{"id":652937,"date":"2026-08-23T22:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652937\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T22:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:55:23","slug":"what-does-harry-and-meghans-return-to-the-uk-mean-for-their-relationship-with-the-british-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652937\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does Harry and Meghan\u2019s Return to the UK Mean for Their Relationship With the British Press?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated3 min read<\/p>\n

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back in 2020, their feelings about the British media were central to that decision. The couple had just launched<\/a> legal action against three major newspaper groups and had described<\/a> in one statement \u201ca British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences.\u201d In their announcement<\/a> about leaving, they devoted a lengthy and detailed explanation to how and why they were breaking free from the press rota system that covers working royals.<\/p>\n

In the intervening six years, their strength of feeling has prevailed. \u201cWe all know what the British press can be like and it was destroying my mental health. I was like, this is toxic,\u201d Harry told James Corden in 2021. Meghan claimed in her 2022 interview with The Cut magazine that she would never be able to do school runs without being photographed in the UK. Harry\u2019s memoir Spare cemented the media as the real villain in his life<\/a>. And in his most recent court case against the Mail newspapers, which he lost, Harry took to the stand and said, \u201cThey have made my wife\u2019s life an absolute misery, my Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, in the years since they stepped back, some things have changed when it comes to Harry and Meghan\u2019s relationship with the press. There was a declaration<\/a> in 2022 that unnamed \u201csources\u201d would no longer speak for them which eventually fell, without fanfare, by the wayside. After basing their PR team largely in the U.S., they hired a UK-based PR in 2024 and went on to take on their current spokesperson who is UK-based.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when news broke that Harry and Meghan were returning to live in Britain<\/a>, it was two UK newspapers (including tabloid The Sun) along with UK-based journalists for People Magazine and one Australian outlet who had the scoop. When Harry visited the UK recently, a range of British and international outlets were given access to his events. There is now a line of communication between the Sussexes\u2019 team and many sections of the British media. It\u2019s a pragmatic approach, but not one Harry and Meghan have always taken.<\/p>\n

What is notable, however, is that when the couple return to the UK, they will not be coming back to the life that they left. They are not working royals (something that has been made very clear from the royal end<\/a>) and as such will be able to keep away from the royal rota. If they make public appearances, they will have the choice over who covers them and what they can access. There will be no expectation to release images of themselves or their children for milestone moments. The couple has worked through the UK press regulator to ask media for privacy around their home<\/a> and their children\u2019s school.<\/p>\n

What Harry and Megan can\u2019t control of course is the discourse around them, and the interest levels in their move have sparked intense coverage and debate. But, after six years of building their own independent life, it seems that they now have a new perspective on what some have described<\/a> as a return to the \u201clion\u2019s den.\u201d It likely won\u2019t be long before we find out, one way or another, what they think about being back.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures<\/a>, released in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3 min read When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back in 2020, their feelings about the British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,163800,341,275937,343,18,117,19,17,201411,590,161607,275936,240005,163799],"class_list":["post-652937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-collection-royal-family-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-c07c28ff-7064-43d9-bd41-24b650881c74","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-3","tag-shorttitle-harry-and-meghans-relationship-with-the-press","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-heritage"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117147293176293391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}