Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially returned to the U.K. – reportedly via private plane – after last month’s stunning reverse Megxit announcement.
The couple decamped back to the prince’s homeland with their two children, seven-year-old Archie and five-year-old Lilibet, who have already been enrolled in local schools. According to reports, Harry and Meghan are holding onto their Montecito, California, mansion and vacation property in Portugal while establishing a private, non-royal home base in Britain.
But are Harry and the kids in the U.K. to stay? That is the question many royal watchers are asking as rumors swirl about the Sussexes relationship status.
Marriage Rumors
As Megyn explained on Tuesday’s Megyn Kelly Show, multiple well-connected reporters and royal insiders are now reporting that the prince and Markle are headed for a split. That is separate from the bombshell allegation Lady Colin Campbell made on The Nerve this summer that Harry is actually in love with another woman and that other woman is in love with him.
Earlier this week, The Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff joined Dan Wootton, who was the first to report the original Megxit news back in the day, on Dan Wootton Uncensored to discuss her intel that sources close to the couple have confirmed “a physical separation is very much on, is very much long term” and “we all know this is the beginning of the end.”
Boshoff explained that as she has spoken to sources and inquired about how long the family plans to stay overseas, she has been told it will be for the duration of their schooling and Markle will reportedly travel back and forth.
“The friend said to me, ‘Oh well, Meghan’s already plotting out in her diary when she’s going to be in the U.K. and which week she’s going to need to be in California, and they’re all going to spend the holidays in California, so they’ll still really be Californian in some way,'” Boshoff noted. “And I thought, so what this is… as you correctly said and you called it… Harry and the kids are now basing themselves in the U.K., and Meghan will be, you know, traveling internationally.”
Additionally, Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice Substack reported Harry and Meghan’s marriage is “in far deeper trouble than anyone realizes” and the real battle will not be over the mansion, the money, and the royal titles but rather over their kids.
Shuter reported that while Harry and Meghan remain married publicly, sources told him the relationship has deteriorated dramatically, with Meghan increasingly convinced there is nothing left to save. “Harry may still be looking for a way back, but Meghan isn’t. She’s not sitting around wondering how to fix this marriage. Emotionally, she’s already several steps ahead of him,” a source told Naughty But Nice.
Enter, a potential custody battle. If Harry ultimately wants to rebuild his life in Britain while Meghan returns to California, insiders told Shuter neither intends to surrender daily access to their children.
Custody Questions
Should the couple end up needing to figure out a custody arrangement, Megyn considered the factors at play. “This actually does raise a very interesting question now because had they split, you know, a week ago when everybody was still living in California, I think we all would have understood California law would apply and, presumably, there’d be a presumption given that the children should stay in California,” she noted.
“But now they’re both getting enrolled in U.K. school and, at least for now, reportedly, both parents are moving to the U.K., though they’re keeping that Montecito mansion,” Megyn added. “So, if this thing breaks up in a year or even two years, what happens then with the custody of those children?”
Defense attorney Jonna Spilbor said it all comes down to where the kids have been living. “The very oversimplified rule is that jurisdiction follows the kids. And in order to establish jurisdiction when you’re talking about child custody, it generally has to be for a period of six months,” she said.
“When clients call me, for example, and they’re fixing to file for divorce, they want to know… where are we going to file, what do I do now? Well… if you physically separate, you better take the kids with you and they better stay under your roof for six months because that’s where you’re going to end up filing for custody,” she explained.
That would potentially put the kids in the U.K. with Harry in the event of a divorce. “It sounds like, based on your reporting and the reporting of others, that the jurisdiction is going to be in the U.K., which maybe they’re agreeing to, so it won’t be a fight. But if it is, that’s where Meghan Markle is going to be having her custody battle,” Spilbor concluded.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Spilbor by tuning in to episode 1,389 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.