Prince Harry says it’s ‘impossible’ to bring Meghan and his children back to the UK after losing legal challenge over his security
Prince Harry has said it is ‘impossible’ to bring Meghan Markle and his children back to the UK after losing a legal challenge over the withdrawal of his security detail.
In a bombshell interview with the BBC today, Harry said that he still loved the UK ‘despite what some people in that country have done’ and added that it was ‘really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland’.
The Duke of Sussex’s barrister argued that the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures’ (Ravec) decison to remove his Met Police armed bodyguards when he is in his native country has left the royal’s life ‘at stake’.
However, the court found that his ‘grievance’ over downgraded security had not ‘translated into a legal argument’ to successfully challenge the decision.
Speaking after the judgment, the Duke of Sussex said: ‘Obviously pretty gutted about the decision. We thought it was going to go our way.
‘But it certainly is proven that there is no way to win this through the courts, which someone had told me about beforehand.
‘The decision has been a surprise as well as not a surprise. For the time being it’s impossible for me to bring my family back to the UK.’
Speaking to the BBC, the Prince said that on the occasions he has ventured back to the UK since his security was removed, he felt that he was ‘putting myself at risk’.
The Duke of Sussex at the Royal Courts of Justice on April 9 during his appeal against a High Court ruling preventing him getting automatic taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK. It was taken away following Megxit
Harry said the court’s decision not to reinstate his security makes ‘it’s impossible for me to bring my family back to the UK.’ Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their children Archie (left) and Lilibet (right)
Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, pictured today as he rejected Harry’s appeal to have his security detail reinstated
Harry said: ‘The only time I have come back to the UK is sadly for funerals or court cases, and with the odd charitable function where I can in-between that, and I put myself at risk for that, but I will continue on with a life of public service, and I will always support the charities and the people who mean so much to me.
‘I can’t see a world in which I will be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point and the things they are going to miss is everything. I love my country and always have done…despite what some people in that country have done.
‘So I miss the UK. I miss parts of the UK. Of course I do. I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.’
However, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, said in his ruling this afternoon in London that Ravec’s decision ‘were taken as an understandable, and perhaps predictable, reaction to the claimant having stepped back from royal duties and having left the UK to live principally overseas’.
‘These were powerful and moving arguments and that it was plain the Duke of Sussex felt badly treated by the system’, he said.
‘But I concluded, having studied the detail, I could not say that the Duke’s sense of grievance translated into a legal argument to challenge RAVEC’s decision’.
Sir Geoffrey said Harry ‘makes the mistake of confusing superficial analogies’ when comparing himself with other VIPs which had ‘added nothing’ to the legal question.
He added: ‘My conclusion was that the Duke of Sussex’s appeal would be dismissed’.
A still of Harry from his bombshell BBC interview, in which he said ‘I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland’
The Duke of Sussex’s appeal against the dismissal of his legal challenge over the level of protection he and his family (pictured together at Christmas) is about his family’s right to security and safety, the court heard. Today’s ruling raises more questions over whether the Sussexes will visit Britain again
Meghan and Harry in New York last month, where they are believed to have had police protection, according to reports
It means that for now, armed police bodyguards, paid for by the British taxpayer, will not be automatically reinstated for him, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet when they are in the UK. It raises more questions over whether the Sussexes will visit Britain again.
In Harry’s explosive post-ruling interview to the BBC on Friday evening, he revealed the extent to which questions around his personal security when in the UK had widened the split between him and his father King Charles.
In a devastating broadside reopening wounds with the Royal Family, Harry told the BBC in California that he wants ‘reconciliation’ with the royal family but was at present cut off from his father.
‘He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff,’ the prince said, adding he didn’t know how long the King had left to live.
‘There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,’ he said, but he had now ‘forgiven’ them.
Saying that he felt ‘let down’ and looking upset, he described his court defeat as a ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitch up’ and blamed the Royal Household for influencing the decision to reduce his security.
Asked whether he had asked his father the King to intervene in the dispute over security, Prince Harry said: ‘I never asked him to intervene – I asked him to step out of the way and let the experts do their jobs.
‘The Ravec committee is an expert committee full of professionals plus the royals.’
He added: ‘Five years later, every single visit that I do back to the UK has to go through the royal household.
The Duke of Sussex returned to London for the appeal
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wave to the crowd on their wedding day in May 2018 – but Harry says he no longer feels comfortable bringing Meghan and his children to the UK
Harry described his court defeat as a ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitch up’ and there are now questions over whether he will ever return to the UK
‘My representative on the Ravec committee still to this day is the royal household.
‘That’s not a decision that I choose. I am forced to go through the royal household and accept that they are putting my best interests forward during these conversations and deliberations.
‘So no, I haven’t asked my father to intervene.’
When asked by the BBC what about his current security arrangements made him feel unsafe, the Duke of Sussex replied: ‘Everything.’
Prince Harry claimed that having his security detail removed had ‘uncovered my worse fears’ and left him feeling ‘devastated’.
He said: ‘I’m devastated – not so much as devastated with the loss that I am about the people behind the decision, feeling as though this is okay. Is it a win for them?’
He added: ‘I’m sure there are some people out there, probably most likely the people that wish me harm, [who] consider this a huge win.’
The Duke of Sussex said the removal of his Met Police security had an impact on him ‘every single day’ and meant he could only return to the UK if invited by the Royal Family since he would get upgraded security in such instances.
Harry also claimed that the removal of his security in 2020 was a negotiating tactic to force him and his family back to the UK.
He said: ‘Everybody knew that they were putting us at risk in 2020 and they hoped that me knowing that risk would force us to come back.
‘But then when you realise that didn’t work, do you not want to keep us safe?
‘Whether you’re the government, the Royal Household, whether you’re my dad, my family – despite all of our differences, do you not want to just ensure our safety?’
Prince Philip called Meghan ‘DoW’ because she reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor… and the Queen thought her Givenchy wedding dress was ‘too white’ for a divorcee, writes INGRID SEWARD in her revelatory new book
Mike Tindall gives firm answer as he makes his feelings clear on whether he would accept a royal title
William and Kate have a ‘real dilemma’ over Prince George’s future – amid fears that Eton might not be right for him after secret visit: RICHARD EDEN
About The Author
