Prince Harry is preparing for a delicate return to the UK with Meghan and their two children, amid deep family tensions and widespread public scepticism.
The younger son of King Charles III is expected in Britain in the coming days after the announcement that the family will resettle in England. The move has been met with little enthusiasm.
Harry, 41, is one of the least popular members of the Royal Family, according to a YouGov poll published last month. Some 58% of respondents held a negative view of him, with only Meghan, on 65%, and Prince Andrew, on 92%, rated more unfavourably.
The tabloids are also poised to scrutinise his return. Harry has loathed the press since the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while she was being pursued by paparazzi.
He has repeatedly taken legal action against newspapers, with mixed results. His latest case, brought with other celebrities against the Daily Mail over privacy breaches, ended in defeat.
Even his critics acknowledge his long-standing commitment to charity. His work has ranged from supporting people affected by HIV and Aids, a cause closely associated with Diana, to founding the Invictus Games in 2014 for military personnel wounded in service.
For years, Harry was seen as a popular and energetic working royal. Royal commentator Ed Owens said he showed “an extraordinary talent for connecting with people”.
That changed after his engagement to American actress Meghan Markle in 2017 and their marriage the following year. By 2019, Harry was openly speaking of tensions within the family.
The break came in 2020, when the couple stepped back from royal duties, losing their police protection and public funding, and moved to Montecito, California. From the US, they launched a series of highly public criticisms of the monarchy.
Those interventions included an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a Netflix documentary and Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare. In the book, he criticised his father Charles, his stepmother Camilla and his brother William.
He also described the psychological trauma he suffered after Diana’s death and his long-running hatred of the tabloids. In doing so, he broke with the royal maxim of “never complain, never explain”.
For many years, however, Britons had forgiven much of the rebellious red-haired prince born on 15 September 1984, two years after William. The image of the 12-year-old Harry walking behind his mother’s coffin in 1997 drew sympathy around the world.
His youth was turbulent. At 17, he admitted using cannabis, drinking heavily and partying. In 2004, he was involved in a scuffle with a photographer after a night out.
The following year, he caused outrage by attending a fancy-dress party wearing a Nazi costume. The scandal became one of the defining controversies of his early life.
After leaving Eton, the 1.86-metre sportsman, who enjoyed rugby and polo, spent time in Australia and Africa. In Lesotho, he worked with orphans and later founded a charity in memory of his mother.
In 2005, he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. His military career lasted a decade and included two tours of Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008, first as a soldier and later as a helicopter pilot.
That experience would later inspire the creation of the Invictus Games. It also helped restore his public image after years of personal controversy.
But Diana’s death remained the defining trauma of his life. In 2017, he told The Telegraph that he had “shut down all my emotions” for 20 years.
In 2021, he said he had undergone four years of therapy. That period overlapped with his engagement to Meghan in 2017, their marriage in 2018, and the births of their children, Archie in 2019 and Lilibet in 2021.
At first, their relationship was seen as bringing an unprecedented element of diversity to the monarchy. But tensions soon mounted and eventually drove them into exile.
Despite repeated expressions of a wish to reconcile, relations have remained strained. A thaw with Charles began in February 2024 after the King announced he had cancer, prompting Harry to fly across the Atlantic to see him.
They met again in September 2025 and in July 2026, this time with Camilla, Meghan and the children also present. Even so, a full reconciliation still appears distant.
Relations with William seem especially difficult. The Prince of Wales has yet to comment publicly on his brother’s return.
