Sky High Cost of Prince Harry's Police Security Lawsuit Revealed

Newsweek

2 days ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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Prince Harry's three police protection lawsuits cost U.K. taxpayers a total of nearly $890,000, including around $137,000 for the latest round alone, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The Duke of Sussex twice sued the British Home Office in 2022 in an effort to reverse the decision to strip him of his police bodyguards then went to the Court of Appeal in 2024 after losing both attempts. That case also failed in May.
An FOIA request by the Daily Mail has now revealed the government spent £102,000 [around $137,000] fighting the appeal, adding to £554,000 (around $748,000) already spent on the earlier cases.
That adds up to £656,000 or $886,000 spent on the case by British taxpayers, which lawyers for the Home Office will likely now try to recoup from Harry.
Prince Harry leaves the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, after a hearing in his unsuccessful appeal over the removal of his police protection team, on April 9, 2025.
Prince Harry leaves the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, after a hearing in his unsuccessful appeal over the removal of his police protection team, on April 9, 2025.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Why It Matters
Prince Harry having lost all three phases of the lawsuit will likely have a hefty bill to pay including his own legal costs on top of most of what the government spent.
The High Court judge in the early parts of the case ordered Harry to pay 90 percent of the $748,000 paid by the Home Office during that portion of the litigation. Harry's share of the government's appeal costs has not so far been disclosed.
Coupled with his own legal expenses he could be facing a hefty bill somewhere north of around $1.5 million.
Prince Harry and Meghan's Police Protection
Harry had been protected by Metropolitan Police officers all his life until he quit the palace and moved to North America with Meghan Markle.
His change in role and country prompted a review of what level of protection he should receive.
Under the new policy, his police team was withdrawn, though he continued to be provided with protection officers during some events in Britain, specifically when invited by the Royal Family.
Harry wrote in Spare: "Lloyde (head of his security team) told me that our security was being pulled. He and the whole team had been ordered to evacuate. 'Surely they can't.'
"'I would tend to agree. But they are.' So much for the year of transition. The threat level for us, Lloyde said, was still higher than for that of nearly every other royal, equal to that assigned the Queen.
"And yet the word had come down and there was to be no arguing. So here we are, I said. The ultimate nightmare.
"The worst of all worst-case scenarios. Any bad actor in the world would now be able to find us, and it would just be me with a pistol to stop them. Oh wait. No pistol. I'm in Canada."
Harry's Lawsuit Against the U.K. Government
Harry applied for a "judicial review" of the decision to strip him of his police bodyguards at the High Court, in London, in 2022, and later filed a fresh claim against the decision that he would not be allowed to pay privately to have the team re-instated.
Ultimately he lost both cases and subsequently appealed but lost that case too.
Judicial review hearings, though, are not generally about whether government decisions are morally right or wrong but rather whether they are lawful or unlawful based on the process followed.
By the time of the appeal, Harry's lawyers argued officials should have ordered an additional risk assessment, to add to several already completed.
The court ruled the Home Office had departed from its normal policy by not asking for a Risk Management Board [RMB] assessment but that it had good reason for doing so and therefore the decision was lawful.
Harry said in a statement afterwards: "My hands are tied in seeking legal recourse against the establishment.
"This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother, that openly campaigned for the removal of our security, and that continue to incite hatred towards me, my wife, and even our children, while at the same time protecting the very power that they should be holding accountable."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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