Three-Way Silence: No One Will Say Who Protects Harry and Meghan on UK Return
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are heading back to Britain, and nobody in a position to know will say who is keeping them safe.
HELLO! Magazine's royal editor Emily Nash has described a "three-way silence" surrounding the couple's UK security arrangements, with Harry's own circle, the Home Office, and the royal household all declining to comment on what protection — if any — they will receive on their return this month (HELLO!).
The stakes are straightforward. Harry, Meghan, and their two children lost the right to automatic, taxpayer-funded, round-the-clock security after stepping back as working royals in 2020. That decision — to leave royal duties behind, later dubbed "Megxit" by the tabloids — also deepened the couple's rupture with the wider royal family (The New York Times). Since relocating to the United States, Harry has relied on a private security team. But private guards cannot carry firearms in Britain in the way that armed Metropolitan Police officers can, which is why the question of publicly funded protection has become the central unresolved issue of any visit home.
Harry has already fought and lost that battle in the courts. In April 2025, a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice considered his challenge to the level of personal protection he was entitled to while in the UK; the Court of Appeal ultimately ruled against him. The body that carried out his most recent risk assessment — the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, known as Ravec, the Home Office unit that decides which public figures receive armed police protection — completed a fresh review in July. Its findings have not been shared with Harry himself (HELLO!).
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Harry made a private appeal to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over his security situation, though the contents of that conversation have not been made public (HELLO!). The Home Office, for its part, has declined to comment, saying it does not discuss the specifics of individual cases.
What happens next is a fresh decision by officials on the level of armed protection the couple will receive (The Times). The BBC reported on 20 August that a new determination will need to be made (BBC News). For now, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain private individuals and non-working royals, in keeping with the agreement made when they left royal duties in 2020 — meaning they fall outside the category of senior royals who receive automatic, state-funded security.
For anyone wondering how the system works in other cases, the picture is not much clearer. The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police refuse to disclose the cost or number of officers deployed to protect even former prime ministers (The Times). The silence is not personal. It is institutional.
Harry lost his appeal. Ravec has completed a risk assessment he has not seen. The Home Secretary has reportedly been lobbied. And with a UK return expected imminently, the question of who stands between the Sussexes and whatever threat the risk assessors believe exists — and who pays for it — remains unanswered.
