Prince Harry loses court battle over downgraded U.K. security detail

CTV Royal Commentator Afua Hagan discusses the impact of Prince Harry losing his appeal in his security detail case.

LONDON — Prince Harry on Friday lost his appeal to restore his full U.K. police protection when visiting Britain -- a blow to the estranged royal, who had said that the safety of his family was at risk.

King Charles III’s youngest son, also known as the Duke of Sussex, has been embroiled in the years-long legal saga since the U.K. government downgraded his security when he stepped down from royal life and left to live abroad with his wife, Meghan.

Harry was not present for the judgement at London’s Court of Appeal in which Judge Geoffrey Vos dismissed the appeal, saying the duke’s “sense of grievance” had failed to translate into a legal argument.

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“From the Duke of Sussex’s point of view, something may indeed have gone wrong, in that an unintended consequence of his decision to step back from royal duties and spend the majority of his time abroad had been that he has been provided with a more bespoke, and generally lesser, level of protection than when he was in the U.K.,” Vos said.

This, however, did not “of itself give rise to a legal complaint”, he added.

Since moving to California in 2020, Harry and Meghan have had a second child, Lilibet, a sister to Archie born in 2019, and rarely engage with the British royals.

But the prince says security concerns have hampered his ability to visit the U.K. and bring his family with him.

The government committee which handles protection for royals and public figures in 2020 decided he would not receive the “same degree” as before of publicly funded protection when in Britain.

After initially losing a case in the High Court challenging the decision last year, he was allowed to launch an appeal against the interior ministry.

His lawyers argued Harry was “singled out” for “unjustified and inferior treatment” and that the committee did not fully assess the security threats when downgrading his protection.

Harry, whose older brother is heir-to-the-throne Prince William, has long been haunted by the 1997 death of his mother Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.

The prince has blamed the press for the tragedy and cited intense media scrutiny as one of the reasons he and Meghan took a step back five years ago.

Fraught ties

In the two-day appeal hearing last month, Harry’s lawyers said the Sussexes had been threatened by al Qaeda and involved in a “dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi” in New York City, as an example of the security dangers he faces.

“There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security and whose life is at stake,” the prince’s lawyer, Shaheed Fatima, said in her concluding statements.

In a 2023 High Court hearing, Harry, a former British army captain who served in Afghanistan, said it was too dangerous to bring his family to the U.K. without bolstered security.

“The U.K. is my home,” he said. “The U.K. is central to the heritage of my children. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe.”

However, the High Court concluded that the government had acted lawfully in its decision.

In the appeal hearing, government lawyers said Harry’s security was meant to be “bespoke” to his “revised circumstances,” adding it was a result of his decision to spend less time in the U.K.

Harry’s fraught ties with his family have worsened after various public allegations that he and Meghan have made against the royals.

Harry and William are barely on speaking terms, according to U.K. media.

He has also hardly seen his father, King Charles -- who has been receiving treatment for an unspecified type of cancer -- for over a year.

While Harry has maintained a relatively low-profile since 2020, Meghan has been boosting her online presence this year, having already launched a podcast and Netflix series and making a return to social media.

By Akshata Kapoor