Harry and Meghan Return to Nottingham for Their First Joint UK Engagement Since Moving Back

Prince Harry and Meghan Sussex have arrived in Nottingham for their first joint public engagement since returning to live in the UK.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were greeted by cheering crowds outside the Community Recording Studio on Thursday morning, where schoolchildren and members of the public had gathered behind barriers waiting for them.

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Harry and Meghan took their time meeting people outside the venue, shaking hands, posing for selfies and accepting the warm welcome. One woman waiting for them had a particularly direct message: “Don’t believe that you’re not liked because you are.” That might be worth remembering the next time somebody insists Britain has collectively turned against them.

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Nottingham carries particular significance for the couple. They made their first official joint appearance in the city in December 2017, just days after announcing their engagement.

Nine years later, they have returned under very different circumstances. They are no longer working members of the Royal Family, and Buckingham Palace now regards them as private citizens. Harry and Meghan, however, continue to use their public profiles to support organisations and causes they have longstanding relationships with.

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Their first stop was the Community Recording Studio, known as CRS, a youth charity providing music, creative activities, sport, mentoring and development programmes.

Harry’s connection with the organisation stretches back more than a decade. He first visited privately in 2013 and returned again in 2025.

Last year, he made a personal £1.1 million donation to a BBC Children in Need initiative supporting young people in Nottingham affected by violence.

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Trevor Rose, CRS chief executive, told the BBC that the Sussexes’ support had made an enormous difference. “Without them I don’t think we’d be here,” he said, adding that their involvement had encouraged young people at the centre to dream bigger.

That is perhaps the most useful context for today’s visit. This is not simply Harry and Meghan turning up somewhere for photographs. Harry has maintained a relationship with the organisation for years and put a substantial amount of his own money behind its work.

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Meghan joined a bracelet-making workshop centred on confidence and conversations about self-belief, while the couple also watched an acting workshop.

Harry was also due to meet Nottingham rapper, poet and youth mentor Jah Digga, who attended CRS himself as a child before returning to work with younger people.

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The couple’s schedule also includes visits to Himmah, a Nottingham food hub, and Epic Partners, another community organisation they have previously supported.

Those relationships help explain why they chose Nottingham for their first public outing together since returning to Britain. Their team described the couple as having an “affection for the city” and said they have always felt warmth there. Judging by the reception outside CRS, that warmth was very much present.

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Several people had arrived specifically to see Meghan. Friends Nicole Taylor, Lisa Munjemu and Emily Davies, all 21, told the BBC that Meghan had inspired them since they were teenagers. Lisa said they admired “the way she holds herself high even when it might seem to be difficult.”

Another woman, Margaret Langdon, described the visit as a “fantastic opportunity,” while Charlotte O’Neill returned after meeting Harry at the same venue last year and hoped to add another selfie to her collection.

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Roya Nikkhah, The Times royal editor, was in Nottingham today covering Harry and Meghan, the same “private citizens” the Palace and media have been so keen to distinguish from the working monarchy.

That is notable because King Charles also had an engagement today, yet Nikkhah chose to follow the Sussexes’ first joint UK appearance instead.

She has been critical of Harry and Meghan before, and she was not the only one there. The Sun’s Matt Wilkinson was also in Nottingham. That is what makes the coverage so revealing: the same royal reporters who regularly question the Sussexes’ relevance still turn up in person to document their every move. Even with the King carrying out engagements elsewhere, the press pack keeps following the “private citizens.”

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Even one accidental spectator found himself caught up in the excitement.

Toby Craven had only gone to the area to have his tyres changed at a nearby garage. He arrived, saw the crowds and discovered Harry and Meghan were coming. A fan of Meghan from Suits, he decided to stay. “It’s pretty cool,” he told the BBC. “It’ll make a good story.”

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Today also marks Meghan’s first public engagement in Britain since the family returned from California earlier this year.

Reports suggest she may make fewer public appearances than Harry as she focuses on her family, As Ever and other professional projects. That makes this joint visit particularly notable. But there is something familiar about the format.

The walkabout. The handshakes. The schoolchildren waiting at the barriers. The community projects. The cameras following them from one stop to another.

It looks remarkably like the kind of public service Harry and Meghan performed as working royals — except this time they are choosing the organisations themselves and doing it outside the royal institution.

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And perhaps that is the more interesting story.

Nearly nine years after Nottingham welcomed them as an engaged couple preparing for royal life, Harry and Meghan have returned as financially independent public figures supporting organisations they already know and have personally invested in. Different status. Same city. And, judging by those crowds, still plenty of people happy to see them.

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