Prince Harry wants to bring his children back to the UK and show them where he grew up, a friend has claimed.

The Duke of Sussex, 40, who moved to the US five years ago, is returning to his homeland for a string of charity events in a rare four-day visit next week.

The prince last travelled to the UK in April for his High Court hearing into changes to his security arrangements and will arrive home as his father, King Charles, stays in Balmoral in Scotland.

Harry’s trip will be his longest since returning for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in 2022.

Meghan Markle has not been to the UK since September 2022, and their children Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, have not been back since platinum jubilee celebrations for the late Queen in June that year.

In May, Harry said that he ‘misses the UK’ but that he could not envision returning with his family.

‘I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point,’ he told the BBC.

‘And the things they’re going to miss, well, everything … I miss the UK.’

But a friend has now revealed that the royal wants to ‘bring his family back to the UK’ to show his children ‘where he grew up’.

‘He’s not given up hope on bringing his family back to the UK,’ they told The Times.

‘He wants to be able to show his children where he grew up. He wants them to know their family here. He really would like to come back to the UK much more.’

Harry, who has not seen his father since February last year, when he returned for a 30-minute meeting after Charles’ cancer diagnosis, will make a number of charity appearances on a ‘jam-packed’ trip.

On Monday, the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death, he will be in London for the WellChild Awards.

The following day he will leave London for an engagement focused on helping young people affected by violence.

On Wednesday and Thursday, he will attend further receptions and meetings including for his Invictus Foundation.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK for Montecito, California in 2020.

But they first took up residency in Nottingham Cottage – in the grounds of Kensington Palace – and in Frogmore Cottage close to Windsor after their marriage in 2018.

By royal standards it was a modest home featuring two bedrooms, one bathroom, small reception rooms and a kitchen.

But it did also have access to all the amenities in Kensington Palace and the other royal homes.

Meghan’s disdain for the ‘tiny’ Nottingham cottage is well documented.

Writing in his royal bestseller Yes Ma’am, Tom Quinn claimed that the first sign that all was not well with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became apparent while they were living within the grounds of Kensington Palace.

Quinn said: ‘Starting life as a member of the royal family in Nottingham Cottage was the beginning of all Meghan’s troubles – she felt it was so small that it must be a reflection on how the royal family were belittling her husband.

‘She just didn’t understand that real royals don’t care much about houses and material possessions because having always had them they take them for granted.’

According to Quinn, Meghan not only believed the home was too small for her larger standards but she was ‘compounded by a vague feeling that the Kensington Palace staff tended to treat Harry as less important than his brother’.

At the time, Prince William and Kate Middleton lived in the much larger apartment 1A inside the palace itself.

A member of the communications team who was particularly close to Meghan told Quinn: ‘Meghan spotted immediately that Harry wasn’t quite as central to things as his brother William.

‘This was the start of the whole grievance thing about being the spare.

‘I don’t think Harry had even thought much about the fact that he was a spare until well into his marriage. Meghan managed to give him more perspective because she could see the family from the outside.’

During Harry and Meghan’s time living at Kensington Palace concerns were raised about their treatment of staff.

One member of staff told Quinn that Meghan could be ‘quite demanding’ and wanted to be involved in ‘every detail of her royal life’.

Complaints about their behaviour eventually reached Prince William who allegedly went ‘ballistic’ at the news.

Harry and Meghan then moved to the much larger Frogmore Cottage after Archie was born in 2019.

According to esteemed royal historian Hugo Vickers, there was ‘trouble’ while Harry and Meghan were living at the royal house between 2019 and March 2020.

In one incident, the Duchess of Sussex was allegedly so rude to an under gardener that the head gardener in Windsor felt the need to complain to the late Queen, who then drove over to Meghan to give her a dressing down.

‘The head gardener went to complain to the Queen and she told Meghan off because she obviously didn’t like people being rude to staff,’ Mr Vickers told The Sun.

Away from the palace, Meghan has developed a reputation in the workplace for being difficult to work with.

In September 2024, an unnamed source told another publication that they witnessed ‘people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s***’.

Another source claimed that Meghan ‘screamed’ at a florist down the phone for half an hour after they failed to mention in a post online that the Duchess of Sussex was working with them on a bouquet.

However, other reports about Meghan’s behaviour have claimed she is not so difficult to work with.

Producer Jane Marie, who worked with Harry and Meghan during development of Archewell audio projects, insisted to Vanity Fair that Meghan is ‘just a lovely, genuine person’.

Other staff members have claimed that she would end her employees gifts ranging from dog leashes to skincare products.