Updated: 13:47 01 September 2026

Published: 13:43 01 September 2026

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have only just returned to the UK with their children, but the couple are already facing three fresh blows as years of royal tensions threaten to complicate their new chapter.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Britain with Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, on August 26, six years after stepping away from life as working members of the Royal Family and building a new home in California.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK return marks one of the biggest changes in the couple’s lives since their dramatic royal departure in 2020, with their children due to attend school in Britain as the Sussexes prepare for an extended period in the country.

However, their return does not mean Harry and Meghan are becoming working royals again.

They are expected to live privately outside London rather than in a royal residence, while continuing the independent lives and careers they established after leaving the monarchy.

Harry and Meghan’s royal fallout began six years ago

Harry and Meghan married at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in May 2018.

The couple rapidly became two of the most famous members of the Royal Family, but behind the enormous public interest surrounding them, tensions were growing.

Harry and Meghan both spoke about the intense scrutiny the Duchess faced from sections of the British media, while reports of disagreements behind palace walls became increasingly common.

Then, on January 8, 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they wanted to step back as senior members of the Royal Family, become financially independent and divide their time between the UK and North America.

The announcement led to urgent talks between senior royals.

Following discussions at Sandringham, Queen Elizabeth II said in a statement the family was ‘entirely supportive’ of Harry and Meghan’s desire to build a new life, while acknowledging that she would have preferred them to remain full-time working royals.

The eventual agreement meant Harry and Meghan would stop carrying out official royal duties and would no longer formally represent the late Queen.

Their departure became official at the end of March 2020.

After initially spending time in Canada, the couple relocated to California and eventually settled in Montecito with Archie. Their daughter, Lilibet, was born in the US in 2021.

What followed, however, was not the quieter relationship with the Royal Family that some might have expected.

The Oprah interview changed the royal feud forever

In March 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a bombshell interview watched around the world.

Meghan spoke about experiencing serious mental health struggles during her time as a working royal and said she had struggled to access the help she felt she needed.

The Duchess also alleged there had been conversations within the family concerning Archie’s skin tone before he was born.

Harry and Meghan did not publicly identify the individual involved, while Oprah subsequently clarified that Harry had told her it was neither Queen Elizabeth II nor Prince Philip.

Meghan also challenged the widely reported story that she had made Catherine, Princess of Wales, cry in the run-up to her wedding, telling Oprah that ‘the reverse happened.’

Harry discussed his own deteriorating relationships with his father and brother and said he felt trapped within the royal system before eventually leaving.

Buckingham Palace responded by saying the issues raised were concerning and would be addressed privately, while adding that ‘some recollections may vary.’

Whatever side people took, the interview fundamentally changed the dispute.

Family disagreements that had previously played out largely through newspaper reports and unnamed sources were now being discussed publicly by Harry and Meghan themselves.

That issue of what remains private would become even more important later.

Netflix and Spare reopened the wounds

In December 2022, the Sussexes released their Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan.

The six-part series revisited their experiences within the monarchy and Harry’s relationship with the British press.

Harry also gave his version of the crisis meetings surrounding their royal departure and accused different royal households of leaking and planting stories.

Then came Spare.

Harry’s memoir, published in January 2023, contained some of the most intimate allegations about his family yet.

Among them was Harry’s claim that an argument with William at Nottingham Cottage in 2019 became physical.

Harry alleged that William grabbed him by the collar and knocked him to the floor during a confrontation about Meghan, leaving him injured.

The Duke also described long-running tensions involving King Charles and Queen Camilla and gave an unflattering account of some of the courtiers working around senior members of the family.

For those hoping Harry and William might reconcile, Spare demonstrated just how deep their disagreements had become.

But Harry later revealed that there were things he deliberately chose not to publish.

He said there were incidents involving William, and to some extent Charles, which he did not want the public to know because he believed his family would never forgive him if he revealed them.

King Charles’ cancer diagnosis created an opportunity for reconciliation

A significant shift came in February 2024 when Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer.

Harry rapidly flew from California to Britain to see his father.

The meeting was brief, but it showed that the relationship between father and son had not completely collapsed.

There remained another major obstacle to Harry bringing his family back to Britain: security.

After leaving his role as a working royal, Harry no longer automatically received the same level of taxpayer-funded police protection when visiting the UK.

