Prince Harry has thrown what was supposed to be his “landmark” homecoming to the U.K into further chaos by going “nuclear” on the royal family Monday, accusing them of dangling an offer for him to stay at Buckingham Palace only to withdraw it “at the last moment” for allegedly nefarious reasons.
Harry was expected to arrive in the U.K. Monday for a five-day trip, starting in London. According to palace sources and multiple news outlets, including The Daily Mail, ITV, the Daily Beast and People, Harry, his wife Meghan Markle and children, Archie and Lilibet, had been offered accommodation at a royal residence “for some time.”
However, Harry kept going back and forth on whether to accept the offer amid his larger outrage over security arrangements for their U.K. trip — a week of “psychodrama” that has resulted in Meghan, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, likely staying behind and the children potentially losing out on the opportunity to see their grandfather, King Charles III, for the first time in four years.
When it comes to Harry’s Buckingham Palace stay, multiple outlets report that royal aides told him that the palace needed to know by the end of last week whether he planned to accept the offer, so that royal household staff had time to prepare for him. That deadline passed, and the California-based Duke of Sussex, reportedly making the arrangements himself while on a family vacation in Portugal, initially declined the offer on Saturday morning.
But Harry then changed his mind later Saturday and said he wanted to accept the offer after all, only to be told it was too late to do so. Palace sources said it wasn’t logistically possible for the household to make the necessary arrangements in time and claimed that Harry’s team had “messed them around,” the Daily Beast reported.
More chaos ensued at 9 a.m. Monday, when Harry’s team told the BBC he would be staying at Buckingham Palace. But minutes later, the palace corrected the report to say what Harry supposedly already knew — that he had accepted the offer too late, and it had been rescinded.
In response to this correction, Harry’s team went “nuclear,” according to Daily Beast journalist Tom Sykes. The Daily Mail said Harry’s spokesperson released an “extraordinary statement,” expressing “disappointment” and accusing Buckingham Palace of withdrawing the offer “at the last moment.”
Harry’s spokesperson tried to explain that his failure to give notice on time stemmed from his scramble over making new security arrangements for his U.K. trip — after he claimed on June 27 that he learned at “the 11th hour” that he wasn’t going to get the level of taxpayer-funded police protection he wanted for him and his family during their visit. The spokesperson also alleged that Buckingham Palace decided it didn’t want Harry staying there this week because a major U.K. court ruling is expected Tuesday in the duke’s controversial privacy lawsuit against the Daily Mail.
It has long been known that Harry would come to the U.K. to promote the year-long countdown to his Invictus Games 2027 in Birmingham. Weeks ago, his team began letting the media know that Meghan would join him, and that they would make joint appearances on behalf of several charities, including the Invictus Games, an international competition for wounded service men and women.
On June 26, the Sussex team issued an “operational note” to journalists, confirming that Archie and Lilibet would accompany their parents in what was supposed to herald “a dramatic rapprochement” between Harry and his estranged, 77-year-old father, reports said. In that note, the Sussex team also acknowledged that Harry knew of a decision by the special Home Office committee — known as RAVEC — to not make taxpayer-funded police protection available to him and his family. Harry’s team indicated that it was fine making alternative arrangements, Sykes reported last week.
But in what’s become a familiar pattern, Harry’s team put out a new announcement — saying he actually was reconsidering whether to bring Meghan and his children to the U.K. because of the RAVEC decision. Harry has long said he doesn’t feel safe bringing his wife and children to visit his home country without that automatic police protection.
Over the next week, Harry’s team ratcheted up the security dispute by leaking a report, commissioned by him and authored by his security team, claiming that he and his family were the target of “real and credible threats,” including threats of terrorism, according to the Daily Beast and the Daily Mail.
Since then, word has come that Harry and Meghan have not ruled out Meghan and the children coming to the U.K. — but later in the week and while bypassing London, the Daily Mail reported. Meghan was scheduled to join her husband at an event in Birmingham on Friday to promote the Invictus Games. But it’s not known if a visit with Charles and his grandchildren is still on the itinerary.
Harry and Meghan lost their eligibility for automatic, police protection six years ago, after they moved from the U.K. to California and announced they no longer wanted to be working members of the royal family. Harry can ask for police protection when he visits the U.K., but he needs to provide 28 days notice of his itinerary. The level of protection he receives is decided on a case-by-case basis.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mercurynews.com ’
