Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could face new drama in the future amid rumors he’s been looking at UK schools for their children.
Speculation that the Duke of Sussex might be considering sending Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet to school in the UK surfaced after Joss Stone revealed details of a recent conversation she’d had with the royal.
The singer, who moved back to the UK this year after more than a decade in America, claimed Harry appeared “genuinely interested in our move home,” and discussed “how wonderful the schools are here and how important community is for children.” Rumors then surfaced suggesting Harry was “considering UK schooling for children.”
It was alleged Harry was researching Eton College for six-year-old Archie, partly due to the “high profile and politically exposed kids there,” and Britain’s significantly tighter firearms regulations.
Team Sussex denied the speculation, saying, “Prince Harry has not put his son’s name down for Eton, nor does he have any plans to do so.”
Regardless of the denial, discussion has continued about whether Harry might be considering one of the numerous other prestigious British institutions known for their royal graduates.
However, with Meghan allegedly viewing the concept of boarding schools as “barbaric” and displaying no indication of wanting to relocate to the UK even temporarily, royal expert Lydia Alto believes the topic of education could become not only a point of contention for the couple, but also a “fault line” splitting public feelings about the pair.
“It could very possibly become a major source of tension in the future,” she told The Mirror. “Meghan has consistently presented herself as the decision-maker in their family, and if she labels boarding schools unacceptable, Harry will almost certainly back down.
“It’s hard to imagine him fighting for a British education if Meghan thinks it’s cruel, however much he’d like the children to follow in his own footsteps.”
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The matter would likely be settled, the expert added, by Meghan “calling the final shots.”
She added, “If Meghan were to block an attempt to educate them over here, it would be another bridge quietly burned, and another factor contributing to Archie and Lilibet growing up more isolated from their British family.”
Harry initially attended London’s private Wetherby School before leaving to board at Ludgrove School when he was eight, exactly as his brother Prince William had done a couple of years earlier.
At 13, he transferred again to Eton College, but according to his accounts of his time there, he experienced anything but a positive experience. In his explosive memoir Spare, Harry characterized his experience as a “profound shock,” noting that while it represented “heaven for brilliant boys, it could thus only be purgatory for one very unbrilliant boy.”
The Duke of Sussex also disclosed that William provided no help during his adjustment period. According to Harry’s account, William actually told him to act as if they were strangers.
“At the time it hurt,” Harry told TV presenter Anderson Cooper. “I couldn’t make sense of it.”