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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke March 13, 2023

Prince Harry wasn’t deported from the United States and King Charles isn’t exiling him to Botswana

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  • Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, were recently asked to leave their home on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London. But we found no evidence to support claims that Harry was deported from the U.S., or that he will be dispatched against his will to Botswana.
 

British royal family fan fiction is alive and well on Facebook, where claims that Prince Harry has been deported from the United States and is facing a forcible exile in southern Africa are drawing attention. 

"Harry could be exiled to Botswana after he was deported from the United States due to an expired visa," a narrator says in a video shared on Facebook on March 12. The post alleges that King Charles rubber-stamped a plan hatched by Harry’s brother, Prince William, to exile Harry to Botswana without a ticket back to the United Kingdom.

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, live in California after eschewing royal life in the United Kingdom for the United States. On March 3, they christened their daughter at their home in Montecito, according to People magazine and other outlets.

Featured Fact-check

The couple was recently asked to leave their home on the grounds of Windsor Castle west of London, but we found no evidence to support claims that Harry was deported from the U.S., or that he will be dispatched against his will to Botswana.

We looked for mentions of a U.S. deportation and Botswana exile in publications such as Hello!, a royalist magazine, and British tabloids that report on royal minutiae, and discovered none. On March 7, Sky News Australia reported on comments by the network’s anchor Piers Morgan, who speculated that "Prince Harry could be denied entry to the United States" if he leaves following a recent acknowledgement that he used psychedelic drugs. 

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, meaning King Charles serves in a symbolic role in government. He can’t force Harry to Botswana, which gained independence from Britain in the mid-1960s and was the site of Harry and Meghan’s third date

We rate this post Pants on Fire!

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Prince Harry wasn’t deported from the United States and King Charles isn’t exiling him to Botswana

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