LONDON, May 3 — Prince Harry said on Friday that he wanted to reconcile with Britain’s royal family but felt “devastated” after losing a legal battle over his security, which has made him feel unable to return to the UK with his family.
Visibly emotional, Harry told the BBC that his father, King Charles III, no longer speaks to him due to the security dispute and the publication of his memoir, and he urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene.
“Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But… I would love for reconciliation,” he said.
The Duke of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to the United States with his wife Meghan and their son Archie, who is about to turn six.
King Charles III’s youngest son has been locked in a years-long legal battle after the UK government downgraded his official security.
Speaking from California, Harry said he did not want to continue fighting legal battles, hinting that he would not take the case to the Supreme Court.
“Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has… he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff,” he said.
Charles was diagnosed with cancer in February 2024 and has been undergoing weekly treatment.
Harry reportedly found out from the media that his 76-year-old father had been briefly hospitalised due to side effects from the treatment in April.
The prince, 40, said he was “devastated” by Thursday’s court ruling, which rejected his appeal to restore full police protection when visiting Britain.
“It’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely,” he said.
‘Sense of grievance’
In response to the court ruling, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”
Harry was not in court when Judge Geoffrey Vos dismissed the appeal, saying the duke’s “sense of grievance” did not amount to a legal claim.
Harry’s security, the judge said, was now a “more bespoke, and generally lesser, level of protection than when he was in the UK”.
This did not “of itself give rise to a legal complaint”, he added.
Since settling in California, Harry and Meghan have had a second child, Lilibet, born in 2021.
In 2020, a government committee decided he would no longer receive the same level of publicly funded protection while in the UK.
After losing a High Court case, Harry was granted an appeal against the Home Office.
His legal team argued he was subjected to “unjustified and inferior treatment” and that the security threats were not fully assessed when the decision was made.
‘I miss the UK’
Harry, whose elder brother Prince William is the heir to the throne, has long spoken about the impact of their mother Princess Diana’s death in 1997, blaming the press for the high-speed car crash in Paris as she fled paparazzi.
He has cited media harassment as a major reason behind his and Meghan’s decision to step back from royal life five years ago.
Speaking to the BBC, the prince admitted: “I miss the UK,” and added: “It’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show… my children my homeland.”
In a two-day appeal hearing last month, Harry’s lawyers highlighted threats from Al-Qaeda and a “dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi” in New York as examples of the risks he faces.
His lawyer, Shaheed Fatima, said Harry’s “safety… security and… life” were at stake.
The prince described Thursday’s decision as a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch up” and accused the Royal household of influencing the outcome.
“This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother,” he said in a statement.
While Harry has largely stayed out of the public eye since 2020, Meghan has returned to the spotlight this year with a podcast, Netflix series, and a social media comeback. — AFP
