After years of criticising Prince Harry, columnist Alicia Liberty says his return to Britain has exposed a complicated truth about where he and his children belong. Watching his jam-packed schedule since returning, she saw not “Netflix Harry, courtroom Harry or the Prince cashing in on grievances” but the King’s son, Princess Diana’s boy, the man behind Invictus and a long-time champion of WellChild — looking genuinely happy to be here.
A new chapter in Britain
Harry, 42, has called it “wonderful to be back on British soil” and has thrown himself into a busy schedule since returning from California. That does not erase Spare, Oprah, Netflix or the damage caused by years of public accusations, but the Prince is no longer simply visiting Britain before catching another flight back to Montecito.
He, Meghan Markle, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are living here now, making questions of family, security and the children’s connection to their British heritage impossible to ignore.
Children deserve a real connection
Whatever your opinion of Harry, Britain is still his home — and it is part of Archie, 7, and Lilibet’s, 5, story too. They are grandchildren of the King, nieces and nephews of the Prince of Wales, and cousins to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Living here gives them something California never could: the chance to understand that heritage first-hand rather than through occasional visits and family stories.
Since the Sussexes returned, the children have begun school here while Harry has resumed work with causes he has supported for years. Watching him over the past week, he has not looked like a man desperate to escape Britain.
Security and the King’s backing
The debate becomes more complicated than whether people personally like Harry. Many still feel he turned his back on Britain and on his own family, then spent years criticising both from afar. Expecting taxpayers simply to pick up the bill now would understandably leave a bitter taste.
But Prince Harry’s security problem is not an ordinary one. He has previously offered to pay personally for police protection, yet the kind of armed, intelligence-backed protection he wants is not simply a service money can buy privately in Britain. His own security assessment has argued that private officers cannot carry firearms here, while RAVEC is now reassessing his protection as a UK resident.
That is why Liberty thinks there has to be some form of compromise: one that keeps Harry and his family safe without simply handing the cost to the public. King Charles does not control RAVEC and should not interfere in operational decisions, but he can recognise that this is not just another grievance from his son. The consequences are already real — Archie and Lilibet changed schools after security concerns were raised over their commute.
WellChild showed what could still be saved
At this year’s WellChild awards, the Duke — who has supported the charity since 2007 — became visibly emotional speaking about families caring for seriously ill children, before joking: “It’s happening again.”
That does not erase the last six years of public rows and revelations, the lawsuits or the damage done to his family relationships. But criticism should not require pretending there is only one version of Harry. There is the Prince who has spent years fighting institutions and airing grievances publicly, and there is also the man behind Invictus, the longstanding WellChild patron and someone who this week looked genuinely at ease doing the sort of work Britain once knew him for.
Liberty says there is a genuine sense of loss here — “we are on increasingly thin ice when it comes to ever seeing this family properly reunited.” Reconciliation does not mean pretending nothing happened; sometimes it simply means reaching a point where everyone knows where they stand.
What we still do not have, publicly at least, is any real sense of closure. Prince Harry has returned with enormous baggage, but also with a wife and two young children who now have a chance to know the country and family that form part of who they are. If that chance is wasted, Britain may lose Harry again — and this time it will be for good.
