People Magazine continued excerpting their most recent cover story, which is all about Prince Harry, Meghan and their relationships (or lack thereof) with the Windsors. Per usual, I have to marvel at how People Magazine tries to thread the needle of being positive and “fair” about the Sussexes AND the Windsors. People wants to stay in the business of being everybody’s go-to royal outlet in America, basically. Anyway, these new excerpts are all about how Harry misses the UK and how Meghan plans to throw Prince Archie a nice birthday party.
Prince Harry is “settled” in California. “Harry has definitely found his vibe and is very settled in California. But he does miss home,” Meghan’s friend and makeup artist Daniel Martin says in this week’s cover story.
Archie’s birthday: Plans are in place for Prince Archie’s upcoming birthday party. “It’s going to be a low-key party at home,” a source tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “They’ll have friends around them and Meghan’s mom, Doria [Ragland]. Meghan will definitely have support that weekend.”
Archie & Lili are tight: Of course, Archie’s little sister, Princess Lilibet, will also be part of the festivities. “They are so sweet together. Archie loves Lili. He’s such a sweet boy. When she’s not around, he asks, ‘Where’s Lili?’ ” the source adds.
Sure – I doubt Meghan will throw a star-studded birthday party for Archie, but I bet she’ll have some friends over and Grandma Doria will be there. I hope Meghan and the kids are surrounded by love. I would also love it if Meghan and Harry released a birthday portrait of Archie, but I doubt that will happen. If they did that, there would be twenty million stories about how Meghan was terribly uncouth for “overshadowing” Charles’s coronation… the same coronation Charles purposefully scheduled on his grandson’s birthday.
As for Harry “missing home” – he’s always made it clear that he wants his children to know his homeland and that he hopes to be able to visit. His father just made that a hell of a lot harder by evicting the whole family from a home they spent $3 million on to renovate and lease. That being said, while reading Spare, I was honestly struck by how much Harry considers California to be his home now, that his home will always be with Meghan and their kids, forever.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
California is his home. England is where he was born and raised, but it’s no longer home. I hope he is applying for citizenship. Home is where you are welcomed and loved.
I agree. Home is where the heart is. For Harry that will always be where Meghan, Archie & Lili are. I do understand missing the sights, sounds & smells of one’s home country though and I’m sure that as the children get older he will want to bring them to the UK to show them where daddy grew up. Archie & Lili will however be Americans through & through and imo that’s a good thing. They will enjoy much healthier (mentally) lives than they would have done being raised among the racist rats nest of their paternal extended family and the classist nonsense they perpetuate.
It’s pretty much a throwaway observation that can be made about almost anyone that there are aspects of their childhood home they miss or feel nostalgic for. It’s possible Harry secretly pines for tiny finger sandwiches with far too much mayo, and his California chef just can’t get it right.
Every person immigrating feels like this. We have a new home but we miss where we come from. I hope in time, he will be able to come and go in and out of both countries in safety for himself and his family.
I live in between cultures: born in the US and live in the NLs. There are things I really miss from the US no matter how glad I am to be with people I love. Hills. The sense of humor. Some holidays. Friends and family.
And if I were to leave the NLs, I would miss aspects of my life here as well.
It’s totally normal is right, PrincessOfWaffles! Saying you’re homesick for some things doesn’t interfere with your love of others per se.
People was a part of the coordinated tabloid rollout of the “Meghan wrote the King about unconscious bias” bs. They even did the same headline trick making it sound like Meghan just up and wrote a letter about racism to Charles, instead of contextualizing properly that it was an exchange of letters initiated by him. They also misrepresented (along with a number of tabloids) Meghan’s statement, framing the ‘ridiculous’ as being about her reason for not attending the coronation, when the statement is clearly about the claim that Meghan leaked the letter herself. Anyway, all to say that the tone of People lately has been heading more and more parroty of UK tabloids. I don’t necessarily need them to be “pro-Sussex” per se, but I expect them to not think that nonsense UK tabloid talking points can just be copy pasted for a US market
Of course he misses England. It’s the press and the institution he hates and wants nothing to do with, not his country.
