Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Prince Harry is
opening up about his reasons for returning to the UK.
In a newly released
interview with GQ’s Zach Baron that was filmed in September
during Harry’s trip to New York City, the Duke of Sussex shared what motivated
him and Meghan Markle to move their family — including their children, Prince
Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — back to Britain.
Prince Harry and Meghan, 45, stepped back from their royal
roles in 2020 and relocated to her home state of California later that year,
when Archie was a baby. Lilibet was born in California the following
year.
However, the Sussexes announced in August 2026 that they
would be moving back to Britain for an extended period, with their
children enrolled in school there, and they arrived in the U.K. the same
month.
Asked about his reason for moving back to the UK, Prince
Harry, 42, replied: “Opportunities for the family.”
He added: “Being able to put the kids in a British school
has meant a lot to me. I didn’t know how important it was to me.”
“I always thought it was gonna be something that I would try
and do or that we would try and do, but now they’ve been in school for two
weeks,” he noted.
“They’re loving it, and it’s just giving them a whole
different experience.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not criticizing American schools,” he
continued. “But I think for kids at 7 and 5 to be able to have that comparison
and to have two completely different cultural experiences is so important
today.”
Prince Harry also said the reasons for the move were to be
“back closer to my family and to be back on U.K. soil for longer than a few
days or a week here or there.”
Harry added, “It’s been nice to be close to friends, family,
friends and friends and their children as well, to be able to have endless
playdates to really, like, help our kids settle in.”
While he admitted that moving back to the U.K. was something
he and Meghan had “thought about and considered,” the move wasn’t planned far
in advance.
“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
explained.
Asked if his desire to return to his home country was more
about what life was like in the U.S. or something he was “craving back home,”
Harry said it was “a combination of both.”
“I think that 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, 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,’ “ he
said.
When Baron asked about his relationship with the British
media, a contentious relationship that prompted Harry to launch multiple legal
actions, the Duke of Sussex said he feels that the situation has improved and
that he and his family are now better equipped to handle it.
“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, which makes the
environment slightly easier,” he said.
“And it’s not going to necessarily stop the behavior, but
then that’s the second part, which is the behavior: My hope is that it will
change,” he continued. “What happened back then was then, what’s happened over
the last six years has been a continuation of that. There are some battles that
have been fought, necessarily so. But hopefully we can all draw a line under
that. And 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, some of the British press,
that we’d all like to leave behind us and work for the greater good.”
“I am optimistic. I’m hopeful,” Harry said. “I’m not naive.
I have been naive in the past. But I think it’s important to remain optimistic.
And I think a large part of this is about respect as well. And I can respect
them if they respect me and our position. Our position is really quite clear
now, and hopefully we can get on with life.”
The GQ interview is the first that Harry has given since his family officially returned to the U.K.
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