His appeal was rejected by three senior judges in May 2025 and he was likely to be held liable for the UK government’s legal fees. It was also revealed that during the proceedings Harry had leaked information via email to “a partner of Schillings” and to Johnny Mercer, for which he apologised to the court. Despite his lawyers’ attempts to have him pay no more than 50% of the Home Office’s legal costs of defending his challenge, the judge held him liable for 90% of the costs. In February 2024, the High Court ruled against Harry in his case against the Home Office and upheld the decision by RAVEC, stating that there had been no unlawfulness in the decision-making process for his security arrangements. In June 2023, a Freedom of Information request revealed that Harry’s legal fight with the Home Office had cost £502,236, with £492,000 covered by the state and the remaining £10,000 covered by Harry.
Early life
The Sussexes visited the UK and Germany in September 2022 for a number of charity events in Manchester and Düsseldorf. In April 2021, Harry returned to the UK to attend the funeral of his grandfather, harry casino Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Because infant son Archie travelled with the Sussexes, this was “their first official tour as a family”.
They are still referred to as “His/Her Royal Highness” in legal and private settings. Writing for The Guardian, Stephen Bates stated that Harry’s “megaphone diplomacy isn’t working” and “his private security needs are probably not near the top of anybody’s priorities”. Referring to the press as “the devil”, he also alleged that “certain members” of his family were “in the bed” with them to “rehabilitate their image”.
After several years of the Duke of Sussex’s campaigning — including a high-profile court battle which he lost — a full-scale review was granted in December. It follows a report that an official review has found that Harry, 41, meets the criteria for inclusion in the taxpayer-funded security cover. Insiders tell PEOPLE there are “positive” noises coming from the government regarding a reversal of the decision not to grant Harry security, and they are cautiously hopeful that the decision to upgrade his cover will go ahead.
Harry has repeatedly said that without such security cover, he is unable to bring his wife, Meghan Markle, 44, and their two children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, to the country of his birth — insisting he doesn’t feel safe doing so. There is now a belief that, barring a last-minute intervention from opponents, the duke will be granted the armed guards and institutional backup he used to get when he was a working royal. Sources at the Home Office have indicated that security is nailed on for Harry.”
In May 2025, Harry was interviewed by Nada Tawfik of the BBC, during which he reflected on his loss of taxpayer-funded security and his ongoing estrangement from his family. In the interview with Bradby, Harry said that he “would like to get my father back, I would like to have my brother back”. During the interview, Harry criticised his father’s parenting style, mentioned his father did not answer his calls and had cut him off financially, and he had no relationship with his brother. Despite the palace congratulating the Duke and Duchess on the birth of their daughter Lilibet in June 2021, a few days later the BBC reported that Harry and Meghan had not sought the permission of the Queen before naming their daughter with her personal family nickname. In March 2020, the couple took Splash UK to court after the Duchess and their son were photographed without permission during a “private family outing” while staying in Canada. The publisher agreed to cover Harry’s legal costs and pay damages reported to be in the region of £300,000.
In 2002 The Times reported that Harry would also share with his brother a disbursement of £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on their respective 21st birthdays and would share a disbursement of £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays. At his mother’s funeral, Harry, then aged 12, accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and maternal uncle Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexfn 2 (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984), is a member of the British royal family.
- Later that month, he narrated “Hope Starts Here”, a special video rereleased by African Parks to mark the Earth Day in which he urged organisations and communities to preserve biodiversity and paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip for his efforts as a conservationist.
- Harry lost his full security cover when he and Meghan stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2020.
- In 2002 The Times reported that Harry would also share with his brother a disbursement of £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on their respective 21st birthdays and would share a disbursement of £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.
- It was also revealed that during the proceedings Harry had leaked information via email to “a partner of Schillings” and to Johnny Mercer, for which he apologised to the court.
- In the following month, UCAS reported an increase in the percentage of students declaring mental health issues on their university applications, citing self-help books and Harry’s statements on his struggles with “panic attacks and anxiety” as contributing factors.
Meghan Markle shares flirty public message to Prince Harry
- In October 2008, it was announced that Harry would follow his brother, father and uncle in learning to fly military helicopters.
- In January 2022, the couple mutually filed a legal complaint against The Times for an article reporting on Archewell raising less than $50,000 in 2020.
