Get ready for the ‘Spussex squad’! How Harry and Meghan will join forces with the Spencer family – including 12 young cousins for Archie and Lili to play with
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly preparing to return to the UK within days, and while Prince Harry remains estranged from his brother the Prince of Wales and has drifted from allies such as Princess Eugenie, the Spencer family are said to be far more welcoming. Earl Spencer hosted Harry and Meghan at Althorp House during their last UK visit, and the family's continued closeness could prove significant given claims Harry now has few friends left from his former life in Britain.
Beyond Earl Spencer, 62, and his wife Cat Jarman, Harry is also expected to lean on his "red aunts", Lady Sarah McCorquodale, 71, and Lady Jane Fellowes, 69, who have remained close to both princes despite the wider royal rift; all three travelled to Montecito for Princess Lilibet's christening. Should Harry and Meghan settle in the Cotswolds as speculated, it would place them near the Spencer siblings, potentially bringing Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, into contact with around a dozen young Spencer cousins.
- Harry and Meghan reportedly returning to the UK within days
- Spencer relatives seen as more supportive than estranged royal family
- Possible Cotswolds move could unite Archie and Lili with Spencer cousins
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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to the United States, where they now live with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet. Since then, Harry's relationship with much of his own family, including his brother the Prince of Wales, has become strained, leaving him with fewer close ties in Britain than before.
One part of the family that has stayed close is the Spencer family, the relatives of Harry's late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. This includes her brother, Earl Spencer, who owns the family estate Althorp, and her sisters, often called Harry's "aunts", who have remained supportive figures in his life even as other royal relationships cooled.
This matters because any move by Harry and Meghan back to the UK would likely bring them closer to the Spencer side of the family, who have a large number of children of a similar age to Archie and Lilibet. That raises the prospect of the Sussex children building relationships with cousins on their mother's side of the family, regardless of the state of ties with the wider Royal Family.