Questions remain over who will fund Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s security when they return to live in Britain later this month.
It was revealed last night that the Sussexes will live in the UK for an extended stay, six years after they sensationally quit their duties as working royals.
Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, are said to have already enrolled at a British school.
The Duke and Duchess will live in a non-royal residence, and their status as private individuals will remain unchanged.
But ahead of the Sussexes’ return, speculation has intensified over who will cover the cost of their security arrangements in Britain.
Harry had challenged the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over a decision by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different level of protection while in the UK.
The Duke’s barrister argued that threats against Harry had not diminished just because he had stopped being a frontline royal, and his military service had placed him at particular risk.
But England’s most senior judge, Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, ruled that while the Duke’s arguments were ‘powerful and moving’, his sense of grievance did not amount to a legal argument.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured in April) are moving back to the United Kingdom later this month
It comes just three months after Harry (pictured outside the Royal Courts of Justice) lost a battle for taxpayer-funded armed police bodyguards during visits to the UK
Questions have now surfaced over who will fund the Sussexes’ (pictured in 2022) security following their one-way trip across the Atlantic
It meant taxpayer-funded armed bodyguards would not be reinstated for Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet, prompting speculation that the family might never return to Britain.
At the time, Harry said of his children in an interview with the BBC: ‘I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.’
But just a few months later, the Sussexes’ return is imminent, although it remains unclear whether they have received any assurances over security from the Home Office.
It is also unclear whether any additional security costs could ultimately fall to the taxpayer.
The Duke and Duchess last visited Britain in July – two months after the Court of Appeal’s ruling – when Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet met King Charles and Queen Camilla at the monarch’s private residence in Highgrove, Gloucestershire.
The occasion marked the first time Charles had seen the two children in four years, with the meeting taking place under tight secrecy.
It is understood that Harry is keen to repair his relationship with Charles and hopes the King will join him at the Invictus Games in Birmingham next July.
The Duke’s relationship with his brother, Prince William, the future monarch, has been strained ever since he and Meghan left Britain for California in 2020.
Harry and William are not thought to have spoken for years.
The Prince and Princess of Wales are understood to have been deeply hurt by allegations made in Harry’s memoir, Spare.
Whether Harry plans to try and resolve his and William’s differences when he returns to the UK remains to be seen, but their father is said to ‘welcome’ the news of the Duke’s return.
Yet the 77-year-old appears to have been blindsided by the revelation after Harry and Meghan did not inform him of their plans during their visit last month.
The Daily Mail understands that there was no mention of the family’s impending return to Britain when they met with the King and Queen at Highgrove.
Harry was already scheduled to visit Britain to attend a WellChild Awards event next month and was set to stay in a room at Buckingham Palace.
It is not yet known whether their move will be a permanent one. The location of their new home has not been revealed for privacy reasons.
Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, are thought to have already enrolled in a British school (the family are pictured in December 2025)
Harry’s relationship with his brother Prince William has been strained ever since he quit life as a working royal in 2020 (Kate, Will, Harry and Meghan are pictured in 2022)
It is, however, thought that King Charles ‘welcomes’ news of his son’s return to Britain (the pair are pictured together in 2022)
The Sussexes will continue their business ventures after returning to Britain and are set to retain their £11million home in Montecito, California, where they have lived since relocating to the US in 2020.
The surprise news comes six years after the couple stunned many Britons by stepping down as working royals.
The Duke and Duchess were accused of ‘press[ing] the nuclear button’ when they made the bombshell announcement just days after returning from a six-week break in Canada. They later permanently moved to California in March 2020.
It was claimed earlier this year that Palace staff had given Meghan the nickname ‘Duchess Difficult’ during her time living in Britain.
The American was accused of bullying and, on certain occasions, making staff cry.
It was said that workers were left ‘in a psychologically delicate state’ and ‘viewed her capacity for revenge as infinite’, an expert has alleged.
Meghan vehemently denied the allegations, describing them as part of an orchestrated smear campaign.
Veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low first broke the bullying story in March 2021, just before Harry and Meghan were due to appear with Oprah Winfrey to discuss Megxit.
He said: ‘There had been one or two stories which suggested there were difficult relations between Meghan and her staff. We’d seen them and the phrase ‘Duchess Difficult’ had been used.
‘We knew Meghan was angry about those stories. We knew she challenged that narrative’.
He claimed that some royal staff who had worked with the Sussexes remained in a fragile state more than two years later, despite the couple having moved 5,000 miles away to the US.
‘They were very worried about what Meghan would do to them. They viewed her capacity for revenge as infinite.
‘They’d left the employ of the Royal Family and they still were in a psychologically delicate state as a result of what happened to them at that time’.
The couple famously appeared in public together for the first time at the Toronto Invictus Games in 2017 when they were pictured hand-in-hand at a wheelchair tennis event.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex later moved to Vancouver Island in 2020 after announcing their decision to step back from royal duties.
The Home Office and Harry and Meghan’s representatives were contacted for comment.
