Prince Harry said this week that his father, King Charles III, no longer speaks to him, blaming the breakdown in communication on a contentious dispute over his personal security in the United Kingdom. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC following his court loss over protective detail in Britain, the Duke of Sussex said, "He won't speak to me because of this security stuff."
Harry, who now resides in California with his wife Meghan and their two children, said that he has been left "devastated" by the government's decision to remove his police protection after he and Meghan stepped down as senior working royals in 2020. The prince said the decision has made it "impossible" for him to return to the UK with his family safely. "I can't see a world in which I'd be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point," he said.
"When that decision happened, I couldn't believe it," Harry told the BBC. "I thought, with all the disagreements and all of the chaos that's happening, the one thing that I could rely on is my family keeping me safe." He added, "I don't know how much longer my father has. He won't speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile."
The prince said the security arrangements are the primary "sticking point" in his fractured relationship with the royal family, and noted that "some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book... but, you know... I would love reconciliation."
Harry said he did not ask King Charles to intervene in the legal case but suggested that the monarch could resolve the issue by allowing experts to manage it. "I've never asked him to intervene. I've asked him to step out," he said. "Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him, not by intervening, but by stepping aside and allowing the experts to do what is necessary."
In comments that appeared to escalate the rift further, the prince questioned the integrity of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC), the body responsible for determining his security status. "I would ask Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to look at this very, very carefully and I would ask her to review RAVEC and its members," he said.
Harry also urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene following the court's decision, which sided with the UK Home Office and denied his appeal to reinstate automatic security coverage. "Based on the judgment that the court has put out today, it clearly states that RAVEC are not constrained by law," he said.
The duke also took aim at what he described as institutional resistance within the British establishment, saying: " I have had it described to me, once people knew about the facts, that this is a good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up."
Despite the turmoil, Harry affirmed that he still considers himself part of the royal family. Harry said he could "never leave the royal family" but he "had to".
He also said, "I love my country, I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done," and expressed sorrow that his children may never know the UK as their home. "It's really quite sad that I won't be able to show my children my homeland."
