Prince Harry claimed that Meghan Markle would not have had security after she married into the royal family if he had not intervened.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, made the allegation in an extensive letter shared to sussex.com, the website he shares with his wife, on May 2. The update came hours after a U.K. judge dismissed his legal appeal to reexamine the state-funded security that Harry says was unjustly stripped when he and Meghan stepped back from their royal roles in 2020.
King Charles’ younger son described his legal appeal as a “last resort” and called the Royal Household a “key decision maker” in RAVEC, the government’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee responsible for his security arrangements. In an intense allegation, Harry said that RAVEC did not want to protect Meghan until he stepped in.
“In November 2017, before the Royal Household’s role on RAVEC was known, this secretive committee concluded that when my wife would join the royal family, she should not receive protection. Only when I asked for the name of the person willing to carry that risk did they reverse the decision,” Prince Harry said in the letter.
Prince Harry and the American actress, then known for her role on Suits, started dating in July 2016 and announced their engagement a little more than a year later in November 2017. The couple went on to wed at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May 2018 and welcomed their first child, son Prince Archie, now 5, in May 2019.
In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the seismic decision that they were stepping back from their royal roles in the U.K. They later settled in Meghan’s home state of California, where daughter Princess Lilibet, now 3, was born in June 2021.
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Prince Harry shared the statement after a U.K. judge dismissed his legal appeal to restore the state-funded security he says was unjustly revoked when he and Meghan stepped back from their royal roles in 2020.
Hours later after the U.K. judge dismissed his pitch for the restoration of state-funded security, the BBC released an interview with the Duke where he said he was “devastated” with the situation and wished for “reconciliation” with his family and father, King Charles.
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