Prince Harry will not return to his native U.K this month to attend the memorial service honoring his late grandfather Prince Philip, a rep confirmed to E! News on March 11.
The service, which is scheduled to take place on March 29 at Westminster Abbey, will give the public an opportunity to pay tribute to the former Duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9, 2021, at age 99. His funeral last spring was limited to 30 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While The Duke of Sussex hasn’t said why he won’t make the trip, he reportedly “does not feel safe” in the U.K. after losing police protection. Harry has been in an ongoing legal battle against the British government to have the U.K.-based security reinstated for his California-based family: wife Meghan Markle and their children 2-year-old Archie and 9-month-old Lilibet.
After Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step away from their royal duties in early 2020, they lost access to receive tax-payer-funded security while in the U.K. and were told that they could not pay for protection with their own expenses.
Last September, Harry filed an official judicial review to challenge the British government’s ruling.
In February, Harry’s legal team said that he “does not feel safe” bringing his wