Prince Harry and Meghan moving back to the UK with Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are moving back to Britain with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who will start school there next month.

The news comes six years since their dramatic exit from the royal family when the couple left their places as senior working royals for a life of financial freedom in the United States.

Prince Harry and Meghan will keep the family’s home in Montecito, California, and split their time between the UK and the US.

It’s not known where in Britain they will live, but early reports indicate they will not stay in a royal residence but a private estate, possibly near the Cotswolds.

The couple first lived on the grounds of Kensington Palace before and after their wedding in 2018. They were then gifted Frogmore Cottage in Windsor by the late Queen Elizabeth II for their wedding.

The couple was forced to hand back the keys to Frogmore Cottage in 2023, soon after the publication of Prince Harry’s controversial memoir Spare.

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The news of the Sussexes return comes one month after Prince Harry and Meghan reunited with King Charles on the grounds of the monarch’s Highgrove House estate.

The family visited the UK as a family of four, for the first time since June 2022, in July as part of a holiday to Europe.

Prince Harry had travelled to Britain first before he was joined by his wife and children, who managed to go undetected after flying in from their holiday home in Portugal.

Their time in the UK included a visit to Althorp, where Harry’s mother Diana, the late Princess of Wales, is buried.

They had lunch with King Charles on July 10 but no photos or further details were released, with Buckingham Palace describing it as a “private” occasion.

Prince Harry had been embroiled in a fight with the UK government over his security after he lost a court appeal to have his taxpayer-funded police protection reinstated.

He had previously claimed it was unsafe to bring Meghan and their children to the UK, citing unspecified threats.

It is believed he is lobbying the government for a review of the situation.

Prince Harry and Meghan moved to the US in 2020 where they made a living off talking about their unhappy experiences of being part of the royal family.

They signed multi-million-dollar contracts with Netflix and Spotify and released a six-part docuseries, and other projects with varying degrees of success.

However, their lucrative contract with both media giants ended and Meghan’s brief sting as a television host has since ended. She launched her lifestyle brand, As ever, in early 2025.

“Are they admitting the American dream didn’t quite work out,” royal correspondent for The Telegraph UK, Victoria Ward, said on the Daily T podcast on Thursday morning AEST.

“This is biblical,” associate editor Camilla Tominey said.

“This is the return of the prodigal prince and princess.”

She suggested the couple’s plans to “crack America” had “not gone as well as hoped”.

King Charles had been made aware of Prince Harry and Meghan’s plans to return on August 16, according to People magazine.

There has been no comment from Buckingham Palace, or Kensington Palace who represent the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Prince Harry remains estranged from his brother the Prince of Wales and they are not believed to have spoken since 2022 when their grandmother the queen died.