On Tuesday morning, Prince Harry’s final battle in court with the British media came to a disappointing end. As the Duke of Sussex began his already controversial trip to the United Kingdom—without his wife, Meghan Markle, and the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet—a High Court judge officially ruled against him and six other plaintiffs in favor of the publisher of the Daily Mail. News that Harry had lost the case broke while the prince was attending a preview for next year’s Invictus Games. According to the BBC, audience members were sharing information about the ruling during the event—but Harry did not deviate from his planned speech.
This week was supposed to mark the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s triumphant return to the country they left less than two years after their royal wedding. First, a battle over whether the family would be provided with armed security outside of royal properties—a fight that left Harry “close to tears,” as a source told Vanity Fair—led Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet to stay home. Thanks to his loss against the British media, the trip is looking even grimmer.
How Harry and Meghan Lost Public Support
According to Ed Coram James, CEO of British PR firm Go Up, Harry misjudged the public mood by attracting media scrutiny to his fight for security in the UK—even if he really does have reasons to fear for his safety when he visits his home country. “He lost the battle a long time ago. Ultimately, people in the UK don’t want him to have private security. They just don’t, because they don’t like the guy. They don’t like his wife,” Coram James tells VF. “Even if it’s right that he gets a security detail, I think it would be bad for the popularity of the royal family if he got a security detail.”
When Prince Harry first left the UK in early 2020, he had one main point of grievance against the UK: the intrusive press coverage that had followed him throughout his life. In the months before his royal exit, he launched two major lawsuits against tabloid publishers, reportedly against the advice of the queen and her advisers. Both of those lawsuits resulted in settlements. In 2022, Harry also joined a group of plaintiffs that included Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence to sue Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
Meghan and Harry, says Coram James, “make the massive mistake of thinking that the British tabloid system is something that you can fight against. So [they] try to fight it and get absolutely nailed in a knife fight.”
The Sussexes’ Security Is a Long-Standing Issue
Within a few months of Harry’s exit from the UK, a new issue emerged. Since his birth, Harry had been provided taxpayer-funded security officers, who traveled with him around the world. But in March 2020, once he and Meghan left their roles as working royals, his security was revoked. For the last six years, the couple has been paying for private security in the US while working to have official protection restored for UK visits.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.vanityfair.com ’
