Six years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle packed up royal life and headed for California, they’re apparently moving back to England. Yes, back to the country they couldn’t wait to leave, with Archie and Lilibet reportedly headed to British schools in September.

After everything that’s happened since Megxit, this is one royal plot twist I didn’t see coming.

I Have Spent Way Too Much Time With These People

I probably should not admit this but I have had a weird fascination with the royal family. I watched all six seasons of The Crown. Twice. That’s a lot of hours spent watching rich British people making each other miserable, and I loved every minute of it.

It also changed the way I looked at Diana and Charles. Like a lot of Americans, I bought into the whole fairy-tale version: Diana was the beautiful, tragic princess and Charles was the villain. Turns out they were both a lot more complicated than that. And Harry…well, James Hewitt had red hair too. Moving right along.

Wait, I Thought Britain Was The Problem

Harry and Meghan didn’t exactly slip quietly out the palace gates in 2020. Since then, we’ve had the Oprah interview, the Netflix series, Harry’s memoir Spare, accusations against the royal family, fights with the British press and years of Harry complaining about security in the UK.

And then there’s this little gem from Harry himself. He once said he couldn’t see a future in which he brought his children up in England.

Prince Harry: “I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point.”

What an absolute embarrassment. Imagine trashing your own country, telling the world it’s unsafe for your children, dragging its institutions through the courts,…

— Queen Esther (@XOQueenEsther) August 20, 2026

What happened, Harry? What changed your mind this time?

The Telegraph crew does a pretty good job of reminding us just how big this U-turn really is. Harry and Meghan didn’t simply decide they preferred California weather six years ago. They wanted out. They wanted their freedom and financial independence, and when the half-in, half-out royal arrangement they wanted didn’t happen, things got ugly.

Then came Oprah and enough scorched earth to make you think there wasn’t a bridge left standing between Montecito and Buckingham Palace.

I certainly don’t begrudge any family finding its way back to one another. Quite the opposite. If Harry wants his children to know their grandfather, especially while Charles is sick, that’s a good thing. Families fall out, people say things they regret, time passes and priorities change. If that’s what is happening here, good for all of them.

But Harry being Harry, there apparently has to be a little more to the story.

Pick A Reason, Any Reason

There are actually some perfectly understandable possibilities. King Charles is 77 and has cancer. Harry has talked openly about wanting to make up with the family, and Charles recently spent time with Archie and Lilibet after years of barely seeing his grandchildren. Maybe Harry wants his children to know their grandfather, their family, and the country where their father grew up.

I can understand that.

Then, because this story didn’t already have enough characters, Donald Trump somehow wandered into it.

Now, Harry hasn’t said Donald Trump chased him back across the Atlantic. But even floating Trump as another possible reason is pretty funny considering the rather long list of people and institutions Harry has had problems with over the years.

The royal family, the British press, security officials, his brother, his father, Britain itself. Now maybe America isn’t working out either.

At some point, you do start wondering if geography is really the problem. I am reminded of the old saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

And They Lived Happily Ever After…Again

Maybe this will be the move that finally makes everybody happy. Maybe Harry will patch things up with his father and eventually his brother. Maybe Meghan will rediscover a fondness for rainy English mornings. Stranger things have happened, although this is Meghan we’re talking about, so give her six months and those rainy English mornings will probably be bottled, branded and available for purchase at As Ever.

I hope they find whatever it is they’ve been looking for all these years. Although I’m beginning to suspect it was never a place.

Feature Image: AI-generated illustration.