Just two days after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle enrolled their young children in a brand new school — after suddenly uprooting them from California and moving them to a temporary new home on the other side of the world — the couple have removed the children from the school, citing “operational” concerns from their security team about getting them to and from the campus, a new report says.

Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, spent two days at their posh new school, meeting their new teachers and classmates, only to have their parents “reluctantly” withdraw them on the advice of their security team, sources close to the couple told Hello! magazine.

There was no issue with the school itself, with a friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex telling Hello! that “they absolutely adored the school, the kids and their parents.” But as much as the Sussexes supposedly wanted to make it work, “they had to make a difficult decision based on the fact that the team couldn’t make the school run operationally secure,” the friend said.

Typically for Harry and Meghan, this decision ignited a torrent of online criticism, with people addressing a range of issues surrounding the couple’s still largely unexplained decision to move back to the United Kingdom after six tumultuous years in California. Among other things, a number of people online have questioned why the Sussexes, who like to be seen as conscientious parents, didn’t get the security issue sorted before moving back to the United Kingdom or before they enrolled their children in a particular school.

“Parents should have all these details in place before placing children in school, especially in an entirely new country,” one person said on an ITV News X post on Archie and Lilibet being pulled out of their new school. “This does seem like a circus,” another person said. “What about a well thought out plan before impulsively moving. They have two school age children to think about.”

Others accused the Sussexes of using their kids for “emotional blackmail” in Harry’s ongoing legal dispute with the British government over whether he and his family can receive automatic, taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Police security. The timing of the school kerfuffle struck many people as curious, given that their return to the United Kingdom has prompted the British Home Office to launch a new review of whether the couple will again become eligible to receive police security — which can cost the government several million dollars a a year.

Harry and Meghan had to give up this security, and pay for their own, when they left royal duties in 2020 and moved to the United States in an attempt to establish themselves as rich Hollywood power players and global influencers. From their home in Montecito, Harry also waged a series of unsuccessful court battles to get the taxpayer-funded security reinstated, even while they were living in California.

Hello! reported that people in Harry’s camp will see the supposed need to move Archie and Lilibet to a new school “as further evidence of (the family’s) need for better security provision while living in the UK,” Hello! magazine reported.

Hello! also reported that Archie and Lilibet will be enrolled at another school in the area after visiting on Monday. Harry was spotted settling Lili into a reception area at the second school, and he and Meghan have been added to the parents’ Whatsapp groups.

Royal journalist Tom Sykes, who writes for both the Daily Beast and his The Royalist Substack, was among those who voiced skepticism about Harry and Meghan’s choices with regard to how they have handled and publicized their move back to the United Kingdom.

Among other things, Sykes wrote Monday that Harry and Meghan should have foreseen certain challenges in transporting the children back and forth to the first school. That’s largely because the first school was in Oxford, which is known for having heavy traffic when school is in session.

Sykes also weighed in on the ongoing suspicions that Harry and Meghan use their children for self-promotional purposes, or even for “emotional blackmail.” Over the weekend, Meghan posted images of the children on Instagram, showing the family appearing to enjoy settling into their new life in the English countryside. Sykes also has questioned Harry and Meghan’s pleas for security and privacy, while Meghan almost simultaneously advertises their presence in the U.K. It’s believed that Harry and Meghan have not yet settled into a new house of their own but are staying on the estate of a wealthy benefactor.

“So, the school run is too dangerous for this family to drive, but the family’s location (or that of their friend) is safe enough for their own Instagram, broadcast to millions,” Sykes wrote.

The official review of the Sussexes’ security will be carried out by a special board of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC), ITV reported.

Currently, the only protection the Sussexes receive from British police is the phone number of a police liaison officer, ITV reported. Otherwise, they are reportedly paying for their own 24/7 private protection. Harry maintains there are dozens of live threats against him and most of them have originated in Britain, ITV also reported.

A year ago, after Harry lost an Appeals Court ruling on having his taxpayer-funded police security reinstated, he sat down for an interview with the BBC and complained how unsafe it was for him and his family to visit the U.K. He said, “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.”

But for some reason, Harry and Meghan have put those fears aside, announcing last month that they were moving back to the United Kingdom. They reportedly gave Harry’s father, King Charles III, less than two weeks notice of their return.

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