Prince Harry and Meghan Reportedly Planning UK Return — But Security Remains Unresolved

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly planning to return to the United Kingdom, six years after stepping back from royal duties and relocating to the United States. The news surfaced not through an official palace announcement but via reports in two UK newspapers and a US magazine in August 2026.

The couple is not thought to be settling in London itself. According to CNN, they are planning to relocate to a private residence outside the capital. The BBC reported that the move is driven by a desire to spend more time in Europe, be nearer to Harry's family, and educate their two children in the UK. The Daily Telegraph reported that Harry has long said he misses Britain and wants his children to experience British life and culture.

Harry is expected to return as early as September for a week-long stay focused on charity work, according to the Express. People Magazine reported that with a British base, Harry would spend more time with organizations including Scotty's Little Soldiers (a charity for bereaved military children) and WellChild, which supports seriously ill children, as well as the Invictus community — the adaptive sports competition Harry founded in 2014 for wounded service members. Meghan, for her part, continues to lead As Ever, her lifestyle company launched in the US.

The security question has no clear answer yet, and it may determine whether the move happens at all.

The Sussex family does not have guaranteed police protection in the UK. Harry's security is decided case by case. As recently as July, the couple cancelled planned UK travel and did not bring their children to London because they were not satisfied with the security offered for that trip.

Harry lost a multiyear legal battle over the issue. In May 2025, the Court of Appeal in London ruled unanimously that a government committee did not treat Harry unfairly when it decided to review his police protection on a case-by-case basis rather than restoring the automatic protection he had as a working royal. The ruling ended his challenge to a 2020 UK government decision that denied his family automatic police protection after he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties.

In the US, the couple pays for a private security team. If the UK government's Home Office decided to grant them police protection in Britain, it would be taxpayer-funded. Asked whether the government would pay for the couple's security, Prime Minister Andy Burnham described the subject as "a private matter" (Town & Country).

The couple has given no public statement confirming the relocation, and Buckingham Palace has not commented. What exists is a set of newspaper and magazine reports — and a security situation that has already stopped one trip this summer.

Harry has said publicly that his life in America is the life his mother, Princess Diana, would have wanted for him. Whether that life now expands to include a base back in Britain depends on a protection arrangement he has spent years fighting for and has not yet secured.