Prince Harry Sums Up Why He and Meghan Markle Moved to the U.K. in One Simple Word
Prince Harry Sums Up Why He and Meghan Markle Moved to the U.K. in One Simple Word
Meg WaltersTue, October 20, 2026 at 1:12 PM UTC
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Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Prince Harry opened up about his reasons for relocating back to the U.K. in a new podcast interview.
The prince summed up why he and Meghan Markle moved with their two kids in one word.
The couple lived in the U.S. for six years before they decided to go back to Harry’s home country.
Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocated back to the U.K. with their two kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, royal fans have been wondering if there was a specific reason for the move. After all, the couple made the bold decision to leave the country back in 2020 and later said that Meghan had struggled with her mental health in what they saw as a toxic royal institution and media landscape. In a new interview on GQ’s“One More Question with Zach Baron” podcast, Harry summed up the reason for their return with one simple word: “opportunities.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Nottingham in October 2026.Credit: Getty
Harry elaborated on what he meant, adding, “For the family.” One of the opportunities he meant was “being able to put the kids in a British school.”
“I didn’t know how important it was to me,” he went on. “I always thought it would be something I would try and do, or we would try and do, but now that they’ve been in school for two weeks they’re loving it and it’s just giving them a whole different experience.”
He continued, “Don’t worry, I’m not criticizing American schools, but I think for kids of seven and five to be able to have that comparison and to have two completely different cultural experiences is so important to today.”
Another opportunity was being “closer to [his] family.”
Finally, Harry added that he wanted the opportunity to be “back on U.K. soil for longer than a few days or a week here or there.”
Prince Harry, Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet and Meghan MarkleCredit: Meghan Markle/Instagram
“It’s been nice to be close to friends, family, friends and their children, as well. We’ve had endless playdates to really help our kids to settle in.”
Harry added that the move wasn’t something they “planned for a long time.”
“For us, when certain stars align, and it’s clear that this should or probably will end up being the case, then we lean into that,” he said.
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“Having been here for six years now and only being able to go back to the U.K. for short periods of time—to actually have my whole family there with me—the place that I grew up,” he explained. “Wanting to be able to show my kids where I grew up and have them have the experiences to some extent that I had, the good rather than necessarily the bad, provided real proper serious thinking as to, ‘This is an opportunity, let’s do it now.’”
Prince Harry for GQ.Credit: Bowen Fernie/GQ
He added that it was also “good to be outside of the U.S. for the next few months, perhaps.”
Harry later addressed why he felt ready to come back to the U.K. after making accusations about how the royal firm and the U.K. press treated Meghan during the early years of their marriage.
“I think that certainly, our attitude has changed. I think once you’ve been through it, once you’ve been able to talk about it, and raise awareness to it, then people see it for what it is, it makes the environment slightly easier,” he said. “It’s not going to necessarily stop the behavior, but I think the behavior might—my hope that it will—change.”
“What happened back then was then,” he went on. “What’s happened over the last six years has been a continuation of that. Some battles that had been fought—and necessarily so.”
But now, he is focused on looking forward. “With everything else that’s going on in the world, there’s aspects of the past that I’m sure all of us—me, my family, and some of the British press—that we’d all like to leave behind us and work for the greater good.”
Harry and Meghan’s move has, of course, led to plenty of discussion, with some criticizing the pair for wanting to return to royal life, and others coming to their defence. “They want to have their independent lives in the way they think they should, and they feel they have a right to, like anybody,” a longtime friend of Harry’s told Hello!. “I don’t think they are going to do things in a different way just because they’re back in the U.K.”
The couple made their first public joint appearance in the U.K. on October 15, stepping out to greet fans amid a few charity visits in Nottingham, the same city where they had their first royal engagement together on December 1, 2017.
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
