Beaming Harry looks delighted as he breaks cover just hours after return to the UK was revealed (and shares a laugh with a fellow red head)
Prince Harry beamed with delight as he was pictured for the first time since it was revealed he will imminently return to the UK to live with his family.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are understood to be relocating to Britain for an ‘extended period’, with Archie and Lilibet set to enrol at a British school.
The family will move into a non-royal residence and will not be working royals. King Charles was only informed by his son on Sunday that he plans to move back to the UK later this month.
As royal experts speculated on what such a move could mean for Harry and Meghan, the Duke, 41, was seen broadly smiling at a roundtable event discussing increased support for veterans, in Washington, on Wednesday.
Harry, who served 10 years as a captain in the British Army and completed two frontline tours in Afghanistan, listened intently to the speakers, who included Jane Horton, senior adviser to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
He was later seen speaking with Sarah Verado, chief executive of The Independence Fund, a non-profit dedicated to helping wounded veterans and their families, while also sharing a light-hearted conversation with fellow red-haired veteran William Bringer.
His public appearance came just hours after it was reported that he and his family will move back to the UK.
It is not yet known, however, whether the move will be a permanent one. The location of Harry and Meghan’s new home has not been revealed for privacy reasons.
Prince Harry beamed with delight as he pictured for the first time since it was revealed he will imminently return to the UK to live with his family
Harry was seen sharing a light-hearted conversation with fellow red-haired veteran William Bringer at a roundtable event on Wednesday
Harry has maintained a passion for helping veterans, having served 10 years as a captain in the British Army and completed two frontline tours in Afghanistan
The Duke was seen with Sarah Verado, chief executive of The Independence Fund, a non-profit dedicated to helping wounded veterans and their families
The couple is set to retain their £11million home in Montecito, California, where they have lived since moving across the Atlantic Ocean. They also still own a residence in Portugal.
The surprise news comes six years after the couple left Britons in disbelief when they stepped down as working royals.
In a statement released at the time, following a 12-month review, Queen Elizabeth II confirmed that they would not ‘continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service’.
The former monarch added that Harry and Meghan would not be maintaining a ‘half in, half out’ approach to their duties.
Harry was later stripped of his honorary military titles.
The move came after the pair, who wed in 2018, announced their decision to leave without consulting Charles, Camilla or Prince William – sparking fierce criticism.
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, even 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 and described their as an orchestrated smear campaign against her.
Veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low first broke the bullying story in March 2021, just before Harry and Meghan were to appear on screen 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 of the royal staff who had worked with the Sussexes were still in a ‘very fragile state’ more than two years later – and despite the royal couple having emigrated 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’.
King Charles is understood to have found out about his son’s impending move back to Britain on Sunday (the pair are seen together in 2022)
It is not yet known where Harry and Meghan will be living when they move later this month (The Duke and Duchess are seen with Princess Kate Middleton and Prince William in 2022)
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 their decision to leave the royal family was made public.
Harry’s relationship with both his father and brother, Prince William – the future monarch – is since believed to have become strained.
The siblings are not thought to have spoken for years, with William and his wife Kate Middleton understood to have been ‘deeply hurt’ by allegations made in Harry’s memoir, Spare.
The brothers were said to have promised to put aside their differences in honour of their late mother Princess Diana – but, according to royal author Phil Dampier, that promise has been broken.
He told the Mail: ‘William and Harry put aside their differences for the unveiling of the statue of their mother Princess Diana [five years ago], but things are much worse now.
‘I think William would find it very hard to meet Harry, even to honour Diana’s memory. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of her death, so that would be an obvious time for them to try and heal their rift and at least be seen together, but I don’t think William’s heart is in it.
‘Friends tell me that, as far as he is concerned, Harry is the past, and he is only concerned about the future for his wife Catherine and their children George, Charlotte and Louis.
‘He will never forgive Harry, in my opinion, not just for leaving the Royal Family, but for the dirt he dished out in his book Spare, the Netflix show and the Oprah Winfrey interview.
‘It led to Catherine being smeared as a racist, and he will never forget that.’
William, Charles and Harry are pictured at the procession for the Lying-in-State of Queen Elizabeth in 2022
Sources, however, suggest that King Charles ‘welcomes’ the opportunity to see more of his family (Harry, Meghan, Charles and Camilla are seen together in 2022)
Harry is said to have missed living in the UK – and it has even been speculated that he has been ‘desperate’ for Archie and Lilibet to experience life in his home-country.
Harry hopes that Charles will open next summer’s Invictus Games alongside him in what would be a major move towards reconciling their relationship. It is, nevertheless, currently unknown whether that will materialise.
The pair enjoyed a private reunion, along with Meghan and their children, only last month – four years after the monarch last saw Lilibet and Archie.
The Duke and Duchess were welcomed by Charles and Camilla to the King’s private residence, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, in a move which marked a step towards healing Harry’s relationship with his father.
Charles, as well as Camilla, had also been subject to criticism from the 41-year-old in his 2023 memoir – but Harry visited the King a year later amid news of his cancer diagnosis.
The Sussexes had already set about rebuilding a base in Europe prior to tonight’s revelations, having bought a property at the plush Costa Terra resort in Melides Portugal, three years ago.
The couple and their children holidayed at the resort only a month ago as Meghan shared snaps of pristine beaches, swimming pools and restaurants to her Instagram.
