In his legal dispute over police protection in Great Britain, Prince Harry portrayed his move to the USA as by no means a free decision. He does not agree with the claim that he has decided to no longer be a “working member” of the royal family, his lawyer Shaheed Fatima told the London High Court on Thursday.
Rather, to their “great sadness, he and his wife Meghan felt forced to step down from this role and leave the country in 2020,” the 39-year-old prince assured in a statement read by his lawyer.
“Britain is my home,” said the youngest son of King Charles III. continued in the statement. He wants his children to feel just as comfortable there as they do in their current place of residence in the USA. But that won’t work “if it is not possible to protect them on British soil.”
Harry and his wife Meghan retired from royal duties in April 2020 and now live in California with their two young children. As a result, the two lost their taxpayer-funded police protection in Great Britain. The British Home Office subsequently refused to assign police officers to ensure his security during visits to Harry’s home country, even though the prince himself wanted to cover the costs of the deployment.
The new proceedings before the High Court, which began on Tuesday, specifically concern the Interior Ministry’s decision made in February 2020 to only grant Prince Harry police protection on a case-by-case basis.
Lawyer James Eadie, who represents the Home Office in the process, defended the limited protection promise. The fact that Prince Harry only receives police protection under “certain conditions” and “depending on the context” is due to the “change in his status” that the prince himself brought about with the decision to become “a member of the royal family without an official function.” .
