Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Leave the U.K., Reunite With Kids

(Image credit: Getty)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reuniting with Archie and Lilibet in Montecito at last.

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left their children at home in California in early September, they were only meant to be gone for a handful of days.

Sadly, while they were conducting charity engagements in England and Germany, the duke's grandmother the Queen passed away at Balmoral in Scotland.

Of course, the Sussexes wanted to be present for the events that followed the monarch's passing, culminating with her funeral proceedings on Monday. While they reportedly considered flying their kids Archie and Lilibet to the U.K. to attend the funeral, it's believed that they decided they were too young (similarly, Prince William and Princess Kate left their youngest, Louis, at home).

This means that the little family ended up being separated for a couple of weeks, which is "the longest amount of time they’ve been apart from their children," an insider told Us Weekly.

The source also said on Monday, "Meghan and Harry are preparing to return to Montecito almost immediately after the funeral, where they’ll be reunited with Archie and Lilibet after being separated for over two weeks."

They added, "They’ve missed the kids like crazy and have been FaceTiming them every day, but can’t wait to see and hold them again after a poignant few weeks."

Thankfully, the long wait is now over, as Hello! reports that the royal couple flew home via London's Heathrow airport on Tuesday.

After stepping down from their roles as senior royals in early 2020, the Sussexes moved to Southern California in March of that year. While Archie, 3, was born in the U.K., Lilibet, 1, was born in the U.S., and both are growing up there.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.