Prince Harry appears to have dropped a major clue he has no plans to return to live in the UK any time soon after his latest move.

The Duke of Sussex upped sticks from the UK and moved to the United States four years ago where he has now settled with Meghan Markle and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in California. Last year he and Meghan were forced to give up their UK home Frogmore Cottage, leaving them with no permanent base in Britain.

And now it has emerged that Harry has changed his country of residence from the UK to the US on official documents that have been lodged in his home country. The Duke filed a notice with Companies House related to his eco-tourism not-for-profit organisation Travalyst, which he founded.

Harry and Meghan have now settled in California ( 
Image:
AP)
When the project was set up four years ago, Harry’s place of residence on Companies House was in the UK. However, a filing two days ago read that his “new country/state usually resident” was the United States. The date of the change was backdated to June 29, 2023, one of the last days he and Meghan had access to their old UK home of Frogmore Cottage before they handed back the keys. It emerged last March that King Charles asked the Sussexes to vacate the property, which the late Queen had gifted them after they married in 2018.

A spokesperson for the couple said at the time: “We can confirm the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.” Harry has made fleeting visits back to the UK since his move and is expected to travel back next month to mark 10 years of his Invictus Games in a service at St Paul’s Cathedral. However, yesterday, his initial bid to bring an appeal has been refused after he lost a High Court challenge over a decision to change the level of his personal security when he visits the UK.

The Sussexes’ former UK home Frogmore Cottage ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
Harry took legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country. Ravec’s decision came as a result of a change in the duke’s “status” after he stopped being a “full-time working member of the royal family ”, a judge was told.

In January 2022, his legal representative said: “The U.K. will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in. 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.”

But just months later, the prince told NBC 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.” On Monday, a judicial spokesperson said that Harry has lost his initial bid to appeal against the decision. However, he is still able to ask the Court of Appeal directly for the green light to bring an appeal.

Meanwhile, earlier today, Harry made a surprise appearance at the annual general meeting of Travalyst and urged the travel industry to “do more for local communities”. He said the industry must do better by the local communities in key holiday destinations, saying without them there would be no tourism business at all in years to come.

Appearing via video link from his home in Montecito, Harry told the meeting: “Travel and tourism rely on destinations, held together by communities, without which we have nowhere to travel to. Communities are the beating heart of travel, and we must do better by the people who are the custodians of the places we visit.”

Last year, the sustainable tourism project had to issue a statement insisting Harry was still an ‘invaluable part’ of the organisation – despite not being mentioned in its revamp. London-based non-profit Travalyst was launched by Harry in 2019 when he and his wife Meghan Markle were still working royals. It aimed to make tourism and travel more eco-friendly and sustainable by bringing major travel firms such as TripAdvisor and Skyscanner together.

Harry was the face of the project, despite admitting to taking private jets. However, it emerged last May that Travalyst made a major announcement, where it revealed its transition from a “pilot phase” to a new board of five people with “world-class expertise” – with no mention of Harry.

In addition, Harry was only mentioned in the press releases by the project in the ‘about us’ blurb at the bottom of the release. This is in comparison to releases from 2022, where Harry was mentioned prominently at the top of the text.

However, it is now understood that Travalyst did not name Harry in the revamped board announcement as his commitment to the project remains the same. In a statement, the CEO of Travalyst Sally Davey said: ” Prince Harry is the founder of Travalyst and remains an invaluable part of this organisation. His role has not changed in any way, and he is regularly involved in strategic discussions and decisions alongside our partners and board.”