Prince Harry and Meghan Markle plan return to UK after six years in US
Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reports on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocating to the United Kingdom after residing in California for six years, noting that the couple plans to establish a residence outside London and enroll their children in a British school while King Charles undergoes cancer treatment.
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None of the security and logistical concerns that forced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to switch the school their children were attending in England should have been a surprise, according to royal experts.
“The logistics haven’t changed since Harry and Meghan plotted their UK return,” Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered,” told Fox News Digital. “None of this should have come as a surprise.”
Schofield said that her sources were warning her about the traffic around the school two weeks ago, “before Archie and Lili had even started. When I spoke to people locally, the school-run traffic was one of the very first issues they raised with me.”
The royal couple moved their family from California to the Cotswolds, outside of London, late last month.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved their family from California to England late last month. (Getty Images)
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams agreed that moving Prince Archie and Princess Lillibet to a new school just two days into the term was “extraordinary and smacks of haste and a lack of preparedness by the Sussexes.”
He added, “If the school run had the problems they have encountered, why did they not know earlier and why wait until their children have actually started school. Why is this all played out in the public domain? Security issues should be private. There will be those who believe it has been handled in this way to increase pressure on the authorities to get automatic security.”
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Harry has been advocating for taxpayer-funded security for his family for years after they stepped back as senior royals.
“According to my sources, Harry and Meghan and their security experts were concerned about the length of journey and how potential ambush cars could block their way and hijack the children,” royal broadcaster Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital. “They have been brought closer to their home and the security arrangements are being reviewed.”
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The couple moved their children to another school just two days into the term. (Getty Images)
“I feel this is a very necessary step and giving Harry and Meghan peace of mind,” he added.
Fitzwilliams explained that Harry’s request for taxpayer-funded security would involve a detail that is armed and has access to intelligence that his private team doesn’t have.
“That is why I find the suggestion that these logistical difficulties only became apparent once the children started school difficult to take seriously.-Kinsey Schofield
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“He has been informed that there will now be a security review for both of them, as they have permanently moved to the UK,” he continued. “He lost a series of court battles over this but has appealed to the Home Secretary.”
Schofield said she had been told the original school had a great reputation with lots of international students, but “navigating the area would be a very big burden for the Sussexes.”
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“That is why I find the suggestion that these logistical difficulties only became apparent once the children started school difficult to take seriously,” she admitted. “Locals knew about the traffic. The Sussexes knew where they were living. They knew the distance to the school. They knew they had two children of different ages who could potentially have different schedules. And, most importantly, they knew the limitations and requirements of their private security operation.”
Altogether, that could have been a 45-munute commute four times a day, she stressed. “It was always an ambitious school run.”
“My sympathy is with Archie and Lili,” Schofield added. “Thankfully, children are resilient and this happened very early in the term, but ideally these basic practical considerations would have been resolved before they ever walked through the school gates.”
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. (Chris Jackson – Pool/Getty Images)
She said the couple “appear to have moved quickly to establish the children at their new school, and hopefully their priority now is consistency. The last thing these children need after moving countries and changing schools is another unnecessary disruption.”
But she said the situation “raises legitimate questions” about their strategy. “This wasn’t some obscure problem nobody could have anticipated.”
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Schofield questioned why their professional security team wasn’t able to identify that problem before the kids started school.
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“I would never claim without evidence that this was intentional,” Schofield, referring to Harry’s effort to get government security, “but I think people are entitled to be cynical about the optics. The situation reinforces an argument Harry has been making for years. That seems convenient!”
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One of the royal family’s greatest strengths is their “consistency,” Schofield said. “It can be boring, it can be vanilla, but there is something enormously comforting about knowing exactly what you are going to get. They show up, they stick to the program, they honor their commitments and, over time, that reliability creates trust.”
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She said that Harry and Meghan “operate in almost the opposite way. There is a recurring sense of upheaval and reinvention around them. Podcasts come and go, business relationships change, plans are announced and then abandoned, and now their children’s school has changed after just two days. Individually, there may be perfectly reasonable explanations for each decision, but collectively they create an impression of instability.”
A spokesperson for the Sussexes told several outlets, “The decision for the children to move schools was taken following a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements. The parents remain extremely grateful to all the teachers and staff for the love, care and effort they have shown their family. This decision should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on the school or the exceptional care the children have received there.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Archewell for comment.