Prince Harry is reportedly ‘very sad’ in California that his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, are not growing up around the Royal Family and is said to be considering sending them to school in the UK, according to friends quoted in British media.
Harry, 41, and Meghan Markle, 44, have raised their two children in Montecito since stepping back from royal duties in 2020. The couple have repeatedly defended their decision to build a life in the United States, with Harry describing it as the kind of freedom his late mother Diana once imagined for him. But new briefings from those said to be close to the Duke suggest his feelings about what Archie and Lilibet are missing have grown more complicated.
Harry ‘Very Sad’ Over What His Children Are Missing
A friend of the Duke told the Daily Mail, via the Mirror, that Prince Harry now feels a real pang when he sees his brother’s children growing up inside the Windsor fold while his own remain thousands of miles away.
‘Harry feels his children are missing out on the extensive family network that their cousins are enjoying,’ the source said.
The same insider painted a picture of a man who still values the structure and friendships that came with his own British education, despite everything that followed.
‘Harry wants his children to have the very best education. He has retained his closest friendship group of confidants from his days at school at Ludgrove and Eton. He wants that for his own children,’ the friend claimed.
According to the same account, the Duke looks at Archie, seven, and Lilibet, four, playing in California sunshine and sees both happiness and absence.
‘Archie and Lili are having a lovely time in California, but Harry is very sad that they are missing out on life with the rest of their family,’ the source added.
None of this has been confirmed publicly by Harry or his representatives. Even so, the reported mood sits awkwardly beside the image of calm family contentment Meghan projected this week.
California Childhood Versus UK Schooling
On Wednesday, Meghan marked Archie’s seventh birthday by sharing two photographs that presented a serene and distinctly unroyal childhood. One image reportedly showed Archie and Lilibet enjoying a seaside outing somewhere on the US coast, far removed from palace routines and royal formality.
The pictures offered a familiar Montecito image of bare feet, open space and freedom from palace railings. They also served as a reminder that, at least from Meghan’s perspective, the Sussex children are thriving far from Windsor.
Harry himself has previously spoken warmly about that Californian life. In an interview last year, he said: ‘I enjoy living and bringing my kids up here, it’s a part of my life that I never thought I was going to live and it feels as though it’s the life that my mum wanted for me.’
Friends now suggest that sentiment has shifted, or at least fractured, particularly when set against the carefully managed images emerging from royal life in Britain.
The trigger, they claim, was the Prince and Princess of Wales releasing a new photograph and video of Princess Charlotte for her 11th birthday last Saturday. The footage showed Charlotte relaxed but firmly rooted in a network of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and school friends that used to be Harry’s world too.
According to the Mirror’s reporting, one friend said Harry is ‘desperate’ for Archie and Lilibet to have an upbringing closer to that of Charlotte, Prince George, 12, and eight year old Prince Louis.
All three Wales children attend Lambrook, a £32,000 a year independent school in Berkshire. The setting is familiar territory for Harry, who attended nearby Ludgrove before going on to Eton College. The implication from his friend is plain: he still sees value in that pipeline of privilege and the bonds it helped create.
Meghan’s Resistance To The Idea
The reported plan would involve Archie and Lilibet following some version of that path, spending time in British schools and potentially closer to their royal cousins. It would also amount to a major recalibration of the Sussex project, which was built in part on raising their children away from the pressures and expectations of royal life in Britain.
That is where the reported Prince Harry wish appears to collide with a different view inside his own home. The insider quoted by the Mail and Mirror suggested Meghan is against the idea for now.
‘There is still some negotiation for Harry to have with Meghan,’ the source said, indicating that the Duchess is not yet convinced that boarding schools, press attention and Windsor routines would be the right trade off for two children who have so far only known American life.
By contrast, the King is said to welcome the idea. The same briefing claims Harry raised the prospect of UK schooling over tea at Clarence House last September, and Charles is portrayed as open to any arrangement that brings Archie and Lilibet closer, even for part of the year.
Reports also indicate Harry is planning a return to Britain this summer to promote the Invictus Games for wounded and sick former military personnel, and that he hopes Meghan, and possibly the children, will join him. That alone would be notable, given how rare extended family time in Britain has been since 2020.
As with so much surrounding the Sussexes, much of this remains sourced reporting rather than confirmed policy. There is no timetable, no official announcement and no public decision on schools, only the portrait of a father torn between the Californian future he fought to build and the family life he no longer wants his children to miss.