With speculation rampant around their reasons for returning and whether the stay is permanent, reports have noted the couple intend to keep their existing homes in California and Portugal.
Their two children Archie, 7 and Lilibet, 5, have already been signed up to start at a private school in early September, according to UK media outlets.
The school is “in or close to” the Cotswolds, according to the Daily Mail.
Reconciliation?
Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, who hold the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, swapped Britain for the United States amid a bitter falling-out with his family, which only worsened as Harry published his tell-all memoir “Spare”.
A no-holds-barred interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey also deepened the rift.
The prince appeared to have mended relations with his father, King Charles, who is battling cancer, during more recent UK visits. But Harry reportedly remains estranged from his brother, heir-to-the-throne Prince William and wife Catherine.
Harry and Meghan met the King in July, during a brief UK visit – the first time in four years the couple’s children had met their grandfather.
But they did not meet William and Kate, and whether the feuding siblings will reconcile has been among the many questions thrown up by their return.
“I think at the moment there’s going to be this sort of Mexican standoff and they’re going to ignore each other,” royal expert and historian Andrew Lownie told AFP.
“But there’s going to be a point where they have to kind of run into each other.”
Talk of possible reconciliation could be undercut by reports that William might remove their Sussex titles when he eventually becomes monarch.
Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, stripped them of their “Royal Highness” titles, police protection and public funding when they quit as working members of the monarchy in 2020.
Some among the British public sympathised with Harry.
“It would be quite nice to see them reunite,” 21-year-old emergency worker Charlie Fisher told AFP in London.
Bar worker Abby, 20, said she felt Harry had been treated unfairly. “I don’t know if it’s a way back in for him … but I think it’s good that he’s coming home.”
Security?
Other questions remain unanswered, including whether they will receive publicly funded security.
Harry has said he did not feel safe bringing his family to Britain after losing a court battle over the provision of government-funded police protection in the UK while he lived overseas.
The couple will not be returning as working royals, prompting unease within the monarchy about what they will do after signing a string of commercial deals while in the United States with platforms like Netflix and Spotify, according to reports.
“The palace will want to ensure that these do not overshadow the more typical work of the King and other members of the royal family,” constitutional academic Craig Prescott, of Royal Holloway, University of London, told AFP.
The Sussexes are expected to live in the UK for an extended period of time. Photo / AFP
According to Lownie, Harry has “blurred the distinction between working royals and faux-royal” work, which could be “confusing” for the public.
Meghan faces a particularly tough challenge in re-assimilating to life in Britain, where she remains unpopular. Polling shows a majority of people hold unfavourable views of her and, to a lesser extent, Harry.
In bombshell interviews and documentaries, the American former actor has never hidden how difficult she found things following her 2018 fairytale wedding to Harry.
She told Winfrey that she had contemplated suicide after joining the royal family.
Meghan, who is mixed-race, and Harry also insinuated that the monarchy was racist, claiming a family member raised a question about the skin colour of their son before he was born.
– AFP