The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are understood to be planning to move their family back to the UK.
Harry and Meghan are planning to leave the US later this month and move to a private, non-royal residence close to London, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The couple’s children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are set to start at a British school in September, the newspaper reported.
The King was made aware on Sunday that the Duke and Duchess plan to return to live in the UK, and is said to welcome the opportunity to see more of the family in a personal capacity, but there will be no change in their status as private individuals.
They are not being offered a “half-in-half-out” option when it comes to their roles.
open image in galleryThe couple moved to the United States in January 2020 after they stepped down as senior royals.
In March 2019, Buckingham Palace had announced Harry and Meghan would set up their own household, breaking from the joint operation they had with William and Kate, amid media reports of rifts between the two couples.
By March 2020, they had set up a permanent home in Los Angeles, California, and on March 31 of that month Harry and Meghan officially stepped down as senior royals and stopped using their HRH styles.
Tensions within the family have heightened ever since the move, which allowed Harry and Meghan to pursue lucrative media deals.
Those relations reached a new low after Harry published an explosive memoir that included unflattering depictions of the royal family and damning allegations of a toxic relationship between the monarchy and the press.
King Charles hosted Harry and met with his family in July for the first time in years.
They had been estranged for some time, particularly after Harry’s public criticisms of his father, stepmother Camilla, brother the Prince of Wales, and sister-in-law Kate, expressed in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary, various interviews, and his autobiography Spare, following his departure from the working monarchy six years ago.
open image in galleryHarry’s visit last month also coincided with him losing his final lawsuit as a judge ruled that he failed to prove his privacy invasion claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail.
His legal battles have been a source of friction with his family, however.
Harry has said he wants to reconcile with his 77-year-old father, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer.
After losing a court battle over his security issue last year, Harry said he hoped to rebuild relations with his family, even as he suggested that the royals had sought to prevent him from receiving police protection to punish him for walking away from royal duties.
“I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore,” Harry told the BBC at the time.
open image in galleryThe shock announcement that the couple are moving back to Britain comes less than two months after the duke was trying to find a way to safely bring his wife and children to the UK to mark the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham.
At the end of June, he was still waiting for a review by the Risk Management Board (RMB), part of the process by which the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) rules on his security requirements – and he and his security detail were working behind the scenes to try to ensure the visit could take place safely.
Meghan was able to travel to the UK in July with Archie and Lilibet to join Harry when he came to the end of a week-long series of events promoting the games.
It was during the visit, that the duke and duchess took their children to see the King for the first time in four years at his Highgrove home.
The Independent have contacted a representative of the Duke and Duchess for comment.