He launched legal proceedings over the arrangements, arguing that he did not feel able to bring Meghan and their children safely to Britain without adequate protection.

In May 2025, Harry lost an appeal challenging the way his UK security was decided.

After the ruling, the Duke said he was ‘devastated’ and told the BBC that he could not see a situation in which he would bring Meghan and their children back to the UK at that point.

But in the same interview he made another significant statement.

Harry said he would ‘love reconciliation’ with his family and argued there was no point continuing to fight.

Just over a year later, the situation looks remarkably different.

Archie and Lilibet finally reunited with King Charles

In July 2026, another important breakthrough took place.

Harry and Meghan took Archie and Lilibet to Highgrove to see King Charles and Queen Camilla.

It was the King’s first in-person meeting with his California-based grandchildren in four years.

The reunion took place privately, away from cameras, and was widely interpreted as a possible sign of a thaw between Harry and his father.

There was no comparable reunion with William.

That distinction remains important.

Harry’s relationship with Charles appears to have improved while his rift with William remains unresolved.

The Sussexes’ decision to spend significantly more time in Britain could therefore create more opportunities for Harry, Meghan and their children to build a private relationship with the King – without requiring Harry to immediately repair every fractured royal relationship.

Their return has received support too

It is also important to note that not everyone sees Harry and Meghan’s decision to return as an embarrassment, defeat or reversal of everything they said when they left.

King Charles is understood to welcome the opportunity to spend more time with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in a private capacity.

ITV News reported that there would be no change to Harry and Meghan’s status as non-working royals but that Charles welcomed having the Sussex family closer to him.

Sources close to the couple have also offered a very different interpretation of their motivations from some of the more critical commentary surrounding the move.

People reported that Harry had ‘never really stopped missing home’ and that the Sussexes want Archie and Lilibet to develop stronger connections with their British heritage.

The couple will retain ties to California, and the move is not a return to the royal system they left in 2020.

Meghan’s circumstances are also markedly different now.

Sources told People that the Duchess is returning with her own professional projects, support system and greater autonomy, rather than returning as a senior working member of the monarchy.

It means Meghan can live in Britain while continuing the independent career and family life she and Harry created after their royal departure.

The move has received political support as well.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell publicly welcomed the news and said she hoped it would form part of a wider reconciliation within the Royal Family.

Powell told LBC: “I for one think it’s great to have Harry and Meghan and their family back here.”

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also wished the couple well in their move while declining to comment on the private details of their security arrangements.

So there are two very different ways of viewing the Sussexes’ homecoming.

For supporters, it is an opportunity for Harry to reconnect with the country he grew up in, give his children closer ties to their British family and potentially rebuild his relationship with Charles.

For critics, however, the fact that Harry and Meghan have returned six years after their dramatic departure has opened them up to accusations that their comeback has not played out quite as they intended.

And three separate developments in recent days have put the old royal tensions back under the spotlight.

Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield has questioned suggestions that Meghan feels increasingly confident about her return to Britain and is now able to live in the UK on her own terms.

Appearing on News24 with Rita Panahi, Schofield argued that the Sussexes had previously overestimated their leverage.

Her reasoning was simple: six years after Harry and Meghan left Britain for North America, they are now the ones who have decided to come back.

Schofield said: “I’m not sure that’s the power move they think it is.”

The commentator also strongly criticized reports that Harry remains angry with members of the Royal Family and believes he is owed an apology.

Her comments are, of course, an opinion rather than evidence of Harry and Meghan’s private intentions.

The Sussexes themselves have not publicly characterized their move as a ‘power move,’ while reporting from People and ITV presents family, professional and cultural reasons for their decision to spend more time in Britain.

Still, Schofield’s reaction demonstrates the hostile commentary the couple continue to face following their return.

A self-selecting Daily Express reader poll also found overwhelming support among respondents for Harry to apologize to the Royal Family rather than receive an apology himself.

Of 8,382 votes recorded by the outlet, 8,065 backed the idea that Harry should apologize.

Self-selecting means people choose for themselves whether to take part, rather than being selected by someone else or at random.

The main pitfall is self-selection bias, as those who participate may differ from those who do not. People with particularly strong opinions, for example, may be more likely to respond, which can skew the findings.

