Prince Harry’s decision to formally change his country of residence to America in company filings follows years in which he gave differing accounts of where home really is.

The Duke of Sussex has had a complicated relationship with Britain since his decision to quit royal life but a major turning point appears to be the moment he lost his U.K. home, Frogmore Cottage, having been evicted by his father King Charles III.

As revealed for the first time by Newsweek on Wednesday, Harry lodged notice at Britain’s Companies House that he has changed his country of residence from Britain to America.

And he backdated the decision to the exact date that Buckingham Palace publicly announced that he had left Frogmore.
The episode brings a moment of apparent finality after years of mixed messaging.

Prince Harry and Meghan Quit the Palace
Harry and Meghan initially said they would be splitting their time between Britain and North America when they first stepped back from royal duties in 2020.

A statement on their now defunct Sussex Royal website read: “We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honor our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.

“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”

However, by the time they announced they were moving to America, the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold, making international travel much harder.

As a result, they did not return to British shores until Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021.

In early 2020, the Home Office stripped Harry of his Metropolitan Police protection team, a move he has since suggested leaves him, Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, unsafe in the U.K.

All in all, the original vision of splitting their time between countries disintegrated rapidly, leaving the couple based overwhelmingly predominantly in America.

Prince Harry’s Police Security Lawsuit
However, Prince Harry’s feeling that Britain was unsafe without a police team by his side hardened over the course of 2021, particularly after a visit to London during late June and early July.

A new statue of his mother Princess Diana was being unveiled at Kensington Palace after it was commissioned by him and Prince William and in the days before, he visited a charity, WellChild.

News of his appearance leaked and photographers arrived at the event, following his car as he left.

This appeared to solidify in Harry’s mind the need to get his police bodyguards back if he was to continue having a life in Britain.

In the months that followed, he sued the Home Office in an effort to reverse the decision and in January 2022, a legal representative gave a statement suggesting Britain was still his home.

“The U.K. will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in,” the statement read. “With the lack of police protection comes too great a personal risk. Prince Harry hopes that his petition—after close to two years of pleas for security in the U.K.—will resolve this situation.”

The legal representative also said: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the U.K. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.”

While it was a strongly worded response, it still made clear that Britain was Harry’s home.

Later that year though, Harry returned to Britain again to stop in on Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III on his way to the Invictus Games in The Hague, in April 2022.

The world was emerging out of COVID-19, Britain was opening up again, it was not therefore impossible that Harry might try to re-forge his relationship with Britain.

However, during the games, he told Hoda Kotb on TODAY: “Home for me, now, for the time being, is in the States. And it really feels that way, as well. We’ve been welcomed with open arms and have got such a great community up in Santa Barbara.”

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Harry, Meghan and their children traveled to Britain in June 2022 for the queen’s Platinum Jubilee but there were again tensions over his security.

He was offered police bodyguards but only during official events the family had invited him to and as a result, he did not leave the house except for those events.

At the first, Harry and Meghan were sidelined in a separate building to the working royals who greeted the public from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during Trooping the Colour.

At the second, a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, the Sussexes were booed as well as cheered as they left.

After the queen died that September, however, royal relations appeared, briefly, to improve with a show of unity and a bending of the rules to allow Harry to wear his military uniform.

Ultimately though, the key moment appears to have come when the king chose to send Harry and Meghan an eviction notice from Frogmore Cottage days after the release of the prince’s highly critical memoir Spare.

The duke’s official change of residency was timed for the exact day that his final departure from Frogmore was announced by Buckingham Palace on June 29, 2023.

In case that was not final enough, Harry has since lost both his two lawsuits against the Home Office over his police protection.

His lawyers suggested he will appeal but if he is not successful, then hopes that Harry might rekindle his relationship with the country of his birth appear to be fading.

Re-enforcing the point, Harry indicated he has considered applying for U.S. citizenship, which would cement America’s status as his new home but might also require him to lose his Duke of Sussex title and renounce his allegiance to the monarchy.

In February, he told Good Morning America he was “loving every single day” in the U.S. and added: “The American citizenship is a thought that has crossed my mind but it’s not something that’s a high priority for me right now.”