It's been a busy time for the Sussex family. Having made the surprise decision to relocate to the UK in August, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle set about making a new home in the Cotswolds and establishing their two children, Archie and Lilibet, into a new school.
But, as HELLO! revealed exclusively in September, Archie and Lilibet were pulled out of their first-choice school after just two days.
Harry and Meghan withdrew them on the advice of their security team after practicalities, including heavy traffic and distance, made it difficult to get to and from the school.
It meant their private security team was put under strain.
"They really wanted to make it work, but they had to make a difficult decision based on the fact that the team couldn’t make the school run operationally secure," a friend of the couple said.
Since then, Harry and Meghan have undertaken their first joint appearance, with a visit to Nottingham on 15 October.
And this week the Duchess issued a statement saying she is 'deeply distressed' by 'troubling' allegations against her father, Thomas Markle Sr. after The Sun reported that his son, Thomas Jr, alleged he had discovered boxes of child sex images at their home in the Philippines. (Meghan's half-sister, Samantha Markle, has accused him of fabricating the claims in a story in the Daily Mail.)
Archie and Lilibet's first half-term at British school
In the midst of this upset, Meghan and Harry's children have broken up for their first half-term break - and the family now have the chance to unwind and take stock of the last two months.
Speaking about Harry and Meghan's likely holiday plans on A Right Royal podcast, HELLO's Emily Nash revealed it's most likely they will remain in the UK, or travel to Portugal.
© Instagram / @meghanDismissing speculation that the Sussexes will head back to America, she said: "There was talk about them potentially going back to the US. I think they're more likely to have stayed in the UK or gone back to Portugal where they have a holiday home. "
As Emmy Griffiths then noted: "Those kids are having a whirlwind, aren't they? First one school, then they change to another…" "I mean, they changed after two days," Andrea Caamano added. "It was all in the matter of the same week!"
Harry reveals surprising new reality for Archie and Lilibet
Earlier this week, Harry shared an insight into how his kids were settling in at their new school in the UK, almost two months after the family moved over from California.
The 42-year-old explained to GQ that Archie and Lilibet were "loving school" and had been invited on a myriad of playdates, indicating that they were enjoying their new home.
© Instagram"It's been nice to be close to friends, family, friends and friends and their children as well – to be able to have endless play dates to really, like, help our kids settle in," he explained.
"To actually have my whole family there with me, the place that I grew up, wanting to be able to show my kids where I grew up and have them have the experiences to some extent that I had – the good rather than necessarily the bad – provided real, proper, serious thinking as to, 'This is an opportunity, let's do it now.'"
Harry added that having his kids in the British school system "has meant a lot" and gave them "a whole different experience" compared to the US.
"I think for kids at seven and five to be able to have that comparison and to have two completely different cultural experiences is so important today," he said. "For us, when certain stars align, and it's clear that this should or probably will end up being the case, then we lean into that."
Prince Harry's fears about the media
As for the media frenzy surrounding the Sussex family's return to the UK after six years, the father of two shared his hopes that things would calm down for them over time.
"I think once you've been through it, once you've been able to talk about it, and raise awareness [of] it, then people see it for what it is, it makes the environment slightly easier," he shared. "It's not going to necessarily stop the behaviour, but I think the behaviour might – my hope that it will – change."
