It’s been nearly four years since Prince Harry left his Royal duties, and now he claims that he “felt forced” out over security issues. According to The Blast, the Duke of Sussex made the comment via his lawyer during a court session in his suit against the Home Office, the governmental organization responsible for the oversight of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec). In the legal briefing, Harry’s attorney said he “felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.”
Previously, Ravec chose to limit its protection for Harry and his family to a “case-by-case” basis. The former senior royal felt strongly that this could be dangerous for him, his wife Meghan Markle, and their children. “The UK is my home. The UK 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 US. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil,” read a statement from Harry. “I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”
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Harry and Markle have had a strained relationship with his family ever since the couple resigned from their Royal duties and did an interview with Oprah that revealed some shocking claims, such as the comments made about the color of their son Archie’s skin ahead of his birth. According to Markle and Harry, the senior Royals actively tried to deny their son Archie his royal birthright as a prince but never gave an official answer as to why. They elaborated that there were correlating conversations about “how dark” Archie’s skin color would be.
Markle stated that “in the months when I was pregnant… we have in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.” Harry, however, was clear that these were not conversations he intended to ever speak of again. There was no mention of who the conversations were with. It wasn’t until later that speculation began regarding King Charles possibly being the one to make the comments, though this has since been denied by Buckingham Palace officials.
Last month, author Omid Scobie released his new book, Endgame, which “chronicles both the breakdown of the royal family and the weakening of the modern monarchy.” At one point in the book, Scobie addresses the racism allegations but does not name the individuals who were involved. However, the book had to be pulled from shelves in the Netherlands after the Dutch translation of Endgame included the names of the accused individuals. British talk show host Piers Morgan later revealed that King Charles and Kate Middleton are the two “senior royals” alleged to have made skin-color comments.
