Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reportedly inquired about relocating to New Zealand during a visit to the South Pacific country in 2018, two years before Megxit, an official has claimed.
Dame Patsy Reddy, the Governor-General of New Zealand, claimed that when the Sussexes visited the country months after their marriage in 2018, they expressed their admiration for New Zealand and made inquiries about how to relocate to the country.
“I remember they’d just been down to the Abel Tasman National Park when we sat down and had a drink,” Patsy said, according to AP. “They said that they could imagine living in a place like this and wondered whether we thought it would be theoretically possible.”
“Of course, we said, ‘Sure, It would be fine’. There are lots of opportunities to live in New Zealand, but that would be something that they’d have to explore,” the commonwealth official added.
Meghan and Harry’s New Zealand inquiry “proof Megxit was planned for over a year”
Meghan and Harry visited New Zealand in October 2018 as part of their official tour of the South Pacific after they got married in May 2018.
Patsy explained that the Sussexes’ inquiry about relocating to the country was made during informal discussions and she didn’t consider it to be a formal request.
However, some royal watchers have claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s inquiry about relocating to New Zealand was “proof” that they had been planning Megxit for more than a year and that they “always wanted to leave Britain.”
According to New Zealand’s Stuff.co.nz., “The discussion shows that the couple was considering options outside of Britain less than six months after they married and well before their eventual move to the US.”
Meghan and Harry quit the Royal Family early in 2020
Meghan and Harry announced they were stepping down from their roles as working members of the Royal Family in January 2020. They left the U.K. in March 2020 and relocated to the U.S. after living briefly in Vancouver Island, Canada.
They currently live in their mansion in the Montecito neighborhood of Santa Barbara, California.
Meghan has not returned to the U.K. since the family left in March 2020. Harry first returned to the U.K. in April 2021 to attend Prince Philip’s funeral. He visited the U.K. again in June/July 2021 to attend the unveiling of a statue in honor of Diana, Princess of Wales.
In other news, Meghan is celebrating her 40th birthday today (August 4) with a “low-key” party at her residence in Santa Barbara, California.