- While the couple resided on Vancouver Island, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation launched a petition calling for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to cease providing security to the Sussexes.
- Then, in December, the full-scale review of the Duke of Sussex’s security by the official body that assesses how royals and VIPs are guarded commenced.
- A September 2020 article by The Times claiming an Invictus Games fundraiser had been cancelled due to its affiliation with a competitor of Netflix, Harry’s business partner, became the subject of a legal complaint issued by the Duke.
- It emerged on Oct. 6 that a female stalker came within feet of Prince Harry on a couple of occasions when he was on a charity visit to the U.K.
- He added that he had struggled with aggression, had suffered from anxiety during royal engagements, and had been “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”.
It was later announced that the series, titled The Me You Can’t See, would be released on 21 May 2021. In April 2019, it was announced that Harry was working as co-creator and executive producer on a documentary series about mental health together with Oprah Winfrey, which was initially set to air in 2020 on Apple TV+. In April 2024, it was announced that Archewell Productions is working with Netflix to produce two new shows – on lifestyle and on polo – for the streaming platform. In June 2023, Spotify announced they would not proceed with the deal, cancelling Archetypes which had run for a single season of 12 episodes. In September 2019, it was reported that the couple had hired New York-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs, which represented them until 2022. In December 2025, it was announced that, for the first time since April 2019, RAVEC would reassess Harry’s threat level.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined by dog Pula for first appearance of 2026
He had previously visited a minefield in Mozambique with the charity and spent two days learning about their work and mine-clearing techniques. Later that month, he narrated “Hope Starts Here”, a special video rereleased by African Parks to mark the Earth Day in which he urged organisations and communities to preserve biodiversity and paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip for his efforts as a conservationist. They also announced their support for a vaccine equity fundraiser initiated by the same organisation, and penned an open letter to the pharmaceutical industry CEOs urging them to address the vaccine equity crisis. In May 2019, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex together with Harry’s brother and sister-in-law launched Shout, the UK’s first 24/7 text messaging service for those who suffer from mental issues. In July 2018, the Elton John AIDS Foundation announced that the Duke of Sussex and British singer Elton John were about to launch a global coalition called MenStar that would focus “on treating HIV infections in men”. Accusations of abuse by the charity surfaced publicly in 2022 and 2024, when reports claimed that rangers managed by African Parks had been torturing, beating, raping, and forcibly displacing members of the indigenous Baka community.
Military career
Harry attended the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, where he joined his brother. It was later reported that Harry helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents, and performed patrol duty in hostile areas while in Afghanistan. He was immediately pulled out due to the fear that the media coverage would put his security and the security of fellow soldiers at risk.
Harry withdrew the libel claim in January 2024 and became liable for the publisher’s £250,000 legal costs. The prince’s lawyer said the “substantial damages” paid by the publisher would be donated to the Invictus Games Foundation. However, his popularity fell after stepping back from royal duties, and it plummeted after the release of his controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, his Netflix docuseries, and his memoir. After his marriage, Harry’s popularity skyrocketed above all the other royals as he was deemed likable by 77 per cent of respondents in a poll of 3,600 Britons conducted by statistics and polling company YouGov. Harry received backlash again in August 2021 and 2022 for taking a two-hour flight on private jets between California and Aspen, Colorado, to participate in an annual charity polo tournament. In view of their environmental activism, Harry and Meghan were criticised in August 2019 for reportedly taking four private jet journeys in 11 days, including one to Elton John’s home in Nice, France.
Prince Harry and Meghan ‘sat on the floor’ in distress as their dog underwent emergency surgery
His appearance marked the first time a member of the royal family had been cross-examined in court since Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, appeared as a witness in court in 1891. In his lawsuit, Harry sought damages in excess of £200,000 from the publisher of the News of the World and The Sun and alleged an earlier agreement between News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the royal family which would see he and William not take legal action in return for an apology had not been honoured. At the time of the announcement of Harry and Meghan’s decision to “step back” as senior members of the royal family in 2020, 95% of the couple’s income derived from the £2.3 million given to them annually by Harry’s father, Charles, as part of his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they were stepping back from their role as senior members of the royal family, and would balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America. He adds in his memoir that he smoked cannabis at Eton and in Kensington Palace gardens, but he later told a court that “he never smoked in his father’s house”.
