Prince Harry’s return and the cacophony surrounding the royal family must be excruciating for those under the spotlight. But for the UK economy, it’s excellent news
It’s the homecoming that’s grabbing headlines across the world. Ever since the Sussexes — Prince Harry, wife Meghan and children Archie and Lilibet — announced their ‘extended’ return to the UK, the whole world has been agog. “Are they back for good?” “Will Meghan return to acting?” “How angry are Prince William and his wife Catherine?” “Is King Charles playing peacemaker between the brothers?” “What role does Queen Camilla have to play in all of this?” “Why are the Sussexes returning in the first place?”
Beyond the screaming headlines, there is the elephant in the room: the additional burden on the British taxpayer that this move would entail. Already, royal watchers are busy calculating the cost of their security — estimated at around 5 million pounds a year — and how much of that bill will be borne by Harry and Meghan themselves. Given that a significant section of British people is currently battling a cost-of-living problem, having to foot a large security bill for a reluctant royal isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Harry and Meghan’s decision to move back to the UK from their luxurious life in California seems to have come as a bit of a shock, not only to the British media and the people at large but even to the royals themselves. Reports suggest that the royal family is unsure about the role that the Sussexes will play in the family going forward, their public role, if any, and the reason for their relocation.
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Prince Harry’s bestselling tell-all book about life as a royal has not particularly endeared him to the British public, so the hair-splitting is understandable. It is also not clear if their move back will bridge the growing differences between Prince Harry and his older brother Prince William and whether their father will play any role in a possible reconciliation. But whatever happens, it will be fodder not only for the domestic media but also for international gossip, given the profile of the people in question.
Royal tittle-tattle has always sold well. Part of the tragedy of the life of Princess Diana was that she was always and invariably newsworthy, often obsessively and intrusively so. As the cracks between the once-close William and Harry offer more fodder for juicy stories, every move the brothers (and indeed their families) make will once again be scrutinised under a relentless media glare. It is just the kind of life that the brothers have often said they wish to protect their families from, having suffered the pressures of incessant media scrutiny in their childhood.
While it cannot be much fun to have your family drama turn into a public circus, there is a silver lining to this cloud. Much of Britain’s popularity as a destination and its image as a heritage and history hotspot has to do with the institution of monarchy. True, Britain is very far from its “King and Country” days of the Raj and journalists today routinely criticise the entitlement and luxury that come from a royal lineage. In today’s Britain, despite its class consciousness, it’s not cool to be posh and there’s no one posher than the royals themselves. The fact that various members of that rarified circle have sometimes behaved in a manner most unbefitting of their titles (the antics of Andrew, King Charles’ brother, are an example) just proves that point.
And yet the royals continue to attract largely positive support from the people of their country. King Charles’ approval ratings have actually climbed from 62 per cent to 68 per cent in the last 18 months, and Prince William and his wife Catherine are at 76 per cent and 74 per cent, respectively. Interestingly, Harry and Meghan are among the least popular top-tier royals after the disgraced Andrew, with 33 per cent and 22 per cent ratings. Harry’s ratings have fallen sharply in the last five years as his image changed — from the easy-going, relatable Prince who bravely married a woman of colour, he is now someone who ratted on his own family. Yet the ratings show that for all their grumbling about the royals being a financial burden, a majority of British people actually want them to be around and approve of their role as figureheads and cultural icons.
There is a very good reason for that. The gilded life of the royals, for all its entitlement and drama, is excellent for the UK’s economy. Let’s take a look at Britain’s 147-billion-pound tourism industry. At 5 per cent of the country’s GDP and accounting for one in 15 jobs, it is a huge money-spinner and critical to the country’s economy. What does that have to do with the royals? Well, according to VisitBritain data, a whopping 60 per cent of international tourists coming to Britain visit places that have a royal connection, from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle to the Crown Jewels on display in the Tower of London. Buckingham Palace alone clocks around half a million visitors in a year. When it comes to gawk-worthiness, nothing quite beats the British royal family.
This obsession with the lives of a bunch of blue-bloods is curious given that there are royals aplenty in other European countries too. Yet they hit headlines only occasionally, mostly when someone dies, someone marries or someone gets divorced. There are royals in Asia too — most notably in Japan and Thailand — but again their lives don’t quite make for as many headlines. In India, we have our own blue-bloods but their lives and loves, breakups and makeups, don’t play out in the public arena. In contrast, the British royal family is so telegenic that there is actually a hit, multi-season television series based on their lives. Which makes them newsworthy (famous or infamous) at home and a tourist magnet abroad. The more their personal drama gets leaked to the public, the more it will feed a hunger to “go see it for ourselves”.
Prince Harry’s return and the cacophony surrounding the royal family must be excruciating for those under the spotlight. But for the UK economy — which grew just 0.4 per cent in the April-June 2026 quarter — it’s excellent news.
(Nandini Sen Gupta is a freelance writer and author of several books. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)