For Archie’s birthday, I’m sure it’s a typical toddler bash. Pre-school buddies, bouncy houses, toddler games, cake. Nothing fancy. Although sometimes I amuse myself with the thought of Archie having a toddler squad of famous children and having an over the top party.
I love that he will have a normal birthday with no one buying out a whole city block, buying him Hermes Birkin bags and dressing him in Yeezy sneakers. Like, he’s four. Let him be wealthy and not know it for a while longer.
Exactly. Of course I’m sure he misses England in some ways. He never said he hated England and never wanted to go back. But he seems very happy in California. I think they’ve made it clear that their plan was never to just abandon England altogether – they always planned on returning for family visits (not saying things like the Trooping, but maybe they would want to go back and hang out with Eugenie at frogmore for a few weeks in the summer or something), charity work, etc. Thats why Harry is fighting for security and why they wanted to keep Frogmore.
I can see Harry wanting archie to have the most normal childhood possible, even with their wealth and status, and so yes, its going to be bouncy houses, relay races, other toddler games, maybe they’ll bring in a petting zoo (I realize that sounds fancy but even in my area that can be relatively affordable), etc. It’s going to be a fun 4 year old party.
This is going out to Mary Pester (bc we know she’ll be reading this today): love and hugs to you!
Sending best wishes to you Mary & 🤞🏽all goes well during your hospital stay. Keep reading the gossip/drinking the tea, nothing keeps your spirits up more than enjoying a good moan about the inanities of life. Also, if at any point you’re up to contributing one of your hilarious extended takes on any of the articles covered then know it would be most gratefully read and enjoyed. Your posts have caused many a giggling fit in my house I can tell you. All the best 😀.
Home is where his wife and children are.
Of course Harry misses the UK but that doesn’t mean he wants to live there anymore or raise his kids there. You can be happy where you are and still miss where you grew up. His mother is buried there so he will always miss the UK.
Also, Harry himself has said how happy he is here in the states and how safe he feels. He has never said he felt safe in the UK.
Quiet the opposite, he’s talked about flying back into the UK well before he met Meghan feeling dread and stress because of all the memories of paparazzi and the press.
Yes. This article is overlooking the fact that he felt at home more in a warzone with his military friends than in the UK. I’m sure he misses some friends and family in the UK.
It’s possible to have a new home & embrace it as home *and* simultaneously be homesick for the place (the culture, the language, the people, etc) you spent most of your life in. The two don’t cancel each other out. Being in a new country, even surrounded by your spouse & kids & people who love you, can still on some fundamental level be lonely. I speak as an expat who has embraced my new country, but I still miss America — specific language things related to American English, certain cultural things that just do not exist in my new home country. It’s hard to capture, but there is something you do miss on a kind of existential level.
No doubt Harry is absolutely happy where he is right now in California. But he can still miss being in England, and all the small things (turns of phrase, certain ways of doing things) about england that he is part of and made him who is. (I’m obviously talking about the culture and not his abusive family!) I think about my grandmother who emigrated to Chicago from Russia. She said a lot that she didn’t miss Russia (the autocratic state) but she missed being around Russians. I’m sure Harry shares some of that feeling.
Home is where the heart is and for Harry that is with Meg and his children.
My mom and dad are like this. They were born in Africa and stayed till their mid 30s. They’ve been in America since which is about 25 years now and they still miss “home” especially since all our extended family is there.
My dad every once in awhile considers retiring there but they also love America and all the kids are here.
This is on par with most people that have emigrated to different countries.
Doubtful they’ll release a photo. The last birthday photo was 2 years ago and it showed Archie from behind. I’m sure Harry does some aspects of the UK but he knows he can’t live there anymore.
“..but he knows he can’t live there anymore” So true and so sad to think that his family and the BM did this to H&M.
My comment is probably slightly offtopic – but have we ever considered that Charles was advised to pick the coronation date based upon his/ an astrologers perspective? That would also make a lot of sense to me, because it happens right after eclipse season, which is also said to mark the beginning of a “new world”.
