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.
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.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce ‘next chapter’ with 2025 Christmas video featuring Archie and Lilibet
They gave up the lease after photos of the house and its interior were published by a paparazzi agency. In May 2018, it was reported that they had signed a two-year lease on WestfieldLarge, located on the Great Tew Estate in the Cotswolds. However, this earlier exchange harry casino of vows was not an official religious or legally recognised marriage. In early 2009, it was reported the pair had parted ways after a relationship that had lasted for five years. On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that an agreement had been reached for Harry “to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments”. On 19 December 2017, he succeeded his grandfather Prince Philip as the Captain General Royal Marines.
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. Harry lost his full security cover when he and Meghan stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2020. On Jan. 4, The Mail on Sunday reported that the committee had found that the criteria for the top-level security measures had been met. He is currently fifth-in-line to the throne, although he is no longer a working member of the British royal family after giving up his senior role in 2020. Agnatically, Harry is a member of the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe’s oldest royal houses. On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that, following their decision to step back from royal duties, from 31 March 2020 the Duke and Duchess would not use their Royal Highness styles in practice or publicly.
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.
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.
The hidden role Princess Kate’s nanny played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding
In January 2020, lawyers issued a legal warning to the press after paparazzi photographs were published in the media. The BBC wrote to Kensington Palace apologising for the “factual inaccuracy” as George’s godfather was William van Cutsem, but it did not apologise for the comment itself as it was part of the show’s “irreverent humor”. Mr Justice Fancourt concluded Piers Morgan and other editors knew about the phone hacking at their publications and were involved in it. In June 2023, Harry testified in the court case accusing former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan of horrific personal attacks and claimed that his phone had been hacked dating back to when he was still at Eton. At the beginning of trial, MGN apologised for one instance of unlawful information gathering against Harry and added that his legal challenge “warrants compensation”. In January 2025, the two parties settled with NGN paying more than £10 million in pay outs and legal fees in the settlements involving both Harry and former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
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. 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. News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, emphasised that they had done nothing “unlawful” in sourcing the stories and no illegal payments were made. It was alleged that the Sun had made two payments amounting to £4,000 to the partner of a royal official in relation to stories published in June and July 2019 which detailed the nannying and god-parenting arrangements for Harry and Meghan’s son Archie. In April 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they would no longer cooperate with the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Mirror and the Express. The case was settled later that year with Splash UK agreeing to no longer take unauthorised photos of the family.
Early life
- 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.
- The BBC reported on the “scrapped case”, highlighting NGN’s statement which said that the settlement agreement “drew a line under the past” and that they rejected the claims that would have been made in court about a corporate cover-up.
- In December 2025, it was announced that, for the first time since April 2019, RAVEC would reassess Harry’s threat level.
- The commission later concluded that the foundation did not act unlawfully, but criticised the board of directors for expending a “substantial proportion of funds” to setting up and closing the charity.
- In October 2019, it was announced that Harry had sued the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World “in relation to alleged phone-hacking”.
- Mr Justice Fancourt concluded Piers Morgan and other editors knew about the phone hacking at their publications and were involved in it.
Following the first court hearing of the case by the High Court, it was revealed that Harry had ‘exceptional status’ and the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) still determined his personal protective security on a case-by-case basis. In January 2022, it was reported that Harry had been in a legal fight since September 2021 over the Home Office’s refusal to allow him to pay for police protection. The Government of Canada announced RCMP security would not be provided after March 2020 when the couple’s status changed. In June 2023, Harry broke royal protocol by criticising the UK government in his witness statement to a court.
- 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.
- 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.
- He had served as the RFU’s vice-royal patron since 2010, supporting the Queen as patron.
- In October 2024, the judge announced that the two sides should either settle or go to trial in January 2025 and refused to let Harry’s team include allegations that bugs were placed in rooms and cars, and trackers placed on vehicles as “no particulars whatsoever of such allegations” were provided.
- In 2017 and during an appearance on Bryony Gordon’s podcast Mad World, Harry acknowledged that with the support of his brother he had sought counselling years after his mother’s death.
- Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals in January 2020, moved to Meghan’s native Southern California, and launched Archewell Inc., a Beverly Hills-based mix of for-profit and not-for-profit business organisations.
- In June 2023, Harry broke royal protocol by criticising the UK government in his witness statement to a court.
Will Meghan Markle finally return to the UK this summer alongside Prince Harry?
In June 2019, the Duke was present at the launch of Made by Sport, a charity coalition set to raise money to boost sport in disadvantaged communities. In 2012 Harry launched Coach Core alongside his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. He had served as the RFU’s vice-royal patron since 2010, supporting the Queen as patron. In September 2025, Harry announced that he had personally donated £1.1 million to BBC Children in Need in December 2024, describing it as a “significant investment” in grassroots organisations in Nottingham supporting young people affected by violence. In April 2017, he hosted the Landmine Free 2025 reception at Kensington Palace, during which the UK government announced an increase in its financial support for de-mining efforts.
Two years later, alongside his brother William and sister-in-law Catherine, Harry jointly initiated the mental health awareness campaign “Heads Together”. He was commissioned as a cornet into the Blues and Royals and served briefly alongside his older brother, William. “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 … I would love reconciliation with my family … There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. And life is precious,” Harry told the BBC. On Sunday, Sept. 7, the third anniversary of the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, Harry attended the WellChild Awards, an annual charity event for seriously ill children.
Netflix enlists Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for adaptation of ‘flirty’ romance novel
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, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Because infant son Archie travelled with the Sussexes, this was “their first official tour as a family”.
