Prince Harry refuses to risk his family’s safety merely for the chance to live in his home country.
The Duke of Sussex, in his ITV interview for the documentary Tabloids on Trial, which aired in the U.K. on Thursday, July 25, said, “It’s still dangerous” for his wife to go back to his country amid the intense tabloid coverage of the couple. He expressed, “All it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff [negative press coverage], to act on what they have read… and whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is. These are things that are of genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife to this country.”
For the record, Markle and Harry moved to California in 2020 after stepping down from their royal roles. While the latter makes frequent trips to his homeland, Markle has only visited the U.K. a handful of times since then, with her most recent being her attendance at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022.
Prince Harry won’t bring his family back to the U.K. — He explains why!
Amid reports of the Sussexes’ house hunting in the U.K., Harry told ITV on Thursday that moving his family back to his country is “not going to work if we can’t keep them safe while they are here.”
The prince also believes that anything he says about his family leads to a flood of abuse from the press, which increases the risk to his family’s safety.
Regarding why he took the Mirror Group Newspapers to court, Harry said he did so because he was pushed to his limit. “It got to a point where you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. But I think there’s nobody in the world better suited and placed to be able to see this through than myself,” the Spare author said.
Prince Harry came out victorious against the publisher last year when a London HC judge ruled that his phone was likely hacked to a modest extent by the company between 2006 and 2011. The two parties settled the legal feud this year, with the publisher agreeing to cover Harry’s legal costs and damages, as well as award him an interim payment of approximately $505,000 for invading his privacy, per his attorney David Sherborne.
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Differing stances on media scrutiny deepened the royal rift
Prince Harry’s clash with the British tabloids also affected his relationship with his dad, King Charles III, and brother Prince William. He told ITV that the royal family’s unwillingness to push back against the invading British press is a “central piece” of their rift. “I’ve made it clear that this is something that needs to be done; it would be nice if we did it as a family.”
He added, “For me, the mission continues, but yes, it’s caused part of the rift.”
The Duke, however, had the support of his grandma, the late Queen, as he revealed in the documentary that the duo had multiple conversations on the subject while she was alive. “This is very much something she supported. She knew how much this meant to me,” he recalled. “She’s very much up there saying, ‘See this through to the end,’ without question.”
