Prince Harry’s U.K. Appearance Has a Sweet Connection to Meghan Markle

The Duke of Sussex said the location has “a permanent place in my heart.”

The Gist

• Prince Harry stepped out for day two of his four-day visit to the U.K. on September 9.
• On Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex visited Nottingham, England, which has a special connection to his and wife Meghan Markle’s love story.
• It was in Nottingham on December 1, 2017 that Meghan undertook her first royal appearance, and Harry and Meghan together undertook their first joint royal outing, just four days after announcing their engagement on November 27.

Many moons have passed since, but Prince Harry’s visit to Nottingham, England today has a sweet connection to his wife, Meghan Markle, who remains at the family’s home in Montecito, California as the Duke of Sussex is in the U.K. for a four-day visit.

Harry visited Nottingham on day two of his trip on September 9, and the location has major significance to his relationship with Meghan: Nottingham is where Meghan undertook her very first royal appearance on December 1, 2017, just four days after the happy couple announced their engagement on November 27.

Crowds of well-wishers greeted Harry and Meghan with cheers as they visited the National Justice Museum; one fan told People at the time that “They are a lovely couple. They looked lovely together.”

Five months after that milestone in Meghan’s royal life, Meghan officially married into the royal family on May 19, 2018. Less than two years later, both Harry and Meghan stepped back as working royals in January 2020 and relocated to Meghan’s home state of California with their then eight-month-old son Prince Archie; daughter Princess Lilibet was born in California the next year in 2021.

Harry’s first day of this U.K. trip—his longest since the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, in 2022—saw him pay tribute to the late Queen on the third anniversary of her death on September 8. He also took part in the 2025 WellChild Awards, an organization he has been patron of for 17 years.

On Tuesday, Harry visited Nottingham’s Community Recording Studio to meet social action groups and local charities, People reported. He also announced a $1.5 million donation to the BBC’s Children in Need initiative, which supports programs that tackle violence affecting young people.

Albeit arriving about 45 minutes late—no fault of his own, as The Telegraph reported he got caught in traffic “caused by the closure of the London Tube”—Harry was greeted with cheers by a small group of well-wishers, one of whom called out, sweetly, “You brought the sunshine with you.”

“It is so good to be back in Nottingham,” Harry said in a speech today. “I’ve lost count of the number of visits I’ve made here—and the amount of jerk chicken I’ve eaten on almost every one of these trips! Which, by the way, is the best you will find anywhere.”

“It really is banging,” he emphasized, per The Telegraph.

He continued to drive home what the city means to him—which is, perhaps, why it was the perfect location for Meghan’s first-ever royal engagement nearly eight years ago—by saying, “I’ll continue to stand with you. Nottingham has my respect, it always has my commitment, and a permanent place in my heart.”

Meghan hasn’t been in the U.K. since September 2022, the same month the late Queen died; their kids Archie and Lilibet have also not been in Harry’s home country since 2022, when they visited that June for Queen Elizabeth’s milestone Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years on the throne. Speaking to the BBC on May 2—and alluding to ongoing security issues Harry and his family have faced since he and Meghan stepped back as working royals over five years ago—the Duke of Sussex told the outlet, “I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point.”