Prince Harry and wife Meghan arrive in the UK as they make a fresh start in Britain

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan arrived in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, as they make a fresh start in Britain after six years in the United States, U.K. media reported.

The news comes less than a week after the couple surprised fans and critics alike with plans to return to Britain. Their arrival was reported by news organizations including the BBC and the Daily Telegraph, with the newspaper reporting that their plane landed at Birmingham International Airport around noon.

Flight tracking websites showed a private charter flight from Van Nuys, California, arrived at the airport at 11:56 a.m.

The couple’s children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, have already enrolled at British schools and will start classes in September. The family plans to live at a private, nonroyal residence outside of London, but haven’t said exactly where that will be.

Prince Harry’s representative declined to comment.

Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago, saying they wanted to earn their own living. They later signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.

Relations with the rest of the royal family quickly soured as the couple said palace staff had been insensitive to Meghan’s mental health and leveled charges of racism and media manipulation at members of the royal family.

Tensions between Harry and King Charles III , his 77-year-old father, appear to have eased in recent months, but relations with Prince William, the heir to the throne, remain tense. Charles is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer that was discovered in 2024.

Harry said last year that he wanted to reconcile with his family and that he didn’t know “how much time my father has left.” He has also expressed a desire for his children to have a chance to get to know their grandfather.

Harry, Meghan and the children visited the king at his Highgrove Estate in western England last month while the prince was in the U.K. for a series of charity appearances. It was the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather in person since 2022, when the family traveled to Britain for events marking the late Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne.

Charles wasn't told about the couple's impending move at the time and only found out about it last week.