Harry and Meghan's Secret Cotswolds Stopover: A Preview of Life Back in Britain?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle slipped away to a private house in the Cotswolds during their UK visit in early July, staying in an Oxfordshire enclave popular with celebrities, according to Hello! magazine. The exact location was not disclosed. The property belonged to a wealthy associate, and no public engagements were scheduled during the stay.

The trip was not purely leisure. Harry was in Britain to mark one year to go until the Invictus Games in Birmingham — the multi-sport tournament for wounded, injured and sick service personnel that he founded in 2014. Meghan and the couple's two children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, joined him but stayed out of the public eye.

The family also visited King Charles and Queen Camilla at Highgrove, the King's private estate in Gloucestershire. And they spent time with Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, at the Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire — the childhood home of Diana and the site of her burial.

This is familiar ground for the Sussexes. In 2018, before their wedding, Meghan held her hen-do at Soho Farmhouse, the members' country club in the Cotswolds. That same year the couple briefly rented a £2.5 million farmhouse in the area — a retreat they gave up once its location became public. The Cotswolds has since drawn in other royal family members: Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi bought a farmhouse there in 2021, thought to be worth around £3.5 million. Zara and Mike Tindall live on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park estate nearby. In June, Anne's son Peter Phillips married Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church in Cirencester, a Cotswolds market town, with senior royals in attendance. The area also counts Ellen DeGeneres, Simon Cowell and the Beckhams among its property-owning residents.

The Cotswolds visit comes against a bigger shift. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex intend to relocate from the United States later this month to a private, non-royal residence outside London, according to the BBC. People magazine reports the move will bring Archie and Lilibet to the UK for an extended period. The children are enrolled to begin at a British school in September, The Independent reported, citing the BBC.

The Sussexes have not had a permanent UK home since 2023, when they were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage in Windsor — a gift from the late Queen — weeks after Harry's memoir Spare was published. When they return, they will not live in London and will keep their home in Montecito, California. The exact location of their UK residence and the children's school is being kept private for security reasons.

What gives the Cotswolds stay its weight is the timing. A family that lost its UK base three years ago is now scouting the countryside, visiting the King, and enrolling children in British schools for September. The secret house in Oxfordshire may have been a holiday let. It may also have been a dry run.