Prince Harry 'Absolutely Done' With US Life Amid Claims He Feels 'Henpecked' by Meghan Markle: Report

After six years of chasing reinvention in California, Prince Harry has hit a breaking point. The Duke of Sussex, 41, who relocated to Montecito with his wife Meghan Markle in 2020 following their dramatic 'Megxit', now finds himself deeply unhappy with the life he has built across the Atlantic. Sources close to the royal have revealed that he feels profoundly lost, describing himself as 'homesick', 'henpecked', and 'hollowed-out' — a far cry from the optimistic rebel who once promised to forge a bold new path away from the constraints of royal duty.

The shift is seismic. Once buoyed by ambitions of Hollywood success and personal freedom, Prince Harry now views his American experiment as a miscalculation. Multiple insiders told us he has become fixated on returning to Europe, even if that means living apart from Markle. What began as a couple's united venture to reshape their identities has transformed into a deeply fractured partnership, strained by competing visions of what their future should hold.

Prince Harry Feels 'Absolutely Done' With the California Experiment

The contrast with his early days in California could hardly be starker. One insider claimed: 'Harry has reached a breaking point with life in California and has been blunt with Meghan that he no longer sees a future for himself there. He feels profoundly unhappy and directionless, frustrated that the professional opportunities he hoped would materialise never truly did.'

The source continued, 'He has struggled to form genuine friendships, feels isolated from any real sense of community, and is deeply unsettled by how decisively Hollywood has cooled toward them, which has only reinforced his sense that he does not belong in that world'. The rejection stings particularly hard for someone who once commanded admiration simply by virtue of his royal birthright.

What troubles Harry most is not merely failure but the loss of purpose. Before leaving the United Kingdom, he was a working royal with defined responsibilities — a man of action who represented something concrete, however complicated his relationship with the institution may have been. In California, he discovers himself adrift, watching Markle pursue her own ventures with increasing vigour whilst he languishes in the margins.

'In short, Harry is homesick, feels henpecked by Meghan as he's on her home turf and what she says goes in their relationship — and he also feels like a hollow man and a shadow of his former self,' another source revealed. The language here is deliberately cutting: the suggestion that he has become subordinate in his own life, that his agency has withered.

'This is a man who loved his sports and having a laugh and a pint with his pals at the pub. That is the life he wants to get back to. He also misses the sense of purpose being a working royal gave him,' the insider added. There is something almost nostalgic about this — a recognition that for all his criticisms of the royal institution, it gave him structure, belonging, and status that he cannot replicate elsewhere.

The Widening Chasm: Prince Harry's Diverging Path From Meghan

Since leaving Britain, Harry and Markle have pursued increasingly separate professional trajectories. Markle has poured herself into ambitious projects: a Netflix lifestyle series, the launch of her brand As Ever, and most recently, a cameo role in Amazon MGM's comedy Close Personal Friends, marking her return to acting. She appears energised by this work, finding traction where their joint ventures faltered.

Harry, by contrast, has focused on charitable work and advocacy, crisscrossing the globe and spending extended periods away from their Montecito home. This distance has become telling. He has returned to the UK several times without Markle or their children — Archie, 6, and Lilibet, 4 — a pattern that speaks volumes about his emotional geography.

Perhaps most significantly, in May he achieved what had long eluded him: a legal victory in his bid to challenge the decision denying him automatic police protection when visiting Britain. Remarkably, that decision is now under review, with an outcome anticipated in January. Yet rather than celebrate quietly, Harry appears to be weaponising this victory. According to sources, the legal challenge itself became an escape route, a mechanism to buy himself passage back home.

'Harry has now all but won that review. That victory is a further signal of how desperate Harry is to spend more time in his home country. Meghan kept telling him to let it be, but she knows deep down that he's done it in part to try to escape. He is just absolutely done with life in the States,' one insider said plainly.

A Potential Ultimatum on the Horizon

What makes this moment particularly precarious is the suggestion that Harry is beginning to contemplate a hard choice: either Markle relocates with him to Portugal — where they maintain a £5 million property — or they accept a period of living separately while he pursues opportunities elsewhere. Middle East ventures are also under discussion, sources indicate, as Harry explores fresh avenues to reclaim his sense of agency.

'Harry is believed to be approaching a point where he may force a hard decision, asking Meghan to either relocate with him to Portugal or accept a period of living apart whilst he pursues opportunities elsewhere. He is convinced that remaining in California will only further erode whatever credibility and influence they have left, leaving them with little standing to rebuild from in the future,' one source explained.

The calculus here is unmistakable. Harry fears that every passing month in California is a sunk cost, squandering the currency they possess — their notoriety, their brand, their royal connections — on ventures that generate neither money nor influence. Staying put, he believes, accelerates their irrelevance.

Those who know him well observe that the drive and optimism once defining his character have been replaced by exhaustion and resignation. The man who gave an Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 to air royal family grievances now finds himself bereft of conviction. Even his reconciliation overtures toward his father King Charles, 77 — which resulted in a brief meeting in 2024 after nineteen months apart — failed to ignite any meaningful restoration of their bond.

For those close to Meghan, the message is unmistakable: this is a critical juncture. 'Harry's growing longing for the life he left behind is becoming a major fault line in their relationship, fuelling tension that is increasingly hard to ignore. Those close to Meghan are urging her to take his concerns seriously before the situation reaches a point of no return, warning that if Harry ultimately decides to leave, the consequences for both of them could be severe and deeply damaging,' a final insider warned.

What unfolds in the coming months will determine whether the Sussexes can navigate this chasm or whether their grand American experiment ultimately becomes a cautionary tale about reinvention deferred and dreams deferred.