Latest news with #RichardEden
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The TRUTH behind Prince Harry's legal battle, according to royal experts on PALACE CONFIDENTIAL
A defiant Prince Harry made a rare appearance on British soil as he attended both days of his hearing in April at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The Duke of Sussex, 40, and his legal team were fighting against the Home Office 's decision in 2020 to roll back his publicly funded police protection in the UK because his 'life is at stake'. But just what went on behind court doors? On the latest episode of Palace Confidential, Rebecca English, the Daily Mail's Royal Editor, and Richard Eden, the newspaper's Diary Editor, sat down with host Jo Elvin to separate fact from fiction. Rebecca, who has covered the royal beat since 2004, started by explaining that for Harry, Police Protection Officers, or PPOs, are as familiar to him as 'breathing'. 'He would have grown up with royal protection officers as casually as he would have grown up with a nanny or any other member of staff,' she said. Throughout his time studying at Eton and serving in Afghanistan, Harry was accompanied by a team of PPOs from the Metropolitan Police. 'He was protected at all times of his life,' Rebecca added. 'Bringing us up to the point where Harry decided to leave the Royal Family,' Jo said. 'That's when his status changed in the eyes of those deciding police protection.' Although Rebecca acknowledged she was 'obviously not at the heart of these discussions', she said it was not a 'spontaneous decision' made by Ravec - the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures. 'It wasn't necessarily based on Prince Harry's decision to leave the Royal Family,' she said,' but a big part of it was his decision to move to North America - first to Canada and then to the US. 'That would have been a huge burden on British taxpayers to fund two, including his wife, and obviously his growing family out there because it's not just having a bodyguard with you. 'You have a couple of bodyguards, you have what we call backup officers who are making sure the roads are cleared and the venue you are going to is safe. 'Those people work on rotation and you are having to constantly have people travelling out from the UK to America on a shift pattern. 'I mean, the cost to taxpayers would have been extraordinary and it wouldn't have been something they would have been able to bear.' Citing a source that was 'very well plummed with the negotiations', Rebecca said: 'By the time they got to the Sandringham Summit as we like to call it in January 2020, Harry had already accepted, I've been told, the fact he would lose his Metropolitan Police security. 'He understood if his life was going to be North America - at that point they still thought it was still going to be Canada - that he wouldn't get it. 'The negotiations then were already over what private security he was going to get and who would be paying for that. 'The person who paid for it, my understanding is, for at least the first year after him leaving the Royal Family, was actually his father King Charles. 'Far from being an uncaring father,' Rebecca added. 'He was saying: "Look, I understand you need time to get on your feet financially and this is a significant cost to bear."' Palace insiders told Rebecca that Harry has now 'turned round and cried wolf' because 'he had already acknowledged privately' that he would no longer get police protection. When asked by Jo why the Duke 'embarked on this court case' in the first place, Richard said: 'Harry now says it's because he wanted to expose the workings of this committee [Ravec] and he wants to put daylight on it and make it public. 'But he was obviously wanting to win his case, otherwise why would you embark on it? But now he says it was an "establishment stitch-up" so it is a confused pattern really.' While Harry maintains that he tried to have conversations about his security protection privately, Rebecca said that meant 'putting pressure on his father to intervene'. But Charles could not get involved due to his role as Head of State. 'So Harry decided to basically sue the Home Office in court,' Rebecca said. 'There is a reason why members of the Royal Family don't often go down the legal route because it's uncomfortable, it's complex. 'It was pretty unprecedented,' she added. 'We should make it clear that Harry has offered to pay for the police to protect him while he is in the country,' Jo interjected. 'But is that even possible?' 'No,' Richard replied. 'That's a complete side issue. 'This is not some sort of service that you can buy. It's for the people that the government decide need protecting. Otherwise, it would be a ridiculous situation - you would have a taxpayer funded security that rich people can call up and hire.' Playing Devil's Advocate, Jo said: 'I guess he sees himself as apart from being a rich person and somebody who was born into this royal life.' 'That's his central point,' Richard agreed, 'that he was born into it and so by virtue of that deserves it but so were the rest of the members of the Royal Family and the same rules apply to them.' Senior members of the Royal Family such as Princess Anne are entitled to full protection when carrying out royal engagements but not when on private business such as visiting friends. 'I don't hear Prince Edward or even Prince Andrew taking legal action against the Home Office over it,' Richard said. 'I wouldn't swap my humdrum life for being a member of the Royal Family but I think you have to deal with the cards life deals you with,' Rebecca added. 'There are a lot of people in our country and indeed around the world who are living in abject poverty and have massive health issues so I think sometimes you have got to count your blessings.' After his two-day hearing, Judge Geoffrey Vos concluded that Harry's arguments were 'powerful' but there was not enough legal basis for a challenge.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
