By IWAN STONE and JORDANA SEAL
Published: 13:28 EDT, 2 May 2025 | Updated: 19:50 EDT, 2 May 2025
Prince Harry has shocked the nation with a new series of devastating broadsides aimed at the Royal Family.
The Duke of Sussex has claimed King Charles ‘won’t speak to me’, but claimed he wants ‘reconciliation’ with his family.
He told the BBC he did not know how long his father had left to live, adding: ‘I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK.’
The emotional interview came after the Prince was left ‘devastated’ after sensationally losing his battle over taxpayer-funded police bodyguards – putting him on the hook for £1.5million in legal costs.
Harry justified the taxpayer funding his private security
During the bombshell interview, the interviewer asked Harry: ‘What do you say to those who ask why the UK taxpayer should pay for police security, you have your own private security?’
He replied: ‘Well first off, private security can only do so much, again I can’t go into the details of that but I think most people would be able to figure that out. One of the major things is they don’t have jurisdiction in a foreign country or in any country.
‘They don’t have any jurisdiction. Police protection is effective protection, which is what my grandmother made very clear that we needed. With regard to the taxpayer part of it, I don’t know if we need to go into detail of how much the royal family costs, or how much protection costs.
‘What I will say is that some of the British press, British tabloid press did a very god job in campaigning to have our security removed by quoting figures such as £20million.
‘Right, and through this disclosure process I’ve seen constituents in the UK write to their MP saying as a taxpayer I don’t want to pay for Meghan and Harry’s security at this cost, they’re literally quoting headlines from British newspapers.
‘Those figures are obviously grossly exaggerated by about 18, 19 times and further to that, if you know that other people are being protected, people that have made a choice for public office, then why wouldn’t you be comfortable, happy with someone in my position who has given 35 years service to his country. Two tours of Afghanistan.
‘And the threats and risks to my life. I was born into this position, I was born into those risks and they’ve only increased over time along with my marriage to Meghan and the frenzy across media, mainstream media and social media that that created.
‘I guess on top of that as well, probably what people don’t know, but that is mentioned in the hearing today, Ravec protect private citizens, I was made a private citizen by the royal household, not by Ravec, by the royal household, I can’t be a private citizen.
‘I will never be seen as a private citizen, I will never be treated as a private citizen, not by the media, not by most people and certainly not by anybody that wants to harm me or my wife or our kids. So I think once people realise or understand there are private citizens who have never played any role in public office and never will play any role, that because they are high risk they are protected at taxpayers expense.
‘And rightly so because it will affect, not only could that person end up in hospital or worse on UK soil but it comes down to impact and it comes down to the reputational impact to the UK if that person or those people are injured on UK soil but apparently for me that doesn’t matter.’
Harry says Royal household has to approve his UK visits
The Duke of Sussex has said that since 2020, when he stepped down from senior royal duties, his family has to sign off his security detail – a measure he thinks is imperative for his safety.
During the BBC interview, Prince Harry said: ‘Five years later, every single visit that I do back to the UK has to go through the royal household. My representative on the Ravec committee still to this day is the royal household.
‘That is not a decision that I choose, I am forced to go through the royal household and accept that they are putting my best interests forward during these conversations and deliberations.’
Watch: Prince Harry lose his appeal in battle for taxpayer-funded police protection Prince Harry to write to the Home Secretary as he refuses to give up on bid for UK security
Prince Harry has called on the Home Secretary to step in and review the body which authorises protection for senior royals – as he issued a fresh scathing statement on his bid for UK security.
Harry said: ‘It’s true that I have been treated as an exception on this issue.
‘The conditions of my security were not based on threat, risk and impact, they were made based on my role – one that my wife and I wanted to maintain but was ultimately refused.’
He added: ‘This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother, that openly campaigned for the removal of our security, and continue to incite hatred towards me, my wife and even our children.’
What’s Harry so upset about?
Prince Harry lost his latest legal battle over the security he receives when he’s in the UK.
His taxpayer-funded protection was initially downgraded in 2020 when he stopped being a working royal.
He appealed the decision but his case was dismissed today by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Edis.
The Duke of Sussex has been told that his ‘grievance’ over downgraded security had not ‘translated into a legal argument’ to successfully challenge the decision.
Harry believes he has been ‘singled out’ and ‘badly treated’ for ‘unjustified, inferior treatment’ since Megxit five years ago.
