Prince Harry is still fearful to return to the U.K. with his wife Meghan Markle and their children. According to PEOPLE, the Duke of Sussex opened up about his continued concerns in an interview with ITV for the documentary Tabloids on Trial.
“It’s still dangerous, and all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff to act on what they have read,” the royal says in the doc. “And whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is, and these are things that are of genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.”
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According to PEOPLE, police in the U.K. were aware of several “genuine threats” against Markle while she was living in the country. “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats,” the former Metropolitan Police head of counterterrorism Neil Basu said in 2022.
The security of his family has been a priority for Prince Harry since he and Markle decided to step back from their official royal duties. With their step away from royal life, they didn’t automatically earn U.K. police security due to their security status changes. Harry offered to pay for the security costs himself but was still denied.
“The U.K. is my home. The U.K. is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the United States,” Prince Harry said in a statement to the High Court when his initial application was denied. “That cannot happen if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil. I can’t put my wife in danger like that, and given my experiences in life, I’m reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”
The royal also details that his ongoing battle with tabloids has helped to worsen the already established rift with the Royal Family. “I think that’s certainly a central piece to it,” the Duke of Sussex said. “That’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.”
“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family,” he added. “I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But I’m doing this for my reasons.”
