💔 “HARRY BELIEVED HIS CONNECTION TO DIANA WOULD OPEN EVERY DOOR… BUT ONE DECISION AT ALTHORP APPARENTLY SHUT THEM ALL, LEAVING HIM AND MEGHAN MARKLE SHOCKED AND FRUSTRATED.” tt

Today marks Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s eighth wedding anniversary. Their Windsor nuptials may feel like a distant memory now, with everything that has happened and changed since that fairytale day.

Since then, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stepped back from royal duties, and within two years of marrying, they moved abroad and traded the Crown for California. We take a look at the couple’s liberating life in the United States and how they have finally found their freedom, in a move that Harry says his late mother Princess Diana “would have wanted” for him.

Finding freedom

Meghan and Harry took the world by surprise on January 8, 2020 when they first announced their plan “to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent”. Following the famous Sandringham Summit, the late Queen Elizabeth said: “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”

And that life officially began after March 31, 2020, the day the Sussexes’ duties officially came to an end. Earlier that month, Meghan and Harry made their final appearance as working members of the royal family at the Commonwealth Day Service, where they joined Queen Elizabeth, now-King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey.

A new home

Just five days later, they would embark on their “freedom flight,” as Harry has described it, from Canada to Meghan’s native California. “This is the current situation thanks to another amazing friend who we’ve never met, but who believes in us and wants to help,” the Duke said in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. The family stayed at Tyler Perry’s property before purchasing their home in Montecito that summer.

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The sprawling Mediterranean-style mansion is a change from their former Windsor residence, Frogmore Cottage, which Harry has previously shared they “loved”. “From the first minute. It felt as if we were destined to live there,” the Duke penned in Spare. “We couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning, go for a long walk in the gardens, check in with the swans. Especially grumpy Steve.”

The couple also “fell almost immediately in love” with their home in Montecito, according to The Cut. “One of the first things my husband saw when we walked around the house was those two palm trees,” the Duchess recalled to the outlet in 2022. “See how they’re connected at the bottom? He goes, ‘My love, it’s us.’  And now every day when Archie goes by us, he says, ‘Hi, Momma. Hi, Papa.’”

Meghan revealed that they did everything they could to get the property. She explained, “Because you walk in and go…” inhaling and breathing out, “Joy. And exhale. And calm. It’s healing. You feel free.”

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Since relocating to the Golden State, the family has grown with the birth of their daughter, Princess Lilibet, in 2021. They’ve also given headline-making interviews, made talk show appearances, inked deals and founded a production company along with a foundation.

While Harry has expressed a desire to bring his children to the UK, he revealed at the 2024 DealBook Summit that he plans to remain in the States.

Bike rides

For Harry, that has included taking his son Archie out bike riding. Although the Duke was photographed on bikes growing up in the UK, he told Oprah Winfrey during his and Meghan’s bombshell interview: “The highlight for me is sticking him on the back of the bicycle in his little baby seat and taking him on bike rides, something which I never was able to do when I was young.”

© Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images

Taking up a new pastime

The father and son have also picked up surfing on the West Coast. Months after their move to California, Page Six reported that the Duchess had gifted her husband surfing lessons for his 36th birthday. Harry has been filmed catching waves at Kelly Slater Wave Co.’s surf ranch located in central California. On a 2025 episode of Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know, the Duke was asked what’s the “most American thing” he does now, to which he replied “surf”. “Is that American or is that Californian?” he mused.

Archie has followed in his father’s footsteps, learning how to surf. The young Prince was spotted taking lessons at Santa Claus Beach in Carpinteria in 2025. “They were so proud of Archie. It was cute to watch – a special family time,” a source told HELLO! of Meghan and Harry.

Disneyland magic

Over in California, the Duke has also been able to create magical Disney memories with his kids, much like how his mother Princess Diana did with him and his brother, Prince William, during their 1993 trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. Harry and Meghan headed south to Anaheim in 2025 to celebrate their daughter Princess Lilibet’s fourth birthday at Disneyland Resort. Meghan called the trip, which included visits to Disney California Adventure Park and Disneyland Park, “Two days of pure joy!”

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“To see the kids throw themselves into these experiences when they have no idea what they’re walking into, it was amazing,” Harry admitted in ABC’s The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland, adding: “It brings out the kid in you again.”

Meghan noted in the special that being able to go to Disneyland is “more accessible” for her as a “Southern California girl,” but gushed that it is “still the biggest treat in the world”.

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Earlier this month, the family returned to Disneyland over Mother’s Day, this time joined by Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland. Archie and Lili got to meet some of their favourite characters, as well as enjoy a boat ride.

Politics and projects

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Being Stateside and no longer working members of the royal family has allowed the couple to explore business ventures, including Meghan launching her brand As ever in 2025 and Harry releasing his memoir Spare. The couple signed a multi-year deal with Netflix in 2020, as well as one with Spotify, though they mutually agreed to part ways with the digital music service in 2023. Through Archewell Productions, they have released Polo, With Love, Meghan, Heart of Invictus, Harry & Meghan, Live to Lead and With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration on Netflix.

Beyond business, the Duchess has encouraged voter participation, and made history becoming the first modern member of the British royal family to vote in a presidential election in 2020.

Discussing the “undercurrent of racism and certainly unconscious bias” with The 19th in 2020, Meghan said it’s “not new” to see, but thought “to see the changes that are being made right now is really – it’s something I look forward to being a part of.”

The Duchess added: “And being part of using my voice in a way that I haven’t been able to of late. So, yeah, it’s good to be home.”