His barrister argued that the removal of Met Police armed bodyguards when he is in the UK has left the royal’s life ‘at stake’.
The California-based royal had fought the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the country.
But Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls said in his ruling this afternoon in London that Ravec’s decision ‘were taken as an understandable, and perhaps predictable, reaction to the claimant having stepped back from royal duties and having left the UK to live principally overseas’.
‘These were powerful and moving arguments and that it was plain the Duke of Sussex felt badly treated by the system’, he said.
‘But I concluded, having studied the detail, I could not say that the Duke’s sense of grievance translated into a legal argument to challenge RAVEC’s decision’.
Sir Geoffrey said Harry ‘makes the mistake of confusing superficial analogies’ when comparing himself with other VIPs which had ‘added nothing’ to the legal question.
He added: ‘My conclusion was that the Duke of Sussex’s appeal would be dismissed’.
It means that for now, armed police bodyguards, paid for by the British taxpayer, will not be automatically reinstated for him, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet when they are in the UK. It raises more questions over whether the Sussexes will visit Britain again.
Duke of Sussex said it’s ‘impossible’ to bring Meghan and his children back to the UK
Prince Harry has said it is ‘impossible’ to bring Meghan Markle and his children back to the UK after losing a legal challenge over the withdrawal of his security detail.
Harry said that he still loved the UK ‘despite what some people in that country have done’ and added that it was ‘really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland’.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: ‘I can’t see a world in which I will be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point and the things they are going to miss is everything. I love my country and always have done…despite what some people in that country have done.
‘So I miss the UK. I miss parts of the UK. Of course I do. I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.’
Harry gets branded ‘laughable’ online
Prince Harry delivered an emotional interview detailing how he was cut off from King Charles, but it seems he failed to garner much sympathy online with one X user branding him as ‘laughable’.
Other X users chose to blame his wife, Meghan Markle, who will no longer be protected by armed police bodyguards, paid for by the British taxpayer when she visits the UK.
However, there were people online who chose to defend the Duke of Sussex.
Harry’s most incendiary quotes from the interview
- ‘He [my father] won’t speak to me because of this security stuff’
- ‘Some members of my family may never forgive me for writing a book’
- ‘I don’t know how long he [my father] has left’
- ‘I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point’
- ‘There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family’
Duke of Sussex appeals to the Home Secretary
Prince Harry declared: ‘I am calling for the Home Secretary and the government to do a review of Ravec and I’m also asking for an RMB assessment that I haven’t received since 2019.’
His barrister argued that the removal of Met Police armed bodyguards when he is in the UK has left the royal’s life ‘at stake’.
The California-based royal had fought the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the country.
But England’s second most senior judge, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls said in his ruling this afternoon in London that Ravec’s decision ‘were taken as an understandable, and perhaps predictable, reaction to the claimant having stepped back from royal duties and having left the UK to live principally overseas’.
Harry feels ‘let down’ by the UK
When Prince Harry was asked during his bombshell ‘historical’ interview: ‘Do you think your relationship has changed with the UK? Do you feel let down by your country?’
He responded by solemnly exclaiming ‘I’m feeling very let down.’
During the interview, he said: ‘At this point, I’m feeling very let down, it’s the minority of people, especially those that read the tabloids and the press themselves. The press themselves have incited so much hatred towards myself, my wife and even our children.
‘That’s hard to forgive. There are decisions that have been made, there are things that have happened since 2016 especially, throughout my whole life, but let’s stick to 2016.
‘There are things that have happened that I can now forgive I can move past that. I can forgive my family’s involvement, my father, my brother, my stepmother, I can forgive the press to a large extent as well for so many things that have happened.
‘What I’m struggling to forgive and probably what I will always struggle to forgive is that a decision that was made in 2020 that affects my every single day and that is knowingly putting me and my family in harms way.
‘Everybody knew they were putting us at risk in 2020 and they hoped that me knowing that risk would force us to come back.
‘But then when you realise that that didn’t work, do you not want to keep us safe?
‘Whether you’re the government, whether you’re the royal household whether you’re my dad, my family, despite all of our differences do you not want to ensure our safety?’
My dad won’t speak to me
Prince Harry said tonight he was cut off from his father King Charles who ‘won’t speak to me’ – after losing his appeal in court over his security.
He told the BBC: ‘He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff.’
