Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Return to the U.K. Was Foreseen by This Royal, Who “Predicted All of This”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Return to the U.K. Was Foreseen by This Royal, Who “Predicted All of This”
Rachel BurchfieldFri, August 28, 2026 at 1:53 PM UTC
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on October 29, 2018.Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Six years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from their working royal roles and relocated to the United States in 2020.
Now, as of this week, the couple and their children have returned to the United Kingdom and are starting a new chapter in a familiar location.
Harry and Meghan’s return was long ago predicted by Princess Anne, who subtly warned against them “reinventing the wheel.”
Princess Anne is the longstanding hardest working royal—and also, maybe, a bit of a fortune teller.
According to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, the Princess Royal warned of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “reinventing the wheel” years before they moved back to the U.K. this week and “predicted all of this.”
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Princess Anne on March 5, 2019.Credit: Getty
In 2020—the same year that Harry and Meghan stepped back as working royals and moved to the U.S.—Anne turned 70 years old that August. In an April interview with Vanity Fair ahead of that milestone—just three months after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their intention to step back—the princess gave what Nicholl perceived to be “a word of warning” to the couple.
“Harry has always had a very good relationship with his aunt Princess Anne,” Nicholl told Hello!. “This relationship has certainly been tested, and when I sat down with her to interview her back in 2020, just after Megxit, she gave me a very sort of coded message, which was it’s all very well the new younger royals doing things differently, but they shouldn’t try and reinvent the wheel.”
Princess Anne and Prince Harry on May 18, 2019.Credit: Getty
“I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past, and it’s often true, isn’t it?” Anne said at the time. “You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?’ Or, ‘You went there?’”
She added, “Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh, let’s do it a new way,’ and I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.’”
Nicholl said she understood Anne’s words to be “a cautionary word to Meghan and Harry that yes, of course there needs to be changes, but, but not to do anything too drastically.”
Prince Harry and Princess Anne on March 30, 2012.Credit: Getty
“I think she will be one who has sort of sat back, predicted all of this, not been surprised that they’re coming back somewhat with their tails between their legs because things haven’t worked in America,” Nicholl added.
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Harry and Meghan moved to Montecito, California in 2020 and lived there until this past week, when they relocated back to the United Kingdom after six years away. Their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are due to start school in the U.K. next week. A source speaking to The Telegraph said that there were “a number of factors” that drew them back, with an insider noting, “The timing is good and works for them right now.”
Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine, told The Guardian that he thinks it will “take a long time to establish a reasonable degree of trust” with the royal family.
“It was six years plus in the fracturing,” he said. “It’s not going to be a case of six weeks and everything is forgiven and forgotten. It’s going to be a lengthy process.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on October 17, 2018.Credit: Getty
Though they’re returning to the U.K., Harry and Meghan won’t become working royals again, and the royal family is said to be keen on upholding the no “half-in, half-out” model that Queen Elizabeth put in place at the Sandringham Summit in 2020. Zara Tindall, Anne’s daughter, doesn’t carry a title and is not a working royal, but still has a close relationship with the family, often appearing with them at public events. But, a source told The Telegraph, “There was also a model for being a non-working royal, set by Zara, which the Sussexes didn’t want to follow. This is all new territory for everyone.”
Harry, for his part, “never really stopped missing home,” a source told People. “He’s missed that sense of connection and belonging. Britain is still home in many ways.” Yet, another source added, the decision to return to the U.K. was “taken as a family.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on February 15, 2026.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s going to be very hard for the family to ignore their presence—the kids, especially,” a source from California told the outlet. Another insider added of the Sussexes and the royal family, “There are bound to be moments where their worlds overlap, and everyone will be watching how those encounters unfold.”
Yet, as Nicholl told Hello!, reconciliation is still possible—one that will likely be led by King Charles. “Forging a path for conciliation with the wider family I think, for the most part, where the king leads, the others will follow,” she said.
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