Interesting thought! I’m no expert but then why not wait for the summer solstice? Did he try and then William went all incandescent because it’s his birthday? 😂😂😂
Three of my favorite astrologers did a deep dive into the astrology of the coronation date and the short answer is, no, it’s actually a terrible date for Charles to have chosen 😂, and I kinda love that for him. Search for “Janelle Belgrave astrology” on YouTube if the link below doesn’t work:
https://youtu.be/xEk5Ji9evjc
This same group of astrologers has also looked at overall royal family charts, along with the relationship dynamics of C&C, W&K, and H&M. Their videos are beginner friendly (they do a good job of explaining/contextualizing the various techniques being used), and also entertaining, as they are all up on the royal family shenanigans.
Who is the “source” talking to People? Because friends of Harry and Meghan would not be talking to them about Archie’s birthday party …
The hardest part of being 5500 miles & 11 hours flight time from where one grew up & lived for years before the move could be the distance from friends “back home.”
No one in the US has known Harry since childhood & school days. Those links may be important and the proximity missed.
Sure, but an awful lots of us–Americans especially–don’t stay in our hometowns, we move. We move for school, for work, for love, for adventure, for whatever reason. But we go. Those tabloid writers sound terribly neurotic if they can’t even understand something as simple as moving away from your hometown or even home country & creating a life for yourself.
Sounds like a non-story. Anyone who was raised somewhere for an extended period of time will kiss some aspects of where they are from. The more important thing is that they are happy and content wherever they are now. Moving from one town, city, state or country doesn’t mean that you will completely forget about where you came from or not miss something’s about it. It’s normal and I don’t understand the purpose of the article. Of course Archie is going to have a birthday party like most kids have birthday parties. The whole article was pointless.
I think both things can be true at once: he considers California his home but still misses aspects of England. He doesn’t want to be “exiled” from it or never go back to it. He’s literally fighting the Home Office to pay for security while he visits.
Such is the twinge of nostalgia felt by everyone who has ever emigrated to a new country. It doesn’t mean he regrets it but you know the UK press will get undeservedly cocky about it
Why is Daniel Martin saying this to People? That’s what I want to know.
💯💯💯💯💯. He should know better. No matter what anyone says about the Sussexes, no matter how nice, the British tabloid press is going to contort it into a negative.
That was my first thought. Now I’m wondering if he said it to someone else and THAT person repeated it to People (or Kneepads, as they are known).
As someone who has lived in a different continent for almost 9 years now and where I didn’t speak the language at all. It is perfectly normal to consider another country your home while also sometimes missing things from your own country.
This is not the revelation that it’s going to be treated as. He seems quite content and happy with the life he and Meghan have created for themselves and their little family in California. If he gets nostalgic and a little homesick about where he grew up…both can be true at once. It’s often true for many people who no longer live where they grew up, especially if where they live and where they grew up are two different countries/continents.
When Meghan was living in the UK, I never see her complaining about how much she missed her homeland despite all the abuse she was subjected to on that island, so why do we hear all this talk about Harry and how much he misses his homeland? America embraced and welcomed him more than his country did to his wife and children.
Because it tracks with the narrative they’ve been spinning for years. Meghan stole Harry through witchcraft or drugs and forced him to live in Hollywood (lol), all he wants to do is return to be the scapegoat, sorry, beloved family member back in Little England but he’s trapped.
Or something like that.
*breaking news* Harry misses his *home*
Well naturally and I agree with the posters above who says it’s about country and not specifically family. @Naomi put it perfectly.
Not the same as Harry, but MerlinsDad is from Upstate NY and I am from Texas. We lived in NY for a number of years and I absolutely loved it, but while it was home because of MerlinsDad and the kids, it wasn’t HOME in that sense, if I am saying it right, especially at Christmas.
There are sights and smells that remind me of Texas that NY just didn’t have and now we’re back here, MerlinsDad says the same, only reversed and he now understands what I meant all those years ago. We’re planning a trip back, he deserves to soak himself in the mountains where he grew up.