Because this was a voluntary poll of Express readers, the result should therefore not be treated as representative of the British population as a whole.

Second blow: Harry warned he may never get the apology he reportedly wants

Perhaps more significant for Harry’s attempted reconciliation are reports that he still feels he is owed an apology over the events surrounding his royal exit.

The Daily Mail recently reported that friends who had spoken with Harry following his return were surprised to find that he remained angry with some members of his family and frustrated with the courtiers surrounding his father.

The claim comes from unnamed friends and has not been publicly confirmed by Harry.

But if Harry does still expect an apology as part of any reconciliation, royal biographer Robert Hardman believes he could be disappointed.

During a discussion with Camilla Tominey, Hardman was asked whether Charles, Camilla, William and Kate had any incentive to apologize.

He said he did not think apologies would be forthcoming.

Hardman acknowledged that Harry and Meghan’s return appeared to create an opportunity for ‘some sort of rapprochement,’ particularly between Harry and Charles.

He was considerably less optimistic about William.

The royal author argued that any attempt to rebuild relationships would be made much harder if Harry simultaneously wanted to reopen disputes from years ago.

That leaves an important question hanging over Harry’s reconciliation hopes.

If the reports are accurate, does Harry view an apology as a necessary part of repairing those relationships, or could father and son ultimately decide to move forward without fully resolving every disagreement that led them here?

Third blow: Disputed Meghan claim risks reigniting row over royal privacy

The final issue goes directly to something that has repeatedly complicated the Sussexes’ relationship with the Royal Family: privacy and trust.

Lifestyle star Martha Stewart recently discussed attending the same California dinner party as Meghan following the Sussex family’s European trip.

That trip had included the extremely private Highgrove reunion between Harry, Meghan, Archie, Lilibet, Charles and Camilla.

Stewart claimed Meghan had recently returned ‘from the palace’ and suggested that the Duchess was discussing her European trip.

Given the sensitivity surrounding Harry’s attempts to rebuild his relationship with his father, the remarks rapidly attracted attention.

There is, however, an extremely important part of the story: Stewart’s account is disputed.

A source who said they hosted the dinner and sat next to Meghan told People that the suggestion was ‘simply untrue.’

According to that account, Meghan did not discuss details of the royal reunion and said only that the family had enjoyed their European trip.

Stewart also acknowledged that she did not speak to Meghan at length herself.

PR expert Olivia Bennett subsequently told the Daily Express that it would therefore be wrong to state as fact that Meghan had been gossiping about the Royal Family.

However, she argued that if Stewart’s version were accurate, even apparently harmless discussion of a private royal reunion could potentially make Harry’s attempts to rebuild trust more complicated.

Bennett said discretion would inevitably matter when a family relationship was being repaired following years of highly public fallout.

And after Oprah, Netflix, Spare and countless headlines about relations behind palace doors, it isn’t difficult to understand why privacy surrounding new meetings with Charles could be particularly sensitive.

But the distinction is crucial: there is currently no established evidence that Meghan revealed private details of the Highgrove reunion at the dinner.

The allegation remains disputed.

Harry and Meghan’s UK return is more complicated than a royal comeback

Six years after Harry and Meghan left Britain, their return was always going to trigger strong reactions.

But describing it simply as a defeat for the Sussexes ignores how much their circumstances have changed.

They have not asked to resume their previous positions as senior working royals.

Meghan is returning with an independent career and her own projects, while Harry can maintain his charitable work and reconnect with the country where he spent most of his life.

Most significantly, Archie and Lilibet will have greater opportunities to develop relationships with the British side of their family.

The King’s reported willingness to spend more time with the Sussexes also means there is at least a genuine opportunity for Harry and his father to continue the reconciliation that appears to have begun.

At the same time, six years of public disagreements cannot simply be erased by moving countries.

Harry’s reported desire for an apology, his ongoing estrangement from William and renewed questions about trust demonstrate how fragile that process could be.

The three latest controversies don’t necessarily mean Harry and Meghan’s return has already gone wrong.

Instead, they show how closely every decision the Sussexes make will be scrutinized as they attempt something that once seemed almost impossible.

Building a new life in Britain without returning to their old royal one.

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