Harry declares it is "great" to be back on British soil as Sussexes weigh a new life in the Cotswolds

The Duke of Sussex has said he feels "great" to be back in Britain, six years after he and his family relocated to California, in comments made to Canadian broadcaster CTV during a visit to Toronto. Speaking alongside the charity skydive he completed near the Canadian city, the prince said the move had allowed him to concentrate on the Invictus Games, the sporting competition for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans which he founded and which is due to take place in Birmingham in July next year.

"It's been great. It's been great to be back on British soil," Harry told the broadcaster, adding that "the kids are happy in school" and that being back gives him a chance to focus properly on the Birmingham games. The remarks amount to one of the clearest public indications yet of how the former royal couple are positioning their life in the United Kingdom, after what was widely described as an abrupt departure from senior royal duties in 2020.

Harry and Meghan stepped back from their roles as senior working royals at the start of 2020 and moved to the United States, establishing a new life, a new business venture and, at times, a more discreet public profile. The couple formally relocated back to Britain last month, and it is widely understood that they have settled at a private property outside London, in the Cotswolds area.

The return of the family has not been without practical difficulties. Their two children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, were moved to a different school only days after starting at a new establishment. According to the account in the BBC report, the Sussexes' private security team had raised concerns about the length of the journey to school and heavy traffic on the route, prompting a swift change of school rather than a settled routine for the two pupils.

Meghan has since offered a glimpse of family life back in England through a social media post, showing the family walking along a country path with the children playing nearby — Archie running ahead and Lilibet riding a bike with a doll carried on the back. The image offered a rare window into the couple's largely private life, since Meghan has generally kept a low profile in the UK, making few public appearances.

Harry, by contrast, has remained visible and active, carrying out a series of public engagements connected to the Invictus Games. Last week he visited a school in Birmingham to launch an education programme inspired by the games. During the visit he played pickleball with pupils and joined a science lesson focused on the design of prosthetic limbs, an apparent reference to the adaptive sports at the heart of the Invictus competition.

The games themselves are scheduled to run from 10 to 17 July next year, and are expected to bring together 550 wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans from 25 nations, competing in 12 adaptive sports. The scale of the event underlines the scale of the prince's post-return workload, and helps explain why he has framed his relocation as a way of focusing on the Games rather than a resumption of full royal duties.

Asked directly by CTV what prompted the family's return to the UK, Harry declined to set out the reasons, saying only that there were "lots of reasons". His reticence came in the middle of a period in which the couple's status within the monarchy has been the subject of sustained speculation and, at times, tension.

The couple are reported to have been taken by surprise by a letter authorised by the King, which reiterated that they remain private citizens and set out guidance for senior figures in government and the military on how they should be treated. The intervention is understood to have landed awkwardly, arriving as a formal clarification of the family's position at a moment when their future security arrangements were already unsettled.

Relations between Harry and King Charles have been strained since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave up their duties as senior working royals and moved to the US. That history explains the wider significance of Harry's warmly positive tone this week: for the first time in some years, he is publicly framing a UK-based future as a source of contentment rather than an interim measure.

One of the most consequential unresolved questions concerns policing. The Sussexes are waiting to hear whether they will receive taxpayer-funded security in Britain. The committee that oversees protection for royals and other VIPs, Ravec, is due to reconsider the level of police protection provided to the family now that they are regarded as full-time residents rather than occasional visitors. The distinction matters: arrangements that were largely suited to visiting members of the royal family do not straightforwardly translate into a settled, long-term security model for a household with young children.

The Ravec review sits alongside the school-run security concerns already raised by the couple's own private team, and both point to the same underlying question — how a family that values privacy, and whose members have been subjected to intense and, at times, hostile media attention, can live a substantial domestic life in Britain without that life becoming a matter of permanent public interest.

For supporters of the couple, the move marks the end of an often maligned chapter, with Harry pointing to a renewed focus on the charitable work that built his public profile in the first place. For critics, the questions are more familiar: where the Sussexes live, how they are protected and what their relationship is to the wider royal family all remain unresolved and subject to negotiation rather than settled fact.

For now, at least, the prince's own account is simple. Standing in Canada, having jumped out of a plane to honour a promise made to a 102-year-old Second World War veteran and to raise awareness of military charities, Harry said the only thing he was certain of about his life back in Britain was that it felt good to be there. The Invictus Games in Birmingham, and the question of who pays for the family's protection, are set to test just how that new chapter takes shape.