A Low-Key Reunion in the Cotswolds
Nearly a month after slipping quietly back into Britain, Meghan Markle has finally been photographed in public — and the setting could not have been more quintessentially English. The Duchess of Sussex, 45, was spotted at The Three Horseshoes pub in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire, on Sunday 21st September, catching up with close friends Ellen DeGeneres, 68, and her wife Portia de Rossi, 53, in what appeared to be a relaxed afternoon among old neighbours.
Photographs published by Page Six showed Meghan dressed casually in a light blue button-down shirt, white jeans and white trainers, with sunglasses shielding her from the late-September sun. She was seen chatting and laughing with the couple in the pub garden before bidding them farewell — a scene that felt about as far from the scrutiny of royal life as possible.
Friends on Both Sides of the Atlantic
The reunion was not a chance encounter. Meghan, Harry and their children Archie and Lilibet arrived back in the UK on 26th August, settling into a private home base while retaining their Montecito, California residence. DeGeneres and de Rossi made the same transatlantic leap in November 2024, relocating to the Cotswolds — placing the two households within easy reach of one another, just as they had been back in California.
The friendship between Meghan and the former talk show host stretches back years. The Duchess appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2021, recounting early acting-career memories, including driving to Warner Bros. auditions in an old Ford Explorer Sport with a broken driver's door — forcing her to clamber in through the back. The pair have only grown closer since. In January 2023, Meghan and Harry attended what guests expected to be de Rossi's 50th birthday party, only to discover it was a surprise vow renewal, with Kris Jenner officiating and de Rossi in the same wedding gown she had worn in 2008.
Meghan even adopted Ellen's chicken, Sinkie, who had a broken leg — a small but telling detail about just how close this friendship really is.
In February 2026, it was confirmed that DeGeneres and de Rossi had also purchased a new home in Montecito, with an insider telling PEOPLE that DeGeneres planned to continue dividing her time between England and California rather than committing to either country full-time — an arrangement the Sussexes will no doubt understand intimately.
Harry in London, Meghan in the Countryside
While Meghan was sharing a pint garden with her friends, Prince Harry was across the country at the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London — an event he has attended as patron since 2007. Last-minute confirmation came that the Duchess would not be joining him, though Harry was in characteristically warm form on the night.
"Once you become a parent, it does change everything," Harry told HELLO!. "You suddenly realise how grateful you are to have kids that aren't sick."
Speaking to the assembled families of seriously ill children, Harry also addressed the toll of caring for a sick child directly: "To all the mums and dads — most of us will never truly know the emotional ups and downs of your day." He presented the Inspirational Child award for ages four to six to six-year-old Margot Jones-Billington, and acknowledged this year also marked the 20th anniversary of WellChild's nursing programme.
The WellChild appearance followed Harry's attendance at the inaugural Invictus gala at London's Old Royal Naval College on 17th September — his first major public engagement since the family's return. Asked how things were going, he kept it simple: "Good. It's good to be back on British soil."
Settling In, Quietly
Since landing at Birmingham Airport on 26th August, Meghan has kept a deliberately low profile, offering only carefully chosen glimpses of family life — muddy walks, fireside evenings and, for Harry's 41st birthday, a sweet photograph of Archie and Lilibet riding a quad bike, their black Labrador Pula bounding alongside them. An M&S shopping bag visible in the frame confirmed the image was taken in the UK.
A source close to the couple told PEOPLE that settling the children into their new life remained the priority. "Everything else will fall into place when the time is right," the source said.
Archie and Lilibet have been enrolled in school in the UK, and the family have been experimenting — with mixed results — with British culinary staples. Beans on toast, reportedly, has not gone down well. Marmite on crumpets, however, has been a triumph.
Sunday's pub outing was a reminder that while the Sussexes' return to Britain is not a return to working royal life, it is very much a return to something real — and that, for now, seems to suit them just fine.
