Prince Harry launched a blistering attack on his family, the Royal Household and the Government just hours after losing his court battle over the levels of security he and his family are entitled to while they are in the UK.
The Duke of Sussex had appealed a decision that downgraded his level of protection after he and Meghan stepped down as working royals in 2020 and left Britain for Montecito, California.
On Friday, he lost his attempt to overturn the Home Office‘s decision at the Court of Appeal – a ruling he has since furiously described as a ‘good old-fashioned Establishment stitch-up’.
At the heart of his anger is the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) who decided that he should receive a different degree of protection when he returns to the UK.
When he and Meghan stopped official duties and moved to California, Ravec decided the Sussexes would not receive comprehensive security when in the UK, although they still receive state-funded protection on a case-by-case basis.
Furious at the verdict, the duke said he was ‘worried’ that the ruling has ‘set a new precedent that security can be used to control members of the family’.
‘And effectively what it does is imprison other members of the family from being able to choose a different life,’ he added.
Harry’s bombshell interview with the BBC has been met with a wave of criticism after he complained that his cancer-stricken father, King Charles, ‘won’t speak to me’ and claimed he ‘doesn’t know how much longer he has left’.
Prince Harry launched a blistering attack on his family, the Royal Household and the Government just hours after losing his court battle
The interview has been met with a wave of criticism after he complained that his cancer-stricken father, King Charles, ‘won’t speak to me’ and claimed he ‘doesn’t know how much longer he has left’
‘The sticking point’
During the interview, Prince Harry was quizzed by BBC journalist Nada Tawfik on whether the last step to repairing relations with his family was the security saga.
From the duke’s side, he says ‘100 per cent’, adding: ‘Whatever noise is being created, whatever stories have been written, this has always been the sticking point.
‘Put yourself in my shoes, if you step back to try to create a different role, the same official role, but a different working relationship with the institution that you were born into, for the sake of your wife and your own mental health and your child, which now a lot more has come out, because I felt as though it needed to come out – the other side of the story needed to be told, God forbid anything should happen.
‘And I don’t regret that at all. But 2020, when that decision happened, I couldn’t believe it. I actually couldn’t believe it.
‘I thought, with all the disagreements and all of the chaos that’s happening, the one thing that I could rely on is my family keeping me safe.
‘And not only did they decide to remove my security in the UK, but they also signalled to every single government around the world not to protect us.’
But a major stumbling block to reconciliation with his family also centres around his explosive revelations of private family matters to the public through his memoir Spare, his Netflix documentary series with Meghan and the couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During the interview, Prince Harry was quizzed by BBC journalist Nada Tawfik on whether the last step to repairing relations with his family was the security saga
Harry said the security issue was ‘100 per cent’ the sticking point. But he has also aired private matters in his book Spare and in other interviews
Among the most sensational revelations were his claims that Prince William physically attacked him and how the King did not hug him when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris 1997.
In the Oprah interview in 2021, they said one unnamed royal had raised ‘concerns’ over what colour Prince Archie’s skin might be. In December 2022, he said in his Netflix documentary that there is a ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in the Royal Family.
‘In this family, sometimes you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution,’ he said.
Then in January 2023, in an interview with ITV, he said ‘silence is betrayal’ over the alleged failure from the palace to defend him and Meghan.
‘My risks and threats have been disregarded and ignored’
The Duke of Sussex has previously said he faces a greater risk than Princess Diana with ‘additional layers of racism and extremism’.
From Harry’s side, al-Qaeda have called for him to be murdered after he admitted killing 25 Taliban fighters while deployed in Afghanistan in his book Spare.
In the BBC interview, he said: ‘A whole list of risks and threats that were known about in 2020 … including the al-Qaeda threat that was published and talked about recently, [have been] completely disregarded, thrown away, ignored.’
‘That role that everybody knows that myself and my wife wish to carry on but was stopped from being able to do that back in 2020.’
In a statement released after the BBC interview, Harry said he had faced threats from neo-Nazis and extremists, pointing out there are people in prison over such threats.
Harry’s concerns are perhaps heightened by the targeting of members of the Royal Family in the past. Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.
In a statement released after the BBC interview, Harry said he had faced threats from neo-Nazis and extremists, pointing out there are people in prison over such threats
But the duke, who travelled to Ukraine last month, does not face the same ‘threat’ anymore, a senior security source told The Times.
They pointed out he is fifth in line to the throne now and is likely to be in places which have ‘substantial security’ when he is in the UK.
‘I struggle to forgive those who knowingly put my family in harm’s way’
Prince Harry was asked whether he feels let down by his country.
The duke insisted that he was willing to now ‘forgive’ his family, including King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William.
But he says he finds it difficult to forgive those responsible for the decision to downgrade his levels of security.
He said: ‘What I’m struggling to forgive and probably what I will always struggle to forgive is that a decision that was made in 2020 that affects my every single day and that is knowingly putting me and my family in harm’s way.
‘Everybody knew they were putting us at risk in 2020 and they hoped that me knowing that risk would force us to come back.
Harry said he can forgive his father, Prince William and Camilla but not the people who made the decision to reduce his protection. He is pictured with the Royal Family at a Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey in 2020
‘But then when you realise that that didn’t work, do you not want to keep us safe?