Acknowledging the rift within the royal family he added: ‘There have been so many disagreements, differences between me and some of my family this current situation that has been now ongoing for five years with regards to human life and safety is the sticking point it is the only thing that’s left.
‘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 you know there is, I would love reconciliation with my family there’s no point in continuing to fight anymore, as I said life is precious.
‘I don’t know how much longer my father has, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff but it would be nice to reconcile.’
Harry’s interview will ‘go down in history’
Royal experts have dubbed Prince Harry’s interview where he dished out the details of his strained relationship with King Charles, the royal family and his downgraded security status as a key moment in history.
Professor Kate Williams explained that the Duke of Sussex’s open demeanour means it will ‘go down in history as one of Prince Harry’s most signifigant interviews.’
Speaking to Sky News, Professor Williams said: ‘This is a very significant moment in what will be written about by the historians of the future about Harry.’
Jennie Bond, former royal editor at the BBC added that the interview is ‘another jaw-dropping moment in the royal saga.’
She told Sky: ‘He’s bristling, bristling with anger, isn’t he, Harry, and resentment. And mistrust of the royal household. And despair over his father’s attitude, I suppose. It’s just such a sad and sorry saga.
‘I had hoped eventually there might be some kind of reconciliation, but clearly, although Harry says he wants reconciliation, he doesn’t see he can do that now. He’s deeply, deeply angered. And I don’t know where he goes from here.
‘He feels at the moment there is some untruth going on at the moment. He feels that there is some kind of conspiracy that imprisoned him and imprisons others within the palace walls.
‘Because he has been so brazen as to escape, he is now being punished. That clearly is how he feels.
‘And he does not believe he can bring his children back to meet their grandfather even though, in his words, he doesn’t know how long his father has got to live.
‘I presume Harry knows a little bit more than the rest of us about the King’s health.
‘The family, they do not trust him to keep private conversations private. And now he’s gone so public with his raw emotions over this, I think that’s going to reinforce that.’
Breaking:Palace speak out
A Palace Spokesperson said: ‘All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.’
The Duke of Sussex says the argument behind his downgraded security status is ‘illogical’
In the bombshell interview with the BBC, Prince Harry said: ‘You know there are very very real threats that are out there, some that are known about some that have been withheld and for people in power and responsibility of decisions to know that those threats and risks exist.
‘But to turn around and say because you don’t have an official role your life doesn’t actually matter any more, you can imagine how I feel about that, but you can also imagine, not even imagine, that is the most illogical argument in the history of arguments.’
Prince Harry says he does not know how long King Charles has left to live in an emotional interview after losing his appeal in court over his security.
The Duke of Sussex claimed his father is not speaking to him because of his battle over taxpayer-funded police bodyguards.
He said there had been ‘so many disagreements, differences between me and some of my family’, as he admitted he couldn’t see a world in which his family would return to the UK.
It comes just days after the King described the ‘daunting’ and ‘frightening’ experience of being told you have cancer, speaking in his most poignant update on his illness since being diagnosed 15 months ago.
The King, 76, is still undergoing regular treatments as someone ‘living with cancer’, although aides have previously said his recovery continues in a ‘very positive direction, as reflected with the very full national and international diary programme’ he is undertaking.
READ: Prince Harry’s most incendiary quotes
The most incendiary quotes from the interview were:
- ‘He [my father] won’t speak to me because of this security stuff’
- ‘Some members of my family may never forgive me for writing a book’
- ‘I don’t know how long he [my father] has left’
- ‘I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point’
- ‘There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family’
WATCH: Prince Harry says his father ‘won’t speak to me’ in bombshell interview
Prince Harry said tonight he was cut off from his father King Charles who ‘won’t speak to me’ – after losing his appeal in court over his security.
The Duke of Sussex also launched a series of scathing attacks on his family in an astonishing interview with the BBC.
He revealed that he ‘doesn’t know how long his father has left’, will never bring his wife or children back to the UK – and said he had had ‘so many disagreements’ with his family, some of whom ‘may never forgive’ him for writing a book.
It comes after the Montecito-based royal said he was ‘devastated’ after sensationally losing his battle over taxpayer-funded police bodyguards – putting him on the hook for £1.5million in legal costs.
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Prince Harry’s bombshell BBC interview RECAP: Duke reveals why he doesn’t speak to his father anymore as he opens up about ‘forgiveness’