Prince Harry will always have a soft spot for his home country, even as he continues to navigate life in America.
The claim was made by Dan Wakeford, founder of the weekly pop-culture newsletter Celebrity Intelligence. A veteran celebrity media editor, Wakeford previously led People, Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly.
Wakeford told Fox News Digital that, according to sources who spoke with Celebrity Intelligence, the Duke of Sussex continues to greatly miss the U.K. and the role he once held there as he tries to carve out a meaningful role for himself in California.
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“Harry particularly doesn’t love the life he has in America,” Wakeford said. “He misses his family, his friends and his former existence in the U.K. Sources say he would be content to downsize and have a smaller life instead of living on such a grand scale, but I think that is more Meghan [Markle]’s [style].”
Archewell, which handles the offices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, told Fox News Digital, “It’s all unfounded speculation, of which we don’t comment.”
While Wakeford described Harry as longing for aspects of his former life in Britain, the duke recently took a step toward reconnecting with his family.
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On July 10, Harry, Meghan and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, met with King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, Buckingham Palace confirmed. Fox News Digital reached out to the palace and Archewell for comment.
The family gathering came after Harry arrived in the U.K. on July 6 for several charity events that were overshadowed by speculation about whether he would meet with his father.
The meeting marked the first time in years that King Charles had hosted Harry and his family, amid a rift that began after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals and moved to California in 2020.
“I think it’s important to make the point that Harry’s marriage is a happy one,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital.
“The problem is that Harry is without a proper role. He has the Invictus Games, yes, but I do think he misses aspects of life in the U.K. and the friends he has kept there. He has charities he supports there, and his mother is buried there. While he had a difficult week during his visit, the meeting with the king and his family was a positive.”
“Seeing the ‘good ol’ Harry’ playing wheelchair rugby with Invictus Games participants showed him grinning ear to ear,” British royal expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital. “He was so happy in his element. Meeting with his father also would have reminded him of the prominent life he once led.”
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“Harry and Meghan’s life is very different from what they expected in America, from what they hoped for,” Wakeford said. “What has shifted significantly is the gap between what they said they were building and what they actually built. They left the royal family to become financially independent.”
“The headline numbers of $100 million from Netflix deals and $20 million for Spotify always obscured what the real figures were,” Wakeford said, referring to the deals the Sussexes initially secured to lead financially independent lives.
“The Netflix deal was closer to $60 million, and the Spotify deal was $5 million to exit early,” he claimed. “That’s a significant amount of money, but their costs are also extremely high, and they don’t have a sustainable business model.”
Questions about the Sussexes’ long-term future come as Harry has increasingly spoken publicly about wanting to repair his relationship with his family while continuing to build a life in California.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as working royals in 2020, citing relentless intrusions by the British press and a lack of support from the palace.
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Tensions within the House of Windsor have remained high since the couple stepped away from royal duties and moved to California to pursue media ventures outside the monarchy. Harry’s bestselling 2023 memoir, “Spare,” further strained his relationship with the royal family.
In a 2025 interview with the BBC, Harry said he “would love reconciliation with my family” because “there’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.”
“I miss parts of the U.K., of course I do,” he said. “And I think that it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show, you know, my children.”
“He misses what he knows,” British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. “His titles give him status and a sense of achievement and credibility. His royal connection is everything he knows and, I’m sure, what he pines for deep down.”
Harry and his father met briefly for tea in September during the prince’s short visit to London, marking the first time they had seen each other in well over a year. Harry has also wanted his children to spend more time with the monarch, whom they first met during celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
“Folks close to them say that within five years, they need to figure out what their strategy is,” Wakeford said. “They’re not bankrupt, and those headlines aren’t true. They’re not running out of money. But they do have to balance their costs against their future income.”
On Harry’s 40th birthday in 2024, Roya Nikkhah, royal editor of The Sunday Times, reported that the prince’s friends suggested he spent much of his time “looking back.”
“I know how important it is for him to have a happy, settled family life, but you need to do more than that if you’re him,” a source who has known Harry since his teenage years told Nikkhah. “He has ended up isolated from his family and most of his old mates, in an environment where your friendships are not like the ones you forged as a young man.”
“He used to love a night out in the pub and hanging out in the country with friends,” said the source. “Maybe he has grown into a different person, but do I think he’d really suit the Californian lifestyle? No. Now that we’ve seen it all play out, what has that left him with? On the surface, an enviable lifestyle — but for the Harry I know, I can’t imagine that gilded exile in California is where he wanted to end up.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Archewell for comment at the time.
“He loves his family life out in the States,” Nikkhah later told Fox News Digital. “He’s thrilled to be a dad. I suppose for him, it’s just finding a role — a really meaningful role going forward. The Invictus Games are fantastic, and he does great work there, and that will continue. But I think for him going forward, it’s finding a meaningful role for himself living out in the States on the global stage.”
In his 2022 Netflix series, Harry admitted, “I miss my friends… I’ve lost a few friends in this process.”
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“There is so much about America to love, and he has embraced so much so quickly,” Fordwich previously told Fox News Digital.
“There is nothing he has ever said or done that could be seen as bad-mouthing England. His family, yes. The ‘Firm,’ yes. But not his beloved England. He has certainly wavered over becoming an American and has shared his nostalgia with close friends, telling them he misses England. Many of them believe he’s desperately lonely in California.”
“I would not be surprised to see him return, if only for a short time each year,” Fordwich added.
