Prince Harry is still fighting to restore security for him and his wife, Meghan Markle, five years after the U.K. government pulled it.
Harry, who is 40 years old, recently attended a two-day appeal hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice. The hearing was regarding a decision made in February 2020 to remove security for him and his wife after they announced their plans to leave the U.K.
During the hearing, the Duke of Sussex expressed to The Telegraph that he found the decision to be “difficult to swallow.” He also alluded to the issue being a contributing factor to the strained relationship with his father, King Charles III.
After leaving the court on April 9, Harry told People magazine that he felt “exhausted and overwhelmed.” He shared that his “worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case, and that’s really sad.”
Harry and Megan, 43, first announced they were stepping back from public duties in January 2020. The couple then met with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to iron out the details of their exit, with Elizabeth believing it was “imperative” that they “continue to be provided with effective security,” according to a letter from the late monarch’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young.
But the Royal and VIP Executive Committee concluded that if Harry and Meghan were to live private lives, they did not “fit readily” into the organization’s framework. Ravec ordered their security to be pulled by the end of March.
Harry and Meghan now live in Montecito, California with their two children, son Archie, 5, and daughter Lilibet, 3. He saw the removal of security as retaliation and thought it was a tactic to keep the couple trapped in the royal family.
“We were trying to create this happy house,” he told The Telegraph following the hearing.
In an effort to get his security detail reinstated, he applied for judicial review in January 2022. The U.K.’s high court ruled against him in 2024, leading to the appeals process that has carried into 2025.
Sir James Eadie KC, a government barrister, criticized Harry’s appeal in a written statement.
“[The Home Office] has, and continues to, treat (the duke) in a bespoke manner. He is no longer a member of the cohort of individuals whose security position remains under regular review by Ravec,” he said. “Rather, he is brought back into the cohort in appropriate circumstances, and in light of consideration of any given context.”
Barrister Shaheed Fatima KC argued during the appeals process that Ravec “did not have the expert analysis that it needed” to determine whether Harry should receive “other VIP” treatment.
“On 8 January 2020, [Harry] and his wife felt forced to step back from the role of full time official working members of the royal family as they considered they were not being protected by the institution, but they wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family,” she argued in a written submission.
