Goodbye Montecito and hello to the Cotswolds.
Six years after trading Windsor walkabouts for Montecito avocado trees, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and their two children have officially moved back to the UK in late August. After
From Montecito To The Cotswolds
According to multiple outlets, Meghan and Harry returned to Britain with Archie, who is seven, and Lilibet, who is five, in late August after six years based in Montecito, California. Speaking about the decision, Harry has said that putting his children into British schools matters deeply to him. “Being able to put the kids in a British school has meant a lot to me. I did not know how important it was to me,” he says in a recent interview, framing the move as an emotional homecoming rather than a strategic royal play.
The timing is practical too. The 2027 Invictus Games will be held in Birmingham, and Harry’s veterans work remains firmly rooted in the UK. He has spent years arguing in court that he could not safely bring his family back without proper security; the fact that Archie and Lili are now doing spelling tests on British soil signals that at least some of those hurdles have been cleared behind the scenes.
This time, though, they are not slipping back into the royal machine. Their move has not come with working-royal titles, balcony duties, or a set of palace keys. Instead, the Sussexes are building what looks like a private British base that can coexist with their California life, their fledgling production projects, and Meghan’s new TV commitments.
Inside Meghan And Harry’s New UK Home
Reports say the family initially stayed in the main house on a sprawling Cotswolds estate owned by a wealthy businessman friend Harry met through military charity work. They have now moved into a separate property on the same estate, which is what headlines are calling their “new home” in the UK.
For security reasons, the exact location is being kept off the record, though British speculation has focused on financier Ian Wace and his Rowler Estate in the region. What is clear is that Meghan and Harry know this part of the country well. Long before Montecito, they rented a farmhouse on the Great Tew Estate, where Meghan eased into royal life with Cotswolds pub lunches and low-key weekends far from palace photographers.
The new house is understood to be comfortable rather than palatial, but the wider estate answers their brief almost perfectly: lots of land, no public footpaths, and the sort of winding lanes that discourage tour buses. The couple had been quietly hunting for their own Cotswolds property with at least nine bedrooms, room for a small film studio, and a reported budget of up to £10 million. For now, that search is said to be on pause while they road-test life as long-term guests.
