Prince Harry fears homesick Meghan Markle will ‘want to return home’ after UK move

0A royal expert says life in Britain is a ‘big adjustment’ for Meghan and the pressure is on to help her build a life here -Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited The Duchess of Sussex’s mum Doria Ragland and her closest friends have been by her side since she started her life as a member of the royal family.

But now, as the former Suits actress settles back in the UK with husband Prince Harry and their children, Archie and Lilibet, her support network is thousands of miles away. And the pressure will be mounting on Harry to make a success of their new life, according to royal expert Duncan Larcombe.

“Meghan’s bound to feel homesick and be missing California and her friends, especially her mum Doria, because she has been the one constant in Meghan’s life over the past few years,” Duncan told us. “She’ll feel the same way that Harry felt when he was out there. So there’s a lot of pressure on Harry to make sure his wife is comfortable here and she falls in love with the UK, because that didn’t happen before."

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He continues, “He’ll want her to really feel that the UK is a second home, if not the first home, and that’s going to be a huge challenge for him. The fact remains that she’s thousands of miles away from her mother and her friends, and unless she can form a friendship group in the UK quickly, she’s going to feel isolated and homesick.”

Meghan got a big dose of her Californian life recently when her best friend Kelly McKee Zajfen flew to visit the Sussexes in their new countryside home, believed to be in the Cotswolds.

Non-profit founder Kelly brought along her baby son Jack and described Meghan, who she’s known for around 20 years, as her “bestie”, as the pair enjoyed country walks, pub trips and cosy family time with Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five.

A slideshow of snaps on Kelly’s social media featured them playing mahjong with red wine in a garden, and Harry playing on the floor with baby Jack. In the caption, Kelly said she was having “the best time” and offered a glimpse into how Meghan was getting on, adding, “To everyone we’ve met or bumped into, thank you for being so loving to my friend. It’s been beautiful to witness. She missed you too!”

The reunion came just before Harry actually returned to the US for a high-profile appearance at Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in NYC, where he delivered a passionate speech about the risks technology and AI can pose to children.

Given that the Duke appears to be ramping up his work calendar now he’s back on home soil and the kids are enrolled in British schools, it’s even more important for Meghan to build a life and circle of her own friends here.

“It’s a big adjustment for Meghan,” Duncan said. “I’m sure this move would have been instigated by Harry, so it’s Meghan going along with Harry as opposed to the other way around. He’ll no doubt be worried that if she doesn’t build a life for herself and is happy, she’ll want to return home.

“To some extent she almost needs to be admired to have made the move, but you do wonder how she fills her days. Probably her biggest challenge is not to get too isolated. She won’t want to be confined to the walls of their Cotswolds house.”

With relations with Harry’s UK family – particularly with the Prince and Princess of Wales – still far from rosy, Meghan also has to deal with unhappy memories of her first experience living here.

In her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan said she became so unhappy that she reached the point where she “didn’t want to be alive any more”, while Harry has repeatedly blamed intense scrutiny and the pressures surrounding royal life for their departure.

But now that they’re living here as private citizens rather than working royals, Duncan says it’s crucial that Harry supports and helps her to have a better experience, especially as we head into a typical British winter.

“This is a huge test of Meghan’s resolve and her determination to be a good wife to Harry, because this is very much on Harry’s terms,” Duncan said. “She can still do her online stuff and keep busy, so that’s good. And she’ll have more time to focus on the children, because it’s a big adjustment for them, too.

“But will it be the same as living in the California sunshine? Probably not. We’re about to go into winter; it’s probably going to be cold, wet and miserable, and a real big test for Meghan.”

There also remains uncertainty over whether the Sussexes see Britain as their permanent home at all. When the move was first announced, People magazine quoted several sources saying the relocation was “not permanent”, and that they were planning to keep hold of their Montecito home.

“It’s a possibility that Harry’s comeback to the UK, in advance of the anniversary of his mother’s death, is because of all the work he wants to do around that,” Duncan said. “So it makes sense for Harry to uproot the family, maybe for a year or so.

“It doesn’t feel as though this is a permanent move, as in they’ll move back and Meghan will get British citizenship and things like that. So are they a Californian couple or are they a Cotswolds couple? It feels at the moment like they don’t even know.”