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Meghan Markle is reportedly packing her suitcases and heading back to Britain. Yes, you read that correctly - the very country she spent years explaining why she had to escape.

More than six years after leaving Britain alongside Prince Harry and embarking on a very public post-mortem of royal life, complete with claims of being “silenced”, surrendering her passport and keys, and accusations that “The Firm” was “perpetuating falsehoods”, Meghan is apparently ready for another crack at life on this side of the Atlantic.

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The Californian sunshine, sprawling Montecito mansion and 5,000-mile buffer from Buckingham Palace seemingly aren’t quite enough anymore. Now, Meghan is returning with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, with the children even enrolled at a British school - a sentence that would have sounded almost laughable a few weeks ago.

Of course, people change their minds, but after years spent telling the world just how suffocating Britain apparently became, this isn’t simply a change of postcode. It’s a U-turn so spectacular it practically requires its own roundabout.

And nowhere is that irony more glaring than when it comes to her children. Back in 2022, Meghan painted a rather terrifying picture of the British school run, with The Cut reporting her belief that she would “never be able to do school pick-up and drop-off without it being a royal photo call with a press pen of 40 people snapping pictures”.

Meghan was pretty emphatic, too: “Sorry, I have a problem with that. That doesn’t make me obsessed with privacy. That makes me a strong and good parent protecting my child.”

Fair enough – except fast-forward four years and Archie and Lilibet are reportedly enrolled at a British school, which is quite the turnaround.

Perhaps security has improved, perhaps living outside London provides the privacy Meghan once thought impossible, or perhaps Britain looks considerably less terrifying when viewed from the comfort of a Montecito mansion. Whatever has changed, one thing hasn’t: Meghan’s own words are still there, and they have aged rather awkwardly.

And the school-run remarks barely scratch the surface of Meghan’s rather hefty royal grievance file.

There was the Oprah interview, where she claimed she had been “silenced”, surrendered her passport, driving licence and keys, and accused “The Firm” of playing an active role in “perpetuating falsehoods about us”.

Then came Netflix, where royal life was branded a “baptism by fire”, Palace formality became another source of discomfort and Meghan revealed she had resorted to Googling the National Anthem because, according to her account, nobody had properly taught her. Hardly a glowing TripAdvisor review for life in Britain.

Of course, some allegations were considerably more serious, particularly those concerning Meghan’s mental health and the conversations she described surrounding Archie’s skin colour, and those deserve to remain well away from cheap punchlines.

But stack everything else together - the curtsies, protocol, restrictions, press, Palace machinery and apparent loss of independence, and Meghan spent years painting royal Britain as somewhere she could barely endure. Which makes voluntarily bringing herself and her children back into that very orbit quite the change of heart.

Apparently, Britain isn’t quite so unbearable after all.

Let’s not pretend the Sussexes are returning empty-handed. They are expected to keep their Montecito mansion and their Portuguese property, while reportedly establishing another base outside London.

Not so much goodbye California, then, as hello international property portfolio. But Britain offers something neither Montecito nor Portugal ever can: proximity to the Royal Family.

Harry has spent years making solo trips home while Meghan largely remained in America, but putting the entire Sussex family back in Britain changes the equation completely. Suddenly the King is closer, royal reunions become possible and every Sussex appearance carries that intoxicating whiff of Palace intrigue all over again.

For two people who spent years trying to establish an identity beyond the monarchy, returning to its doorstep is some plot twist.