Harry and Meghan’s Shocking ‘Reverse Megxit’ — a Secret Reportedly Kept From King — Escalates Pressure on William To Forgive

The stunning return of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Britain from California is feeding the tantalizing natter of whether Prince William, the heir to the British throne, will forgive his brother.Princess Diana’s two sons last saw each other in 2024 at the funeral of Lord Robert Fellowes, who was married to Diana’s sister Jane. They did not appear to speak to one another on that occasion. The last time they were seen interacting was in 2022, at the funeral for Queen Elizabeth. In 2023 Prince Harry explained that he and his family fled England “in fear for our sanity and physical safety.” Could a return signal that the brothers could reconcile?A little more than a year ago Prince Harry told the BBC that he could not “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K.,” and that it was “really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.” Now, though, the prodigal prince is engineering a return that was reportedly kept a secret from even his father, King Charles III, until Sunday. The Daily Telegraph reports that the monarch is “naturally pleased for the opportunity to see more of his family on a regular basis, both in a private and personal capacity” but that Prince Harry and the duchess will not resume their duties — and privileges — as “working royals.” The Sussexes abjured those responsibilities in 2020, when they negotiated a new modus operandi with Queen Elizabeth II. Their departure became known as “Megxit.” When Prince Harry and the duchess moved to Montecito, California, they agreed that they would no longer use their HRH titles, would no longer represent the monarch, and would no longer receive public funds for royal duties. Their altered status also meant that the British Home Office withdrew their round-the-clock security arrangement, instead offering security on a contingent basis. That has been a bone of contention between the Crown and Prince Harry, with the scion expressing concern about his family’s safety.Last year, Prince Harry lost an appeal seeking to reinstate the security arrangement that prevailed before he eschewed his royal role. The prince characterized himself as “devastated” by that ruling, telling the BBC that “I thought with all the disagreements and all of the chaos that’s happening, the one thing that I could rely on is my family keeping me safe.” The Sussexes plan to depart Montecito and find a manse — not a royal residence — outside of London. In 2023 the Crown asked the Sussexes to “vacate” their residence at Frogmore Cottage, which had been gifted to them by the Queen in 2019. The Sussexes’ two children, Princess Archie and Princess Lilibet, ages seven and five, have already been enrolled in a British school for September. Soon after Prince Harry and the duchess decamped for California, they inked a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $100 million and another with Spotify for around $20 million. Prince Harry also secured a $20 million advance for his 2023 memoir “Spare,” ghost written by J.R. Moehringer, which broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. It sold more than three million books in its first week.The disclosures in “Spare” further fractured the Sussexes’ relationship with the Windsors. Prince Harry wrote about violent altercations with his brother, and alleged that Princess Kate made Meghan cry. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey a few years earlier, the Sussexes alleged that a senior member of the royal family expressed racist sentiments. To that Prince William responded that the royals are “very much not a racist family.”Word of a “reverse Megxit” comes a little more than a month after Prince Harry returned to Britain for a sequence of charity events and for the delivery of a verdict in a high profile defamation case he launched alongside other celebrities against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail. The prince and his fellow litigants lost on every count, and now face a rearguard effort to avoid paying more than $50 million in attorneys’ fees and other costs.The trip ended on a high note, though, when the Sussexes and their children met with the king and Queen Camilla in a clandestine summit at the sovereign’s personal residence at Highgrove House that the Crown called a “private family occasion.” The king, 77, and fighting an undisclosed form of cancer, had not seen his grandchildren in four years. During the scheduled rendezvous, the Waleses were at a polo tournament at Windsor, some two hours away. The apparent thawing between Prince Harry and his father came days after the prince declared in a statement that it was “disappointing” that an offer to lodge at the 755-room Buckingham Palace, the monarchy’s administrative nerve center, had been withdrawn. The Crown cited staffing and logistical barriers that prevented Sussex from resting his head at the palace. Soon after that trip word came from Buckingham Palace of the retirement, to take effect in March, of King Charles’s chief courtier and private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton. The New York Sun reported earlier this week Sir Clive’s departure could smooth the path for the prince’s return. Prince Harry and Sir Clive had a poisonous relationship, with Sussex dubbing him “The Wasp” and calling the Private Secretary to the Sovereign “weedy and arrogant.” The timing of what some are calling the Sussexes’ “Megflip” could also be attributed to pragmatic planning. It comes as they have achieved six full tax years of residency outside the United Kingdom — sufficient to circumvent the British “temporary nonresident” penalty for capital gains tax.

Harry and Meghan’s Shocking ‘Reverse Megxit’ — a Secret Reportedly Kept From King — Escalates Pressure on William To Forgive

Harry and Meghan’s Shocking ‘Reverse Megxit’ — a Secret Reportedly Kept From King — Escalates Pressure on William To Forgive

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