Just a few days after he announced his intention to return to his homeland, Prince Harry is already in the United Kingdom with his family. The Sussexes and their children, the princes Archie and Lilibet, flew on a private jet from California and landed in Birmingham without apparent police presence to receive them.
In principle, Harry and Meghan will not resume official duties and will settle in a rental property on the outskirts of London, in the picturesque area of the Cotswolds. Archie and Lilibet have already enrolled in a school and will shortly begin the new school term. Now, the return of the Sussexes raises the possibility of a scenario of rival courts, in which those close to the Crown would be forced to pick sides between them and the Prince of Wales.
But the fact that there are no longer thousands of kilometers between them and the rest of the Windsors also opens the possibility of a reconciliation for Harry with both his father and his brother William. For the moment, only one member of his family has spoken out about the prodigal son’s return home: his cousin, Lady Eliza Spencer.
The daughter of Charles Spencer, Diana, Princess of Wales’s brother, expressed to The Mirror her joy at having her cousin and his family back. «Of course it is exciting!», Eliza said just a few hours after the Sussexes landed on the old continent. “We would love to be able to find some time to visit them.”
Charles III: goal of reconciliation
King Charles hopes that the surprising return of Prince Harry to the United Kingdom may, in time, help heal one of the deepest divisions within the Windsors. For the 77-year-old monarch, who continues undergoing cancer treatment, this decision means having back home his youngest son and his two grandchildren from the other side of the world, and opens up the possibility of something he has long desired: reconciliation between Harry and his brother William.
«In time, he will want to see his children together», says a person close to the British royal family to People magazine. ”This is the best opportunity we’ve seen in recent years“, adds the source, who calls the private gathering at Highgrove between both families last July “a very positive step” in this regard.
Charles III with his two sons and the naturalist David Attenborough, in a 2019 image.
Now that Harry and his family are set to spend a long period in England, those opportunities to strengthen ties no longer have to be limited to their brief visits from California. This hope takes on special meaning given the open war between Harry and his older brother. In his 2023 memoirs, Harry recalled an emotional moment after Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021 when his father pleaded with them: “Please, guys, do not turn my last years into a torment.”
Five years later, Charles III still wishes for his children to smooth over their differences, although it seems like an entire impossible mission. But despite the recent progress, Harry’s relationship with his father remains complicated. The monarch learned of the Sussexes’ moving plans only a few days before the news went public, a detail that underscores the distance that still exists between father and son.
Harry and William: zero contact
Although Prince Harry has spoken on repeated occasions of his desire to reconcile with his family, the truth is that he has not spoken a word to his elder brother for years. When the news of the Sussexes’ return broke, William and Kate Middleton were at Balmoral and did not issue any public statement. Sources close to the Windsors say the wounds are deep after years of unfiltered revelations by Harry and Meghan, such as their Oprah Winfrey interview or their Netflix docu-series.
What does change with the Dukes of Sussex’s move is the distance that has helped keep the two branches of the family apart. Since Harry and Meghan stopped carrying out royal duties and moved to the United States in 2020, an ocean has relatively facilitated the brothers leading separate lives. With the Sussexes in Great Britain—and Archie and Lilibet nearby—this distance may prove harder to ignore. It remains to be seen whether the two brothers will seize that opportunity.