‘Whether you’re the government, whether you’re the royal household whether you’re my dad, my family, despite all of our differences do you not want to ensure our safety?’
Harry claims that reducing protection for him and Meghan was done to prevent them leaving the Royal Family, a claim disputed by those who made the decision.
A security source told The Times: ‘There was a question anyway of: ‘Did Harry need protection at all times, and what the right level of protection was to give minimal hassle but keep him safe?’
They pointed out that ‘very few people get that high priority’ of protection, naming the Prime Minister and the monarch.
‘My jaw hit the floor’
Prince Harry says he questions the ‘motive’ behind the decision in 2020, revealing how at the start of that year he scored the highest for risk and ‘overnight’ was reduced to the lowest without going through the Risk Management Board.
He said the hardest part for him as been the ‘ethics of that decision for the past five years’.
The duke added: ‘I have all of the truth, I have all the knowledge now throughout the legal process, I’ve uncovered my worst fears and to now know today based on this judgement that there was no legal framework that constrains the decisions of the body Ravec in which the royal household sit on and I didn’t know that until the legal process in 2021.
‘One of the first things my lawyer said to me was as disclosure started, as this process started, she turned around and said, ‘Did you know that the Royal household sat on Ravec?’ And my jaw hit the floor.’
Harry said the hardest part for him as been the ‘ethics of that decision for the past five years’
Harry is implying that the royal household put pressure on Ravec to reduce his security. If it was down to him, he says he would not be represented by the royal household, who should be there to promote his interests.
While Ravec does have members of the royal household on it, government sources deny that the Palace influences its decisions.
‘Ravec reaches decisions independent of the Palace,’ a source told The Times. ‘This is not the palace ringing up and demanding it of the committee.’
‘My status hasn’t changed’
While Harry and Meghan left Britain to move away from royal duties, he is adamant that he cannot ‘escape’ the risks of being a member of the Royal Family.
The interviewer pointed out that his change in status justified why he didn’t have the RMB review.
She asked Harry, ‘Do you not accept that from the court?’
The duke replied: ‘My change status hasn’t changed, it can’t change, I am who I am, I am part of what I’m part of and I can never escape that, my circumstances will always be the same.’
Critics argue that while Harry and Meghan left the UK for privacy, they have thrown themselves into the public eye with Netflix shows (pictured), podcasts and interviews
Critics will argue that although Harry moved to Montecito in search of a private life, he and Meghan have continued to put themselves in the public eye with lucrative Netflix and podcast deals.
In March, Meghan’s latest series ‘With Love, Meghan’ was released on Netflix – and it has been renewed for a second series.
‘I don’t want history to repeat itself’
In one shocking moment in the interview, Harry appears to reference his mother’s death. He goes on to say there are people who would like ‘history to repeat itself’.
He tells the BBC: ‘I don’t want history to repeat itself I think there’s a lot of other people out there, the majority that also don’t want history to repeat itself. From the disclosure process I’ve discovered that some people want history to repeat itself which is pretty dark.’
The duke did not elaborate on who the ‘people’ are or what he meant by this.
He added: ‘I know all the names of the people that were involved in this process and again you have to question why wasn’t I put through the same risk management board that everybody else was put through including members of my family?
In one shocking moment in the interview, Harry appears to reference his mother’s death. He goes on to say there are people who would like ‘history to repeat itself’. Pictured: Harry walks along
‘Whether I have an official role or not is irrelevant to the security needs that I would need. Let me rephrase that, whether I have an official role or not is irrelevant to the threats, risks, and impact on the reputation on the UK if that were to happen.’
Harry goes on to say that he didn’t ‘choose’ to be born into his position, adding: ‘I’ve served my country for 35 years, I believe that I’m still continuing to serve my country.
‘I don’t know how much longer my father has.’
Perhaps the moment of the interview that has sparked the biggest backlash was the speculation he made about his father’s cancer battle.
The duke said: ‘I would love reconciliation with my family there’s no point in continuing to fight anymore, as I said life is precious.
‘I don’t know how much longer my father has, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff but it would be nice to reconcile.’
The comments about the private health battle are not believed to have gone down well with the Royal Family.
Perhaps the moment of the interview that has sparked the biggest backlash was the speculation he made about his father’s cancer battle. Charles and Harry are pictured in 2022
Royal sources told ITV News that the comments about his father’s cancer were ‘in particular poor taste’ and that the late Queen Elizabeth would have been ‘horrified’.
They added that the interview on a whole had ‘further alienated the royal family and pushed back the chances of a reconciliation’.
‘I can only come to the UK safely if I’m invited’
Harry was quizzed on whether he will continue to visit the King and whether his children will be able to see their grandfather.
The duke replied: ‘Life is a precious thing and I am acutely aware of the fragility of that, I can only come to the UK safely if I’m invited.
‘There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hand, ultimately this whole thing could be resolved through him not necessarily by intervening but by stepping aside allowing the experts to do what is necessary and to carry out an RMB.
‘That said there is, this all was initiated under a previous government and there is now a new government.
‘I have had it described to me once people knew about the facts that this is a good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up and that’s what it feels like.’
But a Palace spokesperson issued a blunt response to his claims of a stitch-up, insisting: ‘All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.’
