Filings in a British court show that Prince Harry felt greater risk for his family in Britain than Princess Diana did while she was alive.
A London judge upheld the British government’s decision to end the prince’s full-time state-funded police protection in 2020 on Wednesday.
According to documents referenced in the judge’s decision, Harry sought to discover who was responsible for reducing his police protection in a February 2020 letter he sent to top government official Sir Mark Sedwill, who was serving as cabinet secretary.
Princess Diana, his mother, died in 1997 in a vehicle disaster in Paris while photographers dangerously chased her. He made a reference to her in the letter.
Following his resignation as a working royal with Meghan Markle, Harry has been involved in a four-year legal dispute with the Home Office over the decision of its subsidiary organization RAVEC (the Royal and VIP Executive Committee) to remove his police bodyguards.
The legal team representing Harry contended that RAVEC violated due process by not following the law. He claimed that he was unaware that a senior member of the Queen’s household—with whom he had a tense relationship—sat on the committee, that the committee was unaware of his offer to pay for police protection personally, and that he was not given a chance to present his case before the decision was made.
Judge Sir Peter Lane upheld the committee’s legality in its decision-making process on February 28, effectively removing his full-time police protection, which has been in effect since the court declared in 2023 that people cannot pay for such security.
Whether Harry and his family travel privately or at the monarch’s invitation for a particular occasion determines the police protection they receive when visiting the United Kingdom.
On Thursday, a representative for Prince Harry made it clear that the prince will appeal the judge’s decision.
