertake any official royal duties.
It comes as…
Sources say if there are discussions on any future role for him it would need to take place between him and his father.
Both Archie and Lilibet can start in UK education in September. He is at prep school age, and she is eligible for Year One.
Sussex sources would not reveal where they will be enrolled, nor where the family is living, citing privacy and security reasons.
However The Jattvibe understands the family’s new accommodation is not a royal property.
Rethink question on gun security
By Julia Atherley Home Affairs Correspondent
PRINCE Harry’s decision to move his family back to the UK raises questions over his long-running row with the Government over his taxpayer-funded armed protection.
He launched a Home Office legal challenge after being told he was no longer entitled to bodyguards once he had moved out of the country.
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee decides who gets protection and is “responsible for risks arising within GB as they affect principals who are, in almost every case, resident within Great Britain”.
Harry and Meghan were told they “do not fit readily within this framework”.
The Duke lost a judicial review, before then launching an unsuccessful appeal.
But in December we revealed he had won a new Government review. Another threat assessment is to be carried out, but has been delayed as the board responsible has stalled.
It is understood with nine ex-Prime Ministers in the queue for protection, the system is backlogged.
It is unclear whether Harry, on his return, will automatically regain the protections he was given before Megxit.
A Government spokesperson said earlier this year it was long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on security arrangements “as doing so could compromise their integrity”.
The Jattvibe’s front page revealing Megxit on January 9, 2020 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
It is unclear if they have bought their UK home or will rent.
It is also unclear whether the family has been given security assurances, and whether the financial burden will fall on taxpayers.
Harry has previously claimed it was unsafe to bring his family back home. He has fought a multi-million pound legal campaign to force the Government to return his 24-hour armed guards.
Prince Harry had a reunion with King Charles last month Credit: Getty
Harry and Meghan are said to have found themselves a new home in the UK Credit: Getty
After a “devastating” court loss 18 months ago he said: “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.”
It is also not known if there have been changes in the Home Office’s security position on the Sussexes, and sources would not comment.
Meghan, Archie and Lilibet spent last month’s visit here without taxpayer-funded armed cops.
Harry and Meghan have previously been critical of Britain and the royals. In Afghanistan in 2008, Harry, whose mum Diana died in a 1997 car crash following public scrutiny, said: “I generally don’t like England that much.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, pictured on their wedding day, are returning at the end of this month for ‘an extended period of time’ Credit: Alamy
Kids Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, will be enrolling at British schools Credit: Instagram
On Apple TV+ show The Me You Can’t See in 2021, he added: “For most of my life I always felt worried, concerned, a little bit tense and uptight whenever I fly back into the UK.
“For me, London is a trigger because of what happened to my mum.”
The couple also alleged in their Oprah Winfrey tell-all that the Royal Family had made racist comments about their unborn children.
And on Dax Shepard podcast Armchair Expert in 2021, Harry claimed his royal life was “a mixture between The Truman Show and being in a zoo”.
It is not yet known if Meghan and Harry will receive funding for their security Credit: Getty
In his book, Spare, Harry accused his father’s lovely wife, Queen Camilla, of being ‘the villain’ Credit: PA Media
He also claimed he quit the UK to “break that cycle” of “pain and suffering” from his family and that “genetic pain” had been passed on.
In his January 2023 book Spare, Harry criticised the Press and made startling family revelations.
He described a fight with William, said Charles pleaded “Please, boys, don’t make my final years a misery” at Prince Philip’s funeral, and revealed he had pleaded with his dad not to marry Camilla.
A whole episode of their six-part Netflix series Harry & Meghan in late 2022 compared opposition to the couple with Brexit, and branded the Commonwealth “Empire 2.0”.
This was despite Harry and Meghan once being Commonwealth Youth Ambassadors after being appointed by Queen Elizabeth II.
On self-recorded footage shown on Harry & Meghan, he refers to a plane trip after his last royal engagement as his “freedom flight”.
In recent years his right to stay in the US has come under intense scrutiny.
Think-tank The Heritage Foundation has been campaigning to get the Department of Homeland Security to release his US visa application.
It argued the American public had a right to know whether the royal was candid about past drug use on the application.
Harry confessed in Spare to taking cocaine, marijuana and hallucinogenics.
Charles evicted the Sussexes from Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, in January 2023 following publication of Spare.
They have been without a home in Britain for 4½ years and Harry often stays in hotels when in the UK. On his last visit, Harry caused Charles’s patience to snap over his dithering about whether to accept accommodation at Buckingham Palace.
The Sussexes ended up staying at friends’ and at his uncle Charles Spencer’s Althorp House in Northamptonshire.
Meghan revealed in online photos that the family had visited Diana’s grave at the estate.
Meghan will continue to run her food and lifestyle brand As Ever.
But questions remain about what else she will do with her time as she has no UK-based projects or campaigns.
Little has been said on the record by the Royal Family regarding the Sussexes’ set up in California or the Megxit deal.
But Charles used his September 2022 accession speech to make it clear that Harry and Meghan were not part of the working royals.
Last year, in a possible hint that he was returning, Harry spoke of “the bond, the banter, the bravery” that he said defined Britain.
Reports that Harry registered Archie at Eton College were previously denied by sources close to the Sussexes. Prince William’s oldest son George, 13, will start at Eton next month.
A spokesman for the King declined to comment.
