The hidden signs we all missed about Harry, Meghan and the Spencers

This summer, as Archie and Lilibet pranced at Althorp and family was reunited, the Duke of Sussex and his uncle, Earl Spencer, were keeping secrets from each other. Harry knew a book was being written, but he and the Earl didn’t discuss the content. He did not know that the Earl’s memoir Swan Song would cut his father, the King, off at the knees. And while Harry and Meghan were marinating the idea of returning to the UK, they did not reveal this to Spencer at the time. Shorts The move was only decided and confirmed after their July visit and was not discussed during their stay. But while the Earl did not engineer the move, he will surely be thrilled by it. Because I understand that one of the big motivations behind the Sussex return was to be closer to Diana’s side of the family. It answers the question which has been rife since the Duke and Duchess touched down in Birmingham in September. Everyone wants to know: what brought Harry home when he felt things in Britain were so bad they’d been driven out? The draw must have been something fundamental. One key reason, I’m told, was their children, who – with their transatlantic blend of ginger locks and peppy American accents – Harry didn’t want to miss out on a great British education. The couple have also decided a return is a strong career move. Despite some reports to the contrary, I know that acting is not off the table for Meghan. She may even choose to launch her lifestyle brand As Ever in the UK. Although it could be tricky: As Ever jam is going to struggle in the Cotswolds where everyone makes their own already. Harry, on the other hand, is getting stuck in with his work on the Invictus Games, and was visibly thrilled to be at the Invictus Spirit Awards last week. Some suggested their move was to rebuild relations with the King, who is still being treated for cancer. But over tea at Highgrove this summer, Harry did not discuss their potential return. Prince Harry with Charles Spencer and Lady Sarah McCorquodale – Diana’s sister – at the 10th anniversary memorial service For Diana at The Guards’ Chapel in London in 2007 (Photo: Tim Graham/Getty) And the real cynics – my highly social American sources – have big opinions about how the Duke and Duchess simply couldn’t keep up in California’s Montecito, a richer than super-rich enclave. One tells me insurance on her friend’s house costs more than $200,000 (£150,000) a year. Just the insurance. And that, when you add in high-ranking nannies and cleaners, healthcare and lavish hosting (essential for relevance), the Sussexes were not on a par with greats such as Oprah. Yet, even despite the potentially mammoth bill awaiting Harry and his co-defendants from their unsuccessful action against Associated Newspapers, I understand he has substantial investments, and inherited from Diana, the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II. He certainly isn’t desperate for money. As Ever is doing “quite well” in America, according to insiders, and Meghan has been celebrating that success over glasses of her own wine among friends in Montecito. While huge Netflix and Spotify deals and the royalties from Spare have helped. But the key to the Sussex relocation lies in Harry’s blood ties. And not those with the King. Harry’s close connection to the Spencer family A few miles over the Cotswolds border sits Althorp, Earl Spencer’s family seat, where his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, is buried at the centre of its lake. Also close on that side are Diana’s sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale (and her children Emily, George and Celia) and Lady Jane Fellowes (and her children Laura Eleanor and Alexander). Both were included front and centre at Harry’s wedding, where Jane delivered the reading from the Song of Solomon, and at Archie’s christening. Harry travelled back to Britain for her husband, Lord Fellowes’ funeral in 2024. Harry is particularly tight with George McCorquodale, who is his peer. He will remind Harry of his happy younger years and childhood holidays together with Diana and Sarah – including to Richard Branson’s Necker Island in 1990. He was a guest of honour in KwaZulu-Natal for George’s 2016 wedding and where they all, apparently, had a very raucous time. A cheeky Prince Harry sticks out his tongue as he stands with his cousins Eleanor Fellowes and Alexander Fellowes as a pageboy at the wedding of his uncle Charles Spencer on September 17, 1989 in Althorp (Photo: Anwar Hussein/Getty) But it is the Earl’s sense of duty towards Harry that is unique. In the first serialisation of Swan Song, Diana My Sister, trailed and published in the Daily Mail, the Earl lays claim to Diana’s sons. “Diana had left me as her sons’ guardian,” he wrote. “This was a role without legal function while the other parent lived, but it made me feel empowered to speak on Diana’s behalf with William and Harry in mind.” Referencing the request for the boys to walk behind her coffin, he wrote “I knew that she would never have wanted her boys to have to undertake such a public ordeal,” calling it “barbaric”. The death of his sister devastated the Earl. It broke something in him that blew up his respect for protocol, most dramatically during the live television broadcast of Diana’s funeral. “On behalf of your mother and sisters,” his voice echoed in Westminster Abbey, “I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.” It was a blunt message to the Palace and Charles – and the boys returned to Althorp with him after the funeral before Diana’s coffin was delivered. Now the war of the Charleses has re-ignited. In his book, Spencer has unleashed all hell on the King in such a forthright fashion it made his infamous eulogy sound like a kitten’s purr. He claims that the then-Prince Charles sounded “giddily elated… like a lottery winner” about Diana’s death, called him a “bellowing buffoon” and claimed he ended a phone call with a hiss: “rest assured, we will all forget her soon enough.” It is an explosive, emotional, intentionally-worded account that has rattled the royal family. Lady Eliza Spencer, Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, Victoria Lockwood and Lady Kitty Spencer at Harry and Meghan’s wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018 (Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty) The King issued a rare and immediate statement, suggesting that the Earl’s memory had been clouded by grief. It is curious that Spencer has reignited this story the very month of Harry’s return, but I understand there are no links. Spencer’s loyalty to Harry has been true. Where he failed to attend even his daughter Kitty’s wedding in 2021, the Earl was front and centre at his nephew’s nuptials. But this new eruption could put Harry in a difficult spot just when he was trying to smooth things over with his father. The rift that can’t be healed The King is already wary of his younger son. Only a week ago a statement was put out on his behalf confirming that the Sussexes would remain private citizens. It “shocked” team Sussex. So while that fragile relationship is being rebuilt bit by bit, Harry’s proximity to a man making such damning statements about the King, dredged up after 29 years, will be a difficult hurdle to clear. There is a marked contrast between the modus operandi of the Spencers and the Windsors. King Charles has certainly been cross, though that ice is melting. The Prince and Princess of Wales now treat the Sussexes with total froideur. To them, the relationship is over. In the Spencer camp Harry evidently feels less judged and is freer in the green haven of Althorp. His mother craved freedom too, from things real, imagined and self-inflicted. And like Diana, there is a driving force in Harry to tell his truth – even when those close to him advise otherwise. Now, as the Earl spells out his version of the Spencer story, the family connection looks clear. There is certainly no press briefing from the Spencer side – while the Sussexes and the Palace have proactive relationships with the media, and the Spencer girls Kitty, Eliza and Emilia are very press friendly when it comes to their own lives and projects, every one of my approaches to discuss Harry is politely shut down. And while they are not living on the estate, when visiting its 14,000 acres they can be guaranteed the safety and privacy of the bucolic home Diana grew up in. If Meghan is smart, she will know that the Cotswolds already has its queens; it will be an incredibly tough social scene for her to crack. I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up settling nearby around the border of the Cotswolds and Northamptonshire. But perhaps it was always going to end up this way. Perhaps we all missed the signs. Because the real tell was at St Paul’s in 2024, when George McCorquodale was seated directly behind Harry at the Invictus Games anniversary, alongside two other Spencer cousins – actor Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp (heir to Althorp) and his sister Lady Lara Spencer. It is among this group that he thrives. There is a connection with his mother and a sense of that freedom he so desires.