Prince Harry and Meghan moving back to the U.K.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, are moving back to the U.K. with their children, Buckingham Palace says. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will remain non-working royals and live as private citizens after leaving Britain and stepping back from royal duties in 2020.

Stephanie Hogan · CBC News with files from Reuters

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, ‌are moving back to the United Kingdom with their children, Buckingham Palace confirmed Wednesday.

The news was reported first by The Telegraph.

The Duke and Duchess of ⁠Sussex are relocating with Prince Archie, 7, ‌and Princess Lilibet, 5, but will continue to live as private citizens, the Palace said.

There was no confirmation of when the couple would be back in Britain, but media reports said it would be in time for the children to start school in September.

Harry and Meghan stepped down from full-time royal life and left the U.K. in March 2020. They moved to California (new window) later that month after a brief stay in Canada.

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The move came as their relationship with the Royal Family deteriorated after they were publicly critical of the monarchy and the family itself.

Harry had some particularly barbed comments for his father and his elder ⁠brother, heir-to-the-throne Prince William, leading to a total breakdown in their relationship.

It was a really difficult environment, which I think a lot of people saw, Harry said during an interview in February 2021 on The Late, Late Show with James Corden (new window), "so I did what any father or husband would do and thought, how do I get my family out of here?"

Harry was also angry the British ⁠government changed his security arrangements and said the lack of automatic police protection meant he was unable ⁠to ⁠bring his children to Britain.

But he told Corden that he never walked away and would never do so.

Harry was among several high-profile British figures ⁠who ‌lost their privacy ⁠lawsuits against the publisher of the British newspaper The Daily Mail's ‌in July that had alleged widespread ​unlawful behaviour.

Harry had testified (new window) that The Daily Mail had made Meghan's life an absolute misery.

In a statement released to British media outlets following the loss, Harry called the decision a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected.

However, the lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted, he said.

Relations ​with the King appeared to be starting to thaw last September when father and son met briefly for the first ​time in 20 months.

The entire family visited Britain in July (new window), and King Charles met his grandchildren for the first time since 2022.

The Palace said the King learned of his son's plans to relocate the family on Sunday, and welcomed the opportunity to see more of the Sussex family in a private and personal capacity.

Charles, 77, was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in early 2024. After receiving treatment, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said last December that doctors would be shifting treatment to "a precautionary phase (new window)because the King had responded exceptionally well to treatment."