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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning to return to the bosom of the U.K. royal family with the help of Harry’s father, King Charles, says veteran showbiz writer Alison Boshoff.
Boshoff, editor-at-large with The Daily Mail and the author of the forthcoming book Brand Beckham, told The Royalist podcast, “I think there are people on two sides of this blanket, and each of them has a thread in their hands, and they’re pulling it… I think it is being unpicked. Whether this actually happens, I don’t know… All I can tell you for sure is they want it to happen, and they think it’s going to happen. They feel optimistic that they are on their way back in, in some way.”
Boshoff, whose work has for years been a reliable bellwether of global gossip, wrote a blockbuster story in The Daily Mail this week saying that “the Sussexes are seeking to reverse Megxit,” and that “a return to the UK is being contemplated in some form.”
The big picture will not be news to readers of the Daily Beast’s The Royalist, but it represents the first time a major British newspaper has so definitively planted a flag on this story.
One extraordinary line in her report, from a source who knows Harry well, pointed to tensions at the heart of the Sussex marriage: “I don’t think he’s ever wanted to be estranged from his family. I think when he was madly in love with Meghan he could be blind enough to choose her. Now things are different, and the veil is lifting.”
All of this comes after the biggest pivot point in the story of Megxit—the audience at Highgrove eight days ago, attended by Harry, Meghan, Archie, Lilibet, the king and, significantly, Queen Camilla, whom Harry branded “dangerous” and a “villain” during the promotional tour for his memoir, Spare.
Boshoff told The Royalist that a source in the Sussex camp had told her it was “baby steps… but in the right direction. At this point it’s all about direction of travel.”
Why now?
Because, Boshoff says, the Sussexes’ American dream is dying, and they know it.
“Harry and Meghan both feel that America is kind of cooling on them,” she said, citing a source who knows Harry well and is plugged into his charity circle. “I was really surprised that this had been a topic of discussion among these people, that Harry was feeling like he wasn’t actually all that welcome in America anymore.”
Meghan, the source said, feels she “has to push and push” to get projects moving.
The shift, as described by Boshoff to The Royalist, is dramatic. “Eighteen months ago I spoke to a communications professional on Team Sussex who said to me: Harry’s never coming back to the U.K. He has no interest in it. Loves his life in California. He’s here forever,” Boshoff said. “And that has completely changed. It’s just turned around, quite quietly, while we’ve all been looking at other things. Their eyes are on Europe again, and the U.K.”
On the podcast, I noted in response that my sources have gone from, “Harry is loving California, he’s loving the sunshine and swimming in the pool,” to, “Of course he wants to spend more time in the United Kingdom. It’s his home.”
Boshoff concurred: “Harry and Meghan both feel that America is kind of cooling on them, and they want to be liked in the U.K. now. That’s where they’re focusing. It’s a charm offensive… He’s trying to be appealing again to ordinary people who have not enjoyed being called racists, and not enjoyed the things he said about his family.”
The family is now openly wooing the U.K., from the essay in which Harry pointedly wrote that he only “currently” lives in the U.S., to his son Archie being photographed in an England football shirt or a banter-heavy appearance on Joe Marler’s podcast, which showcased “boobs, bums and rugby Harry, not therapized Harry.”
The Royalist’s own view, which I put to Boshoff, is that what Harry and Meghan want hasn’t changed one iota from six years ago: freedom to do and say whatever they like, plus the trappings of royalty.
If they can negotiate with Charles even the tiniest official royal role in the UK, that unlocks everything: it would bring security, somewhere to live, and a whole new level of legitimacy. It would also be precisely the half-in, half-out arrangement the late queen expressly banned in one of her final significant constitutional acts. And it would be a massive gamble by Charles, given how unpopular the couple remain in Britain.
The next staging posts are already visible. Harry is expected back in September with the expectation that he will finally take up the offer of a stay at Buckingham Palace. The family may come, both sides are briefing.
Then comes the big one: the Invictus Games in Birmingham in summer 2027.
“The people around them think summer 2027 is all four of them in the UK, public facing, at Invictus events,” Boshoff said.
Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack or listen to The Royalist podcast on YouTube.
