Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Announce Their Move to North America

They will split their time between the United Kingdom and North America.

Prince Harry & Markle
(Image credit: Getty Images ¦ Pool/Samir Hussein)

Updated 1/18: Buckingham Palace and the Queen released statements with new details about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step back from their roles as working royals.

As new details emerged about the logistics of the new arrangement, royal commentator Emily Nash, the royal editor at HELLO! magazine, revealed some news about where the couple will live. According to Nash, Harry, Meghan, and their son Archie will spend the "majority" of their time in North America when the new arrangement becomes official this spring.

"They will carry out further royal engagements in the UK before then. They will split their time between the UK and North America with "the majority" of the time in North America," she tweeted.

Original post: Just this morning, it seemed that Buckingham Palace had put the kibosh on rumors that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle planned to move to Canada, telling The Daily Mail that they would not comment on the "speculation" and confirming that the pair will be undertaking more royal events in the coming weeks. But! This afternoon, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced in a lengthy Instagram post that, after much consideration, they will split their time between continents, explaining they "plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages."

Though the Sussexes didn't specify exactly where in North America they plan to spend their time, Canada is the most likely location. Meghan, Harry, and their son Archie have spent the last few weeks in Vancouver Island, and before she married, Meghan lived in Toronto. A friend of the pair had told The Daily Mail that the Duke and Duchess planned to be in Canada for a stretch of time in the coming months:

“It is true that Harry and Meghan will spend a fair amount of time in Canada over the next couple of months and possibly going forward too. Right now they are starting talks with their family about their plans for the future. Those conversations are at a very early stage. There is a very careful and serious process to go through which they are going to respect. But it is clear they are on a different and unique path, and they are very much thinking about what the future looks like for them. That could include being based in Canada or the possibility of walking away from their HRH titles, although hopefully it will not come to that. It’s been a very tough year—they’re newlyweds and they have a young baby—so they’re looking at what their life looks like in the future. Everything is on the table.”

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Just yesterday, Meghan expressed how much the family of three had enjoyed their time in the country. "It was just such an incredible time that we were able to have there and with our son too...Just to be able to take in the warmth that we experience from the people but also to walk around and to see the beauty of Canada and to see Archie go ‘gasp’ when we walked around, to see how stunning it is … it’s meant a lot to us. It was important for us to start our year here and say thank you.”


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