A private jet from Van Nuys, California, touched down at Birmingham International Airport at roughly 11:56 a.m. on August 26, 2026, and with it came the end of six years of speculation: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan, have taken up residence in Britain once more. The couple are believed to have made the flight with both of their children, only days after reports emerged that the family planned to abandon the United States for the U.K.

Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, were with their parents. Questioned about the arrival, a representative speaking for the couple responded: “This is not something we would comment on.” No police officers appeared to be present as the family departed the airport, according to a source who spoke to the BBC.

What the Sussexes are not doing is returning to duty. They will live as non-working royals, from a private home outside London that is thought to sit in the Cotswolds, and they will not carry out engagements for the monarchy.

School Places Signal a Permanent Move

The strongest evidence that this is permanent rather than a long holiday sits in the children’s schedules. Archie and Lilibet have both been given places at a school whose new term starts in early September, and reports before the family landed indicated the two had been enrolled to begin classes in Britain in September.

Lucy Powell, the education secretary, said she learned of the relocation from social media and news coverage “like everybody else,” and called the enrollment a vote of confidence in British schools.

The California property is expected to stay in the family’s hands, as is a home in Portugal, where the Sussexes spent part of the summer. King Charles, it is understood, is glad of the opportunity to spend more time privately with his son and his son’s children.

Six Years After the Exit

Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, withdrew from royal duties in early 2020 and moved to California that March. The Sandringham summit that year set the terms: the couple stood down as senior royals and stopped using their HRH styles. The late Queen Elizabeth II turned down any “half-in, half-out” compromise then, and no such arrangement is understood to be under discussion now. The pair will occupy a non-royal residence and remain private individuals.

The king was told of the plan earlier in August, and so were the Prince and Princess of Wales. The family had visited Charles at Highgrove in Gloucestershire in July — not since the 2022 funeral of Queen Elizabeth II had the couple both been on British soil at the same time — though the move is understood not to have been raised during that meeting.

Security Questions Left Unanswered

Since word of the relocation spread, one subject has crowded out the rest: protection, and who pays for it. The Sussexes have no automatic right to publicly funded security while in the U.K., and nothing about any arrangement has been disclosed.

Harry asked judges to overturn the decision that scaled back his protection after he left royal duties for the U.S., and in 2025 he lost that court battle over the level of security given to him and his family in Britain. Those determinations rest with Ravec, the committee responsible for protection of royals and other prominent figures. The Home Office says the country’s protective security arrangements are robust, declines to address individual cases and argues that revealing details would weaken them. The dispute reshaped Harry’s travel plans: he flew to London in early July alone, without Meghan or the children, contrary to what he had intended, and they came over later that month for Highgrove.

A large bill is also pending. The High Court in July dismissed the privacy claim Harry and six other public figures brought against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. Costs for the seven claimants could reach £34.5 million, and an initial instalment of £9.5 million falls due on August 28.

A Rift That Has Not Healed

Harry and Prince William remain estranged, a split rooted in the public criticism the couple have aimed, in the years since their departure from Britain, at Charles, Camilla, William and Catherine, the Princess of Wales. Commentary on the feud indicates the Prince of Wales has not yet forgiven them, and that the hurt has not faded.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Peter Hunt — once the BBC’s royal correspondent — said the return raises the long-term possibility of two competing courts and leaves William with less room to sidestep a reconciliation. “The surprise return of Harry and Meghan is likely to have left William apoplectic,” Hunt said. Speaking to the BBC, Harry has stated that reconciliation with the Royal Family is what he wants.

Their working lives have shifted too. In August 2025, Netflix swapped the couple’s 2020 overall production deal for a multiyear first-look agreement covering Archewell Productions, ending the exclusivity of the earlier contract in a move that echoed the streamer’s reworking of the Obamas’ Higher Ground deal. Meghan had been in early talks about a role in season three of Netflix’s “The Gentlemen,” a part that would have amounted to her first substantial acting work since marrying Harry — but royal biographer Tina Brown reported on August 22 that she was no longer in the running.

“The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward,” wrote Brown. That version is contested by Neil Sean, a correspondent with close ties to director Guy Ritchie, who says no offer was ever made. On September 30, after a decade in the role, Harry leaves his position as a trustee of African Parks, the conservation charity. Assessments of the couple’s American chapter have concluded that they enjoyed some success in show business, but that their Hollywood run did not last.

Visibility has never been a problem. On February 25, the couple toured the QuestScope youth center at Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, home to displaced Syrians. A trip to Australia earlier in 2026 set off argument over whether they were working, earning, or imitating the royal role they had surrendered. From September, with two children in British classrooms, that argument plays out much closer to home.