Amid all the reports and rumors about the racist comments allegedly made by King Charles and Kate Middleton, it’s easy to forget that that situation is just one of several scandals currently complicating life for the royal family.
News that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would not be traveling to the UK for Christmas has reopened an old debate about the couple’s security concerns in Harry’s home country.
Back in 2020, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures revoked Harry’s right to a security detail with the reasoning that he and Meghan no longer qualified as “working” royals.
Harry has since offered to cover the expenses himself, but the committee still will not permit him to use government employees as personal bodyguards.
And since any private security team hired by Harry would not be permitted access to many of the royal family’s private quarters, the Duke of Sussex has been left with few options.
This thorny matter was the subject of a three-day hearing in a London courtroom this week.
Harry did not put in an appearance, but attorneys for the duke read a statement he prepared.
“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 said in the statement, according to People magazine.
“The UK is my home. The UK 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,” Harry continued.
“That cannot happen if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil.”
“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.”
It’s a powerful argument for flexibility on the royals’ part with regard to the security matter.
But the claim that the Sussexes are unsafe on UK soil probably won’t help Harry and Meghan’s approval ratings overseas, which are currently at an all-time low.
Already this week, a prominent UK politician called for Harry and Meghan to be stripped of their royal titles, and now, Harry has indicated that he feels unsafe in his home country.
Of course, Harry has every reason to feel protective of his family, especially since his own mother was hounded and harassed into an early grave by the same tabloid media that has now targeted Meghan.
One might expect that the relative recency of that tragedy and the trauma it must have inflicted would earn Harry a bit of sympathy from the UK press and the protection committee, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Prince Harry Makes Bold Courtroom Statement: Meghan Markle Is Not Safe In the UK was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.