Prince Harry returned to London for a two-day court hearing amid his legal battle — but did not get to see his father King Charles III or other London-based family members, according to reports.
Harry, 40, arrived on Sunday, April 6, without his wife, Meghan Markle, or two kids present. (Harry and Meghan, 43, share son Archie, 5, and daughter Lilibet, 3.)
Hours before Harry landed in London, Charles, 76, and wife Queen Camilla traveled to Italy. Charles and Camilla, 77, touched down in Rome on Monday, April 7, for their four-day trip.
Hello reported that Charles went to London on Sunday for a private appointment, so it was “not possible” for Harry and his father to see each other.
Harry, for his part, arrived at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, April 8. The Duke of Sussex donned a navy suit, white shirt and patterned blue tie as he waved while walking in.
After stepping back from his senior royal duties in 2020 and moving to California, Harry lost his former public-funded security personnel. In January 2022, Harry applied for judicial review to fund his family’s protection for U.K. visits.
Two years later, the U.K.’s High Court ruled that the British government has the right to determine the level of security non-working royals are permitted to receive when visiting. While Harry initially lost the right to appeal in April 2024, he overturned that in the summer.
On Tuesday, Harry’s lawyers claimed that when Ravec — the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures — made the 2020 decision “it did not apply its own terms of reference to that decision-making process.”
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Barrister Shaheed Fatima KC alleged that Ravec did not received an assessment from an “expert specialist body called the risk management board, or the RMB” and instead went through a “different and so-called ‘bespoke process.’” Without the RMB, Fatima alleged that Ravec “did not have the expert analysis that it needed” to determine whether Harry should receive “other VIP” treatment.
In a written submission, Fatima said, “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.”
The Home Office opposed the appeal. Sir James Eadie KC said in a written submission that the appeal “involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees.”
“[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.”
