Prince Harry and Meghan reportedly face challenges rebuilding their social circle after returning to the UK. Royal commentator Tom Sykes claimed the couple now spend much of their time with just two friends. Reports say that those two friends are Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi.
Tom Sykes claims Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have Ellen DeGeneres and wife as their only friends
According to The Royalist, royal reporter Tom Sykes has claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are lonely after moving to the Cotswolds. Citing a source close to the couple, Sykes said that Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are currently their only friends. “A friend of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has basically told me that their only friends and the only people they see are Ellen and Portia,” Sykes said during a live video on his Royalist Substack.
The claims follow Meghan’s reported lunch outing with DeGeneres and de Rossi at the Three Horseshoes pub in Oxfordshire in late September. The couple reportedly remained close to the Sussexes during their time in Montecito, California. They moved to the Cotswolds in November 2024 and have since reconnected with Harry and Meghan.
Sykes also suggested that Harry’s social circle had shrunk since he stepped back from royal duties in 2020. He said former acquaintances were surprised by what they viewed as Harry’s growing distance from his previous circle. “They describe this man who was very beloved, had all these friends, but today seems to be very very lonely and very very cut off,” he said.
Sykes further claimed that the Sussexes had made little effort to expand their social circle. He alleged that they had done little to get to know their neighbors or connect with the parents of their children’s schoolmates. He also suggested that concerns about privacy and security had kept them away from public gatherings. “They’re not going out, they’re afraid to go out. They’re hugely paranoid about security,” he said.
However, the report acknowledged that Harry remains in contact with some longtime friends, including Arthur Landon.