King Charles proved Prince Harry's 'distasteful' comments about his health wrong during VE Day salute, say royal experts on PALACE CONFIDENTIAL
Prince Harry launched a blistering attack on King Charles during a BBC interview which aired on Friday, saying the monarch 'won't speak to me' and that he doesn't know 'how much longer' there was left for his father, who is battling cancer. But the King seemed to undermine his son's comments by taking the salute for half an hour to honour troops at the Victory in Europe Day Parade in London on Monday. During a special live episode of Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail's Royal Editor Rebecca English said: 'We have actually seen the King for half an hour take the salute for veterans because he believes very strongly that he needs to show them respect. It's not them showing him respect. 'When you consider he is going through weekly cancer treatment at the same time as doing all of this, he's got a full week of engagements coming up, I think it really shows the mark of the man.' Rebecca was joined in front of Buckingham Palace by the Daily Mail's Diary Editor Richard Eden and host Jo Elvin, who brought up Harry's 'strange' comment about the King's health. 'I think it's particularly distasteful actually,' Rebecca said. 'I was with the King at Windsor Castle on Thursday night and he was doing a tree planting with the King and Queen of Sweden. 'I have never heard so much animated small talk about trees and planting in my life. 'The King was even mansplaining to his wife Queen Camilla about how to water the tree and I could see her eyes going, "I do know how to water a tree, darling." 'He was on really good form,' she continued. 'I caught his eye at one point and he waggled his eyebrows and smiled like, "Isn't it fun we're here again?"' 'I remember walking out and thinking, he looks on really good form - how happy he looks, how animated he is. And then for the next day, his son to do that to him, I thought was pretty distasteful.' Adding his own commentary, Richard said: 'I have had several people contact me to say that Harry should be prosecuted for treason.' The Treason Act of 1352 made it a crime to 'compass the death of the sovereign' - but Harry is unlikely to be hauled off to the Tower of London as Charles has been relatively transparent about his battle with the disease. 'Even so,' Richard continued. 'The way he sort of put it, "I don't know how long he has left", it really struck the opposite tone to what we have heard from the Palace which is one of positivity about his treatment. 'It did seem deeply unpleasant, I would say.' Rebecca was also quick to point out the 'irony' of Harry's comments. She said: ' It is not because he is speculating about his health, it is because he has no idea. 'He is so kept out of the loop now because he does things like that and goes on TV and gives interview and talks about very sensitive subjects like that that he can't be trusted with that sort of information.' Jo, who hosts the hit YouTube show went on to question whether the Royal Family were concerned about Harry's bombshell interview overshadowing the true meaning of VE Day. 'I know what the Palace want today is to really focus on what we are trying to commemorate here in the UK which is the end of a very damaging war in Europe that saw a lot of loss of lives and thank the veterans that are still alive and those that have sadly passed away and laid down their lives or died ever since,' Rebecca said. 'It's not amazing timing, is it?' Jo asked. 'To be talking about your personal risk and all that when we are commemorating what people went though in WWII?' 'People are here to remember sacrifice,' Richard said. 'So the idea of more whinging from across the Atlantic will not go down very well at this particular time.' After taking the salute throughout the procession, King Charles was joined on the Buckingham Palace balcony by his wife Camilla to watch the Red Arrows tear through the grey skies of London. Working members of the Royal Family and their children also stood by his side including the Princess Royal, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and three of his grandchildren George, Charlotte and Louis. Describing the scene, Richard said the royals will be keen to show a 'sense of togetherness, defiance almost' in the wake of Prince Harry's revelatory interview. 'They certainly will be keen to show that they're together as a family and that they are carrying on as normal and they wont be pushed off course by various salvos from Montecito,' he said. Richard added that the royals will be keen to show a 'sense of togetherness, defiance almost' in the wake of Prince Harry's revelatory interview Members of the Royal Family join King Charles on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Monday The Royals wave to the crowds before heading inside Buckingham Palace to enjoy a tea party with the veterans 'When Harry and Meghan quit royal duties and left Britain, the idea was that they would come back for events such as this. 'Harry with his military service saw this as integral to who he was so he will be disappointed not to be here, and the same applies to Prince Andrew.'
