Buckingham Palace<\/a> released an official memorandum on Monday<\/a> clarifying that although the couple have returned to the UK<\/a>, they should be treated strictly as private citizens and not as working royals.<\/p>\n Royal aides said that the directive aligns fully with the couple’s previously stated wish <\/a>to live as private citizens following the Sandringham agreement in 2020, when the pair formally ended their royal duties and moved to California.<\/p>\n But reports in the MailOnline on Wednesday suggest the couple were unhappy with the memorandum and would have preferred the King to refer to them as \u201cpublic figures\u201d.<\/p>\n Clarifying the couple\u2019s status, the document reads: \u201cIn short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests,\u201d stating that their philanthropic work is conducted in a personal capacity, entirely separate from the royal household. But reports suggest the Sussexes feel this does not reflect their true status as part of the Royal family<\/a> in a private capacity. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Sussexes prefer the term “public figures”, and would have liked an acknowledgement that, on a personal level, they remained members of the Royal Family, despite no longer receiving public funding,\u201d a briefing received by the paper reads.<\/p>\n The report also claims the pair were caught \u201coff guard\u201d by the document, and had not had a chance to \u201cclarify one or two points\u201d with the King.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Sussexes previously told the BBC that the pair \u201cwere a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.\u201d The broadcaster said that royal sources had told them the couple were made aware of the letter before it was made public.<\/p>\n It comes as the military chief of Uganda announced the country will pull out from Prince Harry\u2019s Invictus Games as he said the country would not participate in any event “that does not have His Majesty\u2019s approval”.<\/p>\n General Muhoozi Kainerugaba wrote on X: \u201cIn order not to be construed as being opposed to His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom, whom we deeply revere, Uganda hereby withdraws from the invictus games. We shall not participate in anything that does not have His Majesty’s approval.\u201d<\/p>\n He later told The Times: \u201cI have factions in the Ministry of Defence that support that Harry-Meghan nonsense. I had to quash it straight away. I support the monarch. Period.\u201d <\/p>\n The Sussexes returned to the UK on 26 August after it was revealed earlier that month that they were enrolling their children, Archie and Lillibet, into British schools. In the run up to their return, the King was said to be glad to be able to spend more time with the family, but remained adamant they would not be working royals and there was no half-in, half-out option.<\/p>\n The letter said: \u201cFollowing the decision by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to relocate to the UK, we have received a number of requests for guidance. To help avoid doubt or confusion, The King has directed that the following information be shared.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is well known that in January 2020 the Duke and Duchess stepped down<\/a> from undertaking representative duties on behalf of The Sovereign, and are no longer working Members of The Royal Family<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis position, distinct from the State and Royal duties undertaken by the working Royal Family, and with the personal latitude it brings the couple in respect of financial independence and protection of their privacy as they would wish, will continue to be fully respected.\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent has contacted the Sussexes\u2019 representative for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-841945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Britain_Prince_Harry_944_7.jpg\")
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly wished to be referred to as \u2018public figures\u2019 (PA Wire\/PA Images)<\/p>\n![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4aff701cc04eb292f2ea0b322c059f63Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzg4OTQzNDkx-2.83618974.jpg\")
Harry and Meghan moved back to the UK two weeks ago after six years in the US (Aaron Chown\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n