Harry and Meghan’s transatlantic return will be as disastrous as mine was.At first I assumed it was a prank. Surely Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aren’t really moving back to the UK. Why on earth would they do that?They had a laundry list of reasons for leaving that they were very vocal about. The lack of privacy. Bad press. Tensions with the Royal Family. Harry has been hesitant even to bring Meghan and the children to Britain for fleeting visits, citing security concerns. None of this has changed. If anything, it’s all a good deal worse than it was when they left in 2020. And what’s Meghan going to do with the chickens?From where I’m standing, they’re making a monumental mistake. I know because I’ve done it myself – returned to England after a six-year spell in the US, feeling ‘healed’ and ready to face the mess I’d left in my homeland. Only, it didn’t go well…I was in my early twenties when I decided on a whim to cross the Pond and make a new life for myself in New York. I was a cataclysmic mess – there’s no other way to put it. Bored witless at my job in advertising. Broken from a string of affairs with older married men. Pickled from too much heavy drinking. Stunted from still living in my mother’s flat. And bickering with my best friend.So in true Megxit style, I didn’t just slink off to America. I made a sudden, dramatic departure. My last row with my then boyfriend, who had always managed with great skill to be both highly controlling and devastatingly unavailable, had been a fiery spectacle to behold. I bought a one-way ticket to New York and left the next day.Somewhat against the odds, given my mental state, I did make a good life for myself in the States. As I’m sure Harry found, at least initially, America is an excellent place to be the underdog. It doesn’t care where you’ve come from or what qualifications you have. If you bring enough gumption to the table, welcome to the feast. Annabel Fenwick Elliott is surprised that Harry and Meghan have decided to return to the UK after living in the US for six years Annabel bought a one-way ticket to New York and left the next day, then lived in the US for six yearsBonus points for being British. I started off there as a bartender and it was roundly agreed among staff that I had my English accent to thank for the colossal tips I raked in every night – it certainly wasn’t because of my cocktail-making skills. Harry scores extra points because he’s a real prince and therefore almost a deity in America.As for Meghan, her stock shot up hugely when she abandoned the UK. She was finally back in the sunny state she grew up in, close to her mother and all the ‘dear friends’ we met in her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan. Say what you like about that peek into their glossy Montecito life (it caused my eyes to roll nearly permanently into the back of my head) but they did both look effervescently happy there.So was I. After bartending, I eventually landed a great job working as a writer for this newspaper’s New York office, a smattering of friends, and a nice apartment. Why then, did I leave?In short, I was struck by the same pangs of homesickness Harry might be feeling. I missed English pubs. Historic buildings. Banter. Sarcasm – Ricky Gervais in The Office appealed far more than his US counterpart Steve Carell. And once the seed had been sown, it grew rapidly.I conveniently deleted the memories of my aforementioned ex-boyfriend’s dismal behaviour and got back in touch with him. We’d been talking on the phone and he appeared conciliatory.I had visions of a beautiful reunion, and of sending our future children to good British private schools (never mind that I despised my school years in Oxford). I started reading a lot of English historical novelist Philippa Gregory, and yearned to spend my weekends floating around Hampton Court Palace.And so, with only a little more notice than I’d given when I left the UK, I moved back – landing with an almighty, bottom-bruising bump. Harry with close friend Tom Inskip on a skiing holiday in 2011 Harry has not been seen with his former best friend Tom 'Skippy' Inskip since Harry and Meghan's wedding The Duchess never appeared to have close friends in England, aside perhaps from Princess EugenieThe nation was in the divisive grips of the Brexit referendum, which had carved a colossal crack in the ground that has only seemed to widen since. The national mood was not positive.In what was a shock to absolutely no one except myself, my ex-boyfriend had no interest in patching things up. Probably for the best.The friends I had left behind were no longer fun and single, but resolutely coupled up and starting families. That was sad.As for my very best friend, who I’d been starting to drift apart from before I moved away, she had fully metamorphosed into a person I hardly recognised, and had very little time for me.Back in the day, we’d spend hours in the pub several times a week cackling over bad dates and work mishaps. Now, I had to book a coffee slot with her weeks in advance and all she talked about was curtain patterns and wedding venues. It didn’t take long for us to fall out and cut off contact altogether.I moved back in with my mum, started drinking too much again, and felt thoroughly disappointed by it all. While Harry and Meghan most definitely will not be moving back into the Windsor family home, I expect they might find themselves similarly deflated upon their return.We English are not particularly forgiving. And unlike in America, we are not very good at pretending to like those we don’t. The Sussexes didn’t leave on great terms and the public hasn’t forgotten. A recent poll conducted by the Daily Mail found that only a piddly 9 per cent of readers are pleased to see them come home.What are they going to do all day? Will Harry manage to resurrect his friendships with his old gang? I went to university with his former best friend Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip, a truly brilliant man, and I recall how close they were. They haven’t been seen together since Harry and Meghan’s wedding.The Duchess never appeared to have close friends in England, aside perhaps from Princess Eugenie. She’ll find it a lot harder to forge new ones here compared to in the States.What will become of As Ever, which didn’t exactly score the sort of celebrity endorsements in England that it did in Hollywood? Indeed, she’ll likely find, as I did, that the media and entertainment industries here are a good deal smaller and the pay less bountiful.What I imagine they’ll do, therefore, is exactly what I did shortly after I came back to London, and that is to float off again. I spent the next few years travelling as much as I could, using the UK as a base. Meghan, too, will reportedly ‘come and go’, sources have indicated, between here, California and wherever else takes her fancy.Against all odds, I did eventually sort my life out and find a brilliant husband; a German pilot I met in Greece. We’ve since lived in Iceland, Mauritius and Italy, and each time I find I miss England, despite its downsides, and am drawn back. We’re based here now, in rural Essex, and while I might not like our government, I’ll always love my country.That said, we are eyeing up a move back to the US next year. I was happiest there, and a fool to leave. My money is on the Sussexes following suit not long after.