The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to return to the U.K. comes after years of back and forth about who should provide their security

NEED TO KNOW

• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving their family back to the U.K.
• The decision comes after years of Harry expressing concern about his wife and children not receiving proper security in his home country
• Prime Minister Andy Burnham was asked about the couple’s return and said questions about their security are a “private matter”

Britain’s prime minister is reacting to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to move their family back to the U.K.

It was revealed this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are relocating to Harry’s home country for an extended period beginning this month. PEOPLE understands that their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are set to begin school there in September. Details about their non-royal, private home and the children’s school are being kept private.

The move comes after years of Harry, 41, expressing concern over the level of security afforded to himself and his family while in the U.K. He and Meghan, 45, lost their public-funded police protection in the U.K. when they stepped back from their roles as senior working royals in 2020, and Harry previously said that he wasn’t comfortable with his family traveling to the U.K. without security.

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham was asked about the couple’s return on Thursday, Aug. 20, while visiting a dump in West Yorkshire. Reporters asked if the government planned to provide and pay for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s security after they moved back.

“This is a private matter,” Burnham said. “It’s a matter for Harry and for Meghan. And we wish them well in the move that they’re making.”

The Telegraph later clarified his use of the word “private,” saying, “the meaning of Mr. Burnham’s remarks was that the Duke and Duchess’s security was not a matter that should be discussed publicly. It is understood he was not making a judgment on who should be responsible for providing their security, which would be a matter for the Home Office and the committee responsible, and not the prime minister.”

After years of campaigning, a full-scale review of Harry’s security was granted in December 2025 by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), an official panel made up of members of the government’s Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the royal household.

However, PEOPLE understood that a review of Harry’s security arrangements by RAVEC had yet to conclude as of late June. Representatives for the Duke of Sussex say RAVEC’s own terms of reference call for a Risk Management Board review at least once a year, but Harry’s last review was conducted nearly seven years ago.

After losing his legal appeal about the security case, Prince Harry told the BBC in May 2025 that he couldn’t “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point.”

“The things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything,” he added of Archie and Lilibet. “I miss the U.K., I miss parts of the U.K., of course I do. I think that it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.”

Meghan and the children returned to the U.K. for the first time since 2022 last month, a trip that included a long-awaited reunion with King Charles.

The move back to the U.K. is the clearest sign yet that Prince Harry believes his family’s security concerns have reached a point where he feels comfortable basing Meghan, Archie and Lilibet in Britain. However, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined to comment on the matter of security.

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PEOPLE understands that King Charles was made aware of the couple’s plans to move back to the U.K. on Sunday, Aug. 16, and the monarch welcomes the opportunity to see the family more often in a private and personal capacity.

The King is said to have been clear that there will be no change to Harry and Meghan’s status as private individuals and non-working members of the royal family, in keeping with the agreement they previously reached with the late Queen Elizabeth.

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