Prince Harry Shares Why He ‘Won’t’ Bring Meghan Markle Back to the U.K.: ‘All It Takes Is One Lone Actor’

“It’s still dangerous, and all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff to act on what they have read,” Harry said. “And whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is, and these are things that are of genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.”

In 2022, Neil Basu, the former head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, said that there were genuine threats to the Duchess of Sussex’s life while she lived in the U.K. “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats,” Basu said at the time.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London on June 3, 2022.Matt Dunham – WPA Pool/Getty

Prince Harry previously said he “felt forced” to step back from his royal role and leave the U.K., citing security concerns for his family. Soon after the couple announced their decision to step back as senior working royals, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) removed their automatic right to U.K. police security. Although the Duke of Sussex offered to cover the costs of security, the bid was rejected, and earlier this year, High Court judge Peter Lane upheld the decision to downgrade his security.

Prince Harry plans to appeal the decision. “The Duke is not asking for preferential treatment, but for a fair and lawful application of RAVEC’s own rules, ensuring that he receives the same consideration as others in accordance with RAVEC’s own written policy,” a legal spokesperson said.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022. Victoria Jones – WPA Pool/Getty

In a statement to the High Court in London at the time, Prince Harry said that he needed police security for his two children — Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3 — “to feel at home” in his native country. “The U.K. is my home. The U.K. 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 United States,” Harry said. “That cannot happen if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil.”

“I can’t put my wife in danger like that, and given my experiences in life, I’m reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too,” he added.

Prince Harry and Meghan, 42, relocated their family to California in 2020. While King Charles’ son has returned to his home country on multiple occasions since, including his father’s coronation in May 2023, the Duchess of Sussex has only been back to the U.K. on a handful of occasions. Her last visit was in September 2022 during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral events.

Their two children were most recently in the U.K. in June 2022, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended events surrounding Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. The family celebrated Lili’s first birthday with a backyard party at Frogmore Cottage, their Windsor home that they were asked to leave after they moved to the U.S. While Archie was born in England, Lili joined the family after their California move.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the ESPY Awards on July 11, 2024.Kevin Mazur/Getty

During the sit-down, Prince Harry also discussed how his fight against the tabloids has played a “central piece” in the rift with his family. (Harry won his phone hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers in December 2023.)

“I think that’s certainly a central piece to it,” the Duke of Sussex said. “That’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.”

“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family,” he continued. “I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But I’m doing this for my reasons.”

Asked about the royals’ decision not to speak out about the issue, he said, “I think everything’s that played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is. For me, the mission continues. But it has caused part of a rift.”

However, Prince Harry said that his late grandmother was supportive of him.

“We had many conversations before she passed, this is very much something she supported, she knew how much this meant to me,” he said. “She is up there going, ‘See this through to the end,’ without question.”

Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth in 2009.Chris Jackson/Getty

When the topic of his father King Charles and sister-in-law Kate Middleton’s recent cancer diagnoses came up, Prince Harry said, “The two things are completely separate. My father and my sister-in-law and me following through on these legal battles are two completely different things.”

Prince Harry has two ongoing civil cases against the publishers of The Mail and The Sun (both deny unlawful information gathering claims) after the High Court ruled in December that he was hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers.