LONDON: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are making their first joint public appearances since moving back to England, as the couple who walked away from royal duties six years ago seek to rebuild their brand in Britain.
The couple will visit three charities Thursday in Nottingham, the central England city where they made their first joint appearance after announcing their engagement in 2017.
The day’s events are being presented with touches of royal style, including an announcement that features Harry and Meghan’s titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and a prearranged media pool chronicling their movements. Archewell, the philanthropic venture that often took center stage when they were living in the U.S., is hardly mentioned.
But King Charles III, Harry’s father, has made clear that the couple remain non-working members of the royal family, a status they accepted when they abandoned royal duties and moved to California.
In a letter sent on behalf of the king to senior government officials shortly after Harry and Meghan returned to the U.K. in September, the palace stressed that the couple would continue to refrain from using their royal forms of address — His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness — and that any charity work they undertake would be carried out as private citizens.
The decision to send the letter and, more importantly, to release it to the media demonstrated concern among some palace officials that Harry and Meghan’s celebrity could allow them to become a sort of parallel royal court, competing with the Prince and Princess of Wales and other working royals for press coverage and public support.
Thursday’s tour includes visits to the Community Recording Studio, which uses music, performance and athletic programs to help young people build confidence and develop practical skills; Himmah, central England’s biggest food bank; and Epic Partners, which offers sports, education and mentoring programs for disadvantaged young people.
Harry has been involved with the Community Recording Studio and Epic Partners for more than a decade, and Meghan worked with Himmah on “Together: Our Community Cookbook,” published in 2018.
While the couple continued to support charities in the U.K. after they left Britain, their focus was elsewhere.
Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago, saying they wanted to earn their own living. They later signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.
Relations with the rest of the royal family quickly deteriorated as the couple said palace staff had been insensitive to Meghan’s mental health and leveled charges of racism and media manipulation at other members of the family.
But tensions began to ease in recent months as Harry expressed a desire for reconciliation with the king, saying he wanted his children to have a chance to get to know their 77-year-old grandfather. Charles is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer that was discovered in 2024.
The couple and their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are reportedly living at a private, non-royal residence in the Cotswolds, a rural area of rolling hills, villages and farms west of Oxford.
While the couple have expressed happiness about returning to the U.K., the move hasn’t been without controversy.
Harry continues to lobby for publicly funded police protection, which was canceled when he and Meghan gave up royal duties. The prince says he and his family remain under threat simply because of his royal status. Just days into the new school year, the children changed schools because of security issues.
