The ‘Hard’ Situation Queen Elizabeth Is in Concerning Prince Harry

Queen Elizabeth is stuck between a rock and a hard place amid her grandson Prince Harry’s ongoing efforts to resolve issues his family’s security detail during trips to the U.K. After the Duke of Sussex applied for a judicial review of a previous Home Office decision preventing him from personally funding police protection for himself and his family while in the UK, a royal source said the move and threat of legal action has left the 95-year-old monarch in a “hard” spot between family and her duties as the Queen.

Speaking to Us Weekly just days after Harry’s pleas for security, royal expert Kristin Contino, the author of A House Full of Windsor, revealed that “it’s hard” for the Queen, “as a grandmother, to not really be able to intervene.” Contino noted that the monarch is not “going to go up against the government and say, ‘Well, you know, you need to give him security.’ Because right now, the metropolitan police [are] saying they’ve conducted a review and [concluded that] the threat is considered low to him.” Despite her love of her family, Contino said that her role as Queen makes it “one of those situations” where she is “always going to choose [the] monarch at the end of the day.”

On Jan. 15, the Daily Mail and other outlets reported that lawyers for the Sussexes have written a ‘pre-action protocol’ letter to the Home Office and will be taking steps to reinstate police security. Since stepping back from their roles as senior members of the royal family, Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, and their two children have lost their taxpayer-funded police protection. Although Harry offered to personally pay for UK security for himself and his family, the offer was rejected.

“The UK will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in,” Harry’s legal representative said in a statement. “With the lack of police protection, comes too great a personal risk. 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 UK. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.”

According to sources, the Queen had been told about the legal proceedings prior to them going public. This could mark the first time that a member of the royal family has brought legal action against Her Majesty’s Government. According to Contino, if Harry’s petition is denied, he may continue traveling back home to the U.K. by himself and without his family.