Prince Harry Loses Bid to Keep Public-Funded Security Detail, U.K. Court Rules

A U.K. court has ruled that Prince Harry was not unfairly stripped of his public-funded security detail when the former royal moved to the U.S.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, had their official security detail removed after stepping away from their royal duties and moving to California in 2020, with the Duke of Sussex ultimately challenging that ruling in court.

On Wednesday, High Court Judge Peter Lane ruled that Buckingham Palace’s stripping of that royal treatment — called the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, or RAVEC for short — was not “unlawful, irrational or unjustified,” the Associated Press reports.

“Insofar as the case-by-case approach may otherwise have caused difficulties, they have not been shown to be such as to overcome the high hurdle so as to render the decision-making irrational,” Lane wrote in his decision.

A spokesperson for Prince Harry said after the ruling, which the former royal plans to appeal, “The Duke is not asking for preferential treatment, but for a fair and lawful application of RAVEC’s own rules, ensuring that he receives the same consideration as others in accordance with RAVEC’s own written policy.”

The litigation-happy Prince Harry has filed six lawsuits in the High Court in recent years, three involving the phone-hacking scandals against British tabloids and three more involving the removal of his security detail.

“The request for a judicial review of the decision to deny police protection was first launched in January 2022. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the U.K. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home,” a representative for Prince Harry wrote at the time.

In May 2023, a London judge ruled that Harry will not be granted permission to challenge the British government’s decision to bar him from hiring his own police protection for the time he spends in England.

Despite no longer carrying any official royal duties, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex continue to be a target of rampant paparazzi in both England and America, including a May 2023 incident where the couple was involved in what they described as a “near catastrophic” car chase with paparazzi in New York.