Prince Harry cuts ties with the UK and lists the US as his primary residence
As Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at a travel event in the US, the Duke of Sussex made an unexpected change that will further distance him from the Royal Family and Britain.
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Prince Harry has changed his country of residence from Britain to the United States in official paperwork, four years after quitting the Royal Family for a new life in the US.
Documents showed the Duke of Sussex put his “New Country/State Usually Resident” as America in June last year. He previously listed the UK as his primary home.
The pointed move further distances him from ever returning permanently to the Royal Family or his country of birth.
The Companies House filings signal a clear break with Britain, after he and Meghan Markle quit the Royal Family in 2020.
He filed the notice changing his personal details in connection with Travalyst, the eco-tourism organisation he founded with Ms Markle in 2019 while they were still working members of the Royal Family.
The couple were evicted from their Windsor home – Frogmore Cottage – last year, leaving them with no permanent base in the UK.
Since leaving Britain in 2020, the prince has continued to list his country of residence as the UK but his change of heart appears to indicate a more permanent commitment to the US, solidifying that the Sussexes are in no rush to return to the UK.
The date the change was made is cited as June 29, 2023, in paperwork that was made public for the first time on Wednesday local time.
Interestingly, the date is the exact day when Buckingham Palace confirmed publicly that the Sussexes had officially moved out of Frogmore Cottage.
The couple were sent an eviction notice in January 2023, just days after the publication of the prince’s controversial memoir, Spare, which did not paint the Royal Family in a good light.
Prince Harry was particularly negative towards Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Catherine.
Prince Harry has a complicated relationship with his homeland, fighting unsuccessfully in court against the British government for security during his trips home.
“The UK will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in,” his lawyers said.
He later told US media that America was his home.
“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.”
Meanwhile, the prince made a surprise appearance at the annual general meeting of Travalyst – a non-profit he launched in 2019 with the aim of making the travel industry more sustainable.
Speaking via videocall from his Montecito home, the Duke of Sussex demanded action to save the “beating heart” of the travel industry while calling on tourists to look after the environments that they visit.
He said it was crucial that the industry did better by the local communities in popular travel destinations or there risks being no tourism business at all.
“Travel and tourism relies on destinations, held together by communities, without which we have nowhere to travel to,” he said.
“Communities are the beating heart of travel, and we must do better by the people who are the custodians of the places we visit.”
It had been suggested that Prince Harry planned to cut ties with the organisation after Travalyst announced it had entered an “incredibly exciting” era – with no mention of him.
The Duke’s appearance will likely hose down the rumours that they had parted ways.