Published: 22:33 BST, 22 August 2026 | Updated: 12:26 BST, 23 August 2026
When news broke on Wednesday that Harry and Meghan are returning to the UK to enroll their children to start school in September, heads tilted for extra effect.
'What are they really up to?' the Sussexes' skeptics asked.
I, for one, bought the official line, writing in the Daily Mail this week, 'Harry thinks our schools are "wonderful" and wants a traditional British education for Archie, seven, and Lili, five.' Perhaps, I floated, the family of four could even inveigle their way back into the Firm, restoring – in my opinion – a bit of excitement to the institution.
Reports on Friday said that Meghan was in talks to brush off her acting chops and join up with director Guy Ritchie.
He married Madonna, 'they' bought Ashcombe, the exquisite former home of legendary photographer-to-the-Royals Cecil Beaton, before they divorced and he cannily bagged the mansion for himself.
He has had a fairly checkered (I'm being polite) career as a director (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was bankrolled by Sting's wife, followed by the unfortunately named Snatch, starring Brad Pitt; Ritchie ricocheted downhill from there with several Razzie awards. The only good thing penned about his latest movie, RocknRolla, was that its cast were 'energetic') before seemingly abandoning any attempt at being the next Scorsese.
He is now churning out dross in the shape of another season of The Gentlemen for Netflix, a spinoff of a 2019 film of the same name.
When news broke on Wednesday that Harry and Meghan are returning to the UK to enroll their children to start school in September, heads tilted for extra effect
Reports on Friday said that Meghan was in talks to brush off her acting chops and join up with director Guy Ritchie. Remember him?
The first series, which aired in 2024, was a barely intelligible caper about aristocrat Eddie (played by bestubbled thesp Theo James, or Theodore to his family and friends; most Brits know him only as the annoying toff in the Range Rover TV ads who proves his masculinity by having no need for the Sat Nav lady), who inherits a family estate only to discover it is home to a weed empire run by very hard men.
It is set in and around the Cotswolds, as that is within a short drive in a Land Rover Defender from Ritchie's own home, where he is busy nurturing blooms from seed (he grew all his own flowers for his second wedding, to Jacqui Ainsley), hosting professional pheasant shoots, ironing his collection of tweed and firing up his very masculine outdoor cooking range to serve floppy steak to neighbours David and Victoria Beckham.
He reportedly had the bright idea to cast not an Oscar winner, but a former actress. But things move fast. Royal author Tina Brown reported on Saturday that the offer to Meghan had been 'withdrawn'.
Brown wrote on her Substack, 'The backlash in the UK was so intense it became untenable to go forward. This does not bode well for Meghan's acting comeback in the UK.'
Meghan, I suspect, would have been flattered by Ritchie's offer, not realizing she was there to move his series up Netflix's top 10 this week chart, if only for mere moments.