But home is who you’re with and Harry has his little family and I wish them all well
Harry loves his country and the UK will always be home for him. that’s his motherland and under different circumstances, I think he would have loved to raise his kids there. I don’t think he would ever give up his citizenship nor become an American citizen. Now Cali is his adopted home with his wife and he is also happy. But as someone that relocated for love, it is hard sometimes and you do become nostalgic and that’s normal. especially when it isn’t really an option for him to go back with his family.
Harry wouldn’t have to give up his British citizenship to get American citizenship. My husband has both.
And he misses England, too, while loving our life here. He misses the small things: a well-made cup of tea, fields of bluebells in the spring, being able to meet family members and friends at the pub for a pint on a random evening. Just as I missed small things about the U.S. while living in England.
The tabloids may make a big deal out of this, but they make a big deal out of every little thing. And THAT is what Harry surely doesn’t miss.
there’s no way harry will be a dual citizen. he’s a prince from the UK. there are very few royals if any that are dual citizens. he’s on the succession line and can still be a potential “ruler” of the United Kingdom…having dual citizenship is not a good look.
honestly, why is this even a headline? immigrant misses home…yea literally along with millions of others that had to escape their homes for worse reasons. of course he misses his home and where he grew up and spent most of his adult life. Cali is never going to be a replacement, just where he had to move with his family. at least he has options and resources, not many that had to escape their countries do.
Because they need to portray him as unhappy even slightly. All those pining for home, meghan brainwashed him, he needs to come back to people who love and care for him because he’s dim and a druggie.. On and on. This is a mild version of the same speil
I read the entire article and it all fell out of my head when I saw Harry in glasses. Ah, extra good looking!
Moving to a different country is such a complicated yet relatively common experience. I’m sure everyone experiences it differently, but there’s a deep nostalgia and profound loneliness that comes with it, at least for me. You can never go home again, as they say, because you become rooted in two places, yet not relating fully to either.
the petty meangirl in me wants her to release a birthday photo of Prince Archie wearing a paper crown.
And as much as the hounds of the British Media are braying that Harry will come back “tail between legs” I say bah! why would you leave a place that is warm and sunny most of the time, has beaches you can actually play on with your kids, with a lovely family and home, great friends and an array of well paying jobs and consultancies. Seems like what anyone would wish for.
And Harry and Meghan, both children of divorce, are going to do every bit of the work that they need to do to keep their family strong, intact, and full of love. They are committed to each other for the long haul.
Of course Harry misses Britain- you can’t get a proper cup of tea outside the UK! Hobnobs or jaffa cakes optional.
Ha! I knew it, I knew we had to hear about a ‘proper cup of tea’!! Cracks me up, it does.
Exactly what is the recipe for a proper cuppa? I hear this a lot, but have never gotten a satisfactory answer. Thanks!
A non-story really.
This has been implied and outright stated in the docu-series.
They are at peace with their decision to leave and have a new home.
Harry having to abruptly move away from his native country will on occasion
miss his native land.
I think they will celebrate Archie’s birthday either before Harry leaves or when he comes back from the UK. No way they celebrate without Harry. There is no reason to. The Sussexes did not say she was staying in California because it was Archie’s birthday. Their statement simply said that she and the children would remain in California.
I think Harry’s feelings are probably closer to a refugee or asylee than other types of immigrant. He came here because his home had become intolerable and unsafe. He was chased away. I’m sure he’ll always have feelings of loss and sorrow about the life he was forced to leave behind.
I can definitely understand where he’s coming from. Even for me, after spending a month in Europe , I miss the conveniences and familiarities of home, the weather(I live in CA), and of course the rest of my family is here. My sister lives in Montecito and we just visited this past weekend, it’s a beautiful place to raise a family. Quiet and peaceful. I’m sure thinking about his kids future he wants them to have a better life away from the toxic environment in England. The fact that 2 British journalists called Archie a loser and having him dangling in the balcony is beyond cruel. I don’t know how they can get away saying these things about a toddler to be honest . And none of their citizens are even calling them out on this. They’re making a point to the whole world that they hate HM and their children and they’re literally shoving it down our throats . Which is pretty disgusting.