It slightly beggars belief after all they have said and done, but… apparently Harry and Meghan are over the American dream and want to return to the UK. Friends are calling it a 'plan to reverse Megxit'.
Whether a crackpot delusion or merely the wish for a fresh start, the Sussexes want to turn around their negative image in the UK. It seems that a return to Britain is being contemplated in some form and that the couple's holiday home in Portugal will be used as a staging post.
I’m told that both Harry and Meghan have started to feel a bit unwelcome in the USA and trying to reconnect with Harry’s English side - for them as well as their two children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five - is now a priority.
It would perhaps take Harry standing up to Meghan and pleading, ‘I want to go home,’ but I do think it is something he really wants and something Meghan might be coming round to.
The family meeting at Highgrove House (Harry’s childhood home) with the King and Queen last month was a major step.
But what was at stake wasn't just Charles spending time with his grandchildren - for the first time in four years - or even healing the wounds caused by the Oprah Winfrey interview, Harry's memoir Spare, the series Harry & Meghan on Netflix, the court actions against the Home Office and all the rest of it - the Sussexes are thought to be seeking to reverse Megxit.
The end of their deals with Spotify and Netflix must surely play a part, as must Meghan’s reported fading popularity among her supporters, like Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
A friend says, ‘England is where Harry’s heart has always lain. It is no secret that they went to the States to try and seek their fortune, to try to capitalise on his fame and his royalty to some degree.
'That meeting with Charles is a major test for the Sussexes'
‘They have had successes. A $100 million Netflix deal is not nothing… But that American dream is cooling and she perhaps feels an outcast status as well.’
That’s not a permanent or imminent return to our shores, but to hear it being suggested and so deeply wanted by Harry still feels like a bombshell.
Another source, who is less sympathetic to the Sussexes, says they suspect a different kind of change may lie behind the manoeuvres.
The source said, ‘I don’t think Harry has ever wanted to be estranged from his family. I think in the early days he could be blind enough to choose life in the States with Meghan. Now things are different, and the veil is lifting.’
This is not to say they’re splitting up. More that, previously Harry is thought to have done everything she’s wanted to do. Now… not so much.
Yet that meeting with Charles is a major test for the Sussexes.
'If anything leaks, the fragile trust will be rocked once again'
When they previously introduced Lili to the late Queen in 2022, during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, I understand that they asked if they could bring a trusted photographer.
A request that was denied.
There has been no briefing from either Team Sussex or Buckingham Palace on what took place at Highgrove over tea – and certainly no photographs.
That will have been the King’s express request - that it should happen completely privately, and stay that way. If anything leaks out, the fragile trust will be rocked once again.
'What happens next will be fascinating'
Harry will be back next month for another charity event (and we can expect another father-son meeting then), plus all eyes will be on the Invictus Games in Birmingham next summer.
The Sussexes would like their children to take part in some of the public engagements, plus the King will also be invited.
Meghan’s team let it be known to a friendly US newspaper that she had felt ‘sadness’ at not attending any of the Invictus events last month and the fact that the chaos over their security arrangements was hashed out in public left her feeling ‘humiliated’.
But her visit, with the children, did disprove Harry’s much-repeated complaint that it was too dangerous to bring his family to the UK without the gun-carrying Met officers he so desperately wants.
He is not a working royal - but does he actually want to be one, after all?
Personally, I think he wants the best bits of being royal (popularity, adoration, being able to help) without the onerous duty.
What happens next will be fascinating.
This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.