Prince Harry is fighting to feel safe when he visits his home country with wife Meghan Markle and their two children.
During a three-day hearing in London which began on Tuesday, December 5, Harry’s legal team argued against a February 2020 decision by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) that removed Harry’s automatic right to police security in the U.K. after he stepped down from his role as a senior royal.
Although Harry, 39 — who shares son Archie, 4, and daughter Lilibet, 2, with Meghan, 42 — did not appear in court, his lawyers shared a statement from him.
“It was with great sadness to both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020,” he told the court, according to ITV. “The U.K. is my home. The U.K. is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the United States. That cannot happen if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil.”
He continued: “I can’t put my wife in danger like that, and given my experiences in life, I’m reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle James Devaney/GC Images
Harry and Meghan have only brought their children to the U.K. once since they moved to California in 2020. The family of four flew across the pond for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 and celebrated Lilibet’s first birthday at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, their former home.
Since stepping away from their senior duties, Harry and Meghan have been outspoken about their negative experiences as royals. During a tell-all CBS interview in March 2021, Meghan recalled a member of the royal family expressing “concerns” before she gave birth to Archie about “how dark” his skin would be.
Prince Harry‘s relationship with his relatives is complex and complicated. Harry is the youngest son of King Charles III and the late Princess Diana. As children, he and his older brother, Prince William, seemed inseparable, but as they got older, cracks began to form in their relationship. “There’s always been a part of Harry that […]
The controversy made headlines again last month when the Netherlands version of Omid Scobie’s book Endgame was pulled from shelves after being allegedly misprinted with details about which royals were involved in the conversation about Archie’s skin color. Scobie subsequently denied naming names in the version he wrote.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Joshua Sammer/Getty Images
“Having only written and edited the English version of Endgame, I can only comment on that manuscript — which does not name the two individuals who took part in the conversation,” he said in a statement to People. “I’m happy to hear that the error in the translation of the Dutch edition is being fixed.”
In Endgame, Scobie also detailed how Harry’s decision to air out his “grievances against the family and the Institution” in the CBS interview deepened the rift between him and his brother, Prince William.
Scobie claimed that William, 41, “believes Harry and Meghan blindsided the family” and is “convinced” that Harry has been “brainwashed” by an “army of therapists” to the point that William “no longer even recognizes” his younger brother.