Mail: The Sussexes feel ‘the American dream might not be all it was cracked up to be’

Months ago, the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff was sadly the first to proclaim that a “Reverse Megxit” was in the works. It turns out, she was right. I hate that. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will relocate to the UK in a matter of days, and their children will start school in Britain next month. Boshoff is taking a victory lap, even though a big chunk of her original reporting turned out to be false. Still, she was correct about the most significant part, which is why (I guess) we have to take her latest piece seriously. Some highlights:

Harry was never anti-Britain: ‘What is absolutely crucial is that Harry never fell out of love with Britain – he fell out of love with the circumstances he found himself living in, and those are very different things,’ Harry’s friend Alex Rayner, who went with him on a charity trek to the North Pole in 2012, and remains in regular contact with him, told the Daily Mail.

The American Dream is over: Others speak of ‘an increasing and significant shift in sentiment, a feeling the American dream might not be all it was cracked up to be’. And it’s not a one-sided sentiment either: ‘This is coming from Meghan as well as from him. I hear that Meghan is all for rekindling with and reconnecting with Harry’s English side. She is fully behind it,’ a friend said. ‘Harry has never stopped being British or feeling British.’

A forever return? Not that the move back should be seen as a whim, however. Although the pace of the shift took everyone by surprise (the King, we are told, only learned of his youngest son’s plans on Sunday), everyone insists it’s a serious – and permanent – move. ‘It’s a significant return and I think a forever return if I’m being brutally honest,’ the friend added. That’s quite an about-turn. And that July visit to the UK was, it is understood, pivotal to decisions being made – and to schools being visited – although plans were actually being made as long ago as May.

The kids loved spending time with family: The family enjoyed their time, however brief, with the King and Queen at Highgrove and are understood to have loved being with the family of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. The children, for whom the UK must feel a distant place that Daddy talks about, may not have caught up with their uncle William (a sibling froideur yet to be addressed), nor with their cousins Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, but they did apparently meet their aunts, uncles and cousins on their father’s mother’s side.

The Sussexes have been planning this since May: Indeed, we are told that so advanced are the couple’s plans they have been looking at property ‘at quite a serious level’ and have been looking at schools for the children since before they broke up for the summer holidays. As a source close to the prince tells us: ‘They started to talk seriously about it at the beginning of the year and come May started to look at schools.’

Archie won’t go to boarding school (yet): It is, however, unlikely that Archie, just a baby when his parents moved to California in March 2020, will be boarding anywhere any time soon. The little boy, who speaks with an American accent and is sixth in line to the throne, will be, we are told, a ‘day boy’ at a mixed preparatory school and Lili, as she is affectionately known, will enter pre-prep at the same school. As our source says: ‘This is a natural moment as Archie will start prep school in year one. Harry knows from his time at Ludgrove that you want to start at the same time as everyone else; there is bonding and camaraderie. Archie is really, really keen on sport and will play rugby and cricket which will be new to him. Harry has been throwing a rugby ball with him in the garden in Montecito; it’s a pretty strange concept if you have grown up with the NFL!’

It’s looking like the Cotswolds: The location of the chosen school has not yet been revealed, but it is understood that it is not in London. It is highly likely to be somewhere in the Cotswolds, a location long favoured by the couple…. In the UK, we are told that, ‘initially, they are staying with someone’. But ‘they are looking to buy at a quite serious level which is a big commitment to putting down roots,’ says our source.

Visits to the US: Friends say the Sussexes plan to visit the US regularly, where they have endeavoured to build commercial portfolios free from the shackles from life as working royals. Harry currently earns money from business coaching company BetterUp and sustainable travel firm Travalyst and is also trying to expand the couple’s production company Archewell. He is reportedly keen to spend more time supporting charities including WellChild, Scotty’s Little Soldiers and, of course, the Invictus community he founded with the first Invictus Games in 2014.

Harry feels strongly about a British education: The couple’s businesses will still be based in the US and the move is about something more personal. ‘Meghan has long been aware that Harry wants to ground the kids in the UK and give them the values of that particular education, to be a good loser, a humble winner and so on,’ the friend said. There are other reasons too, he adds. ‘His father’s significant cancer also impacted on the decision; he realised the values of time and family.’ As our source close to the Sussexes says: ‘I know that it [the move] was discussed when he came to the UK to see Diana’s grave; that visit was also about going to see schools. ‘What Harry didn’t say was that it was definitely this September, but at that point they were eyeing a move back. This is not about royal life at all; it’s about family and the children being educated in the UK. Harry wants to ground his children in this country and to give them a strong understanding of where he grew up. It’s not about him trying to recreate what they had in 2020, it’s about establishing their private family life.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This whole time, I’ve never really believed that Harry had strong feelings about British education or wanting his kids to go to British prep schools or boarding schools. But hey, maybe he does. It always feels so spon-conny when the British papers talk about it though, like they can’t wait to hype “a proper British education,” as if America has no equivalent. I know all of this is being heavily filtered through royalist media, but man, they really make Harry seem delusional about how difficult this transition is going to be in reality, like he can just plop his family in the Cotswolds and live a private life through sheer will. And if this is a permanent move… good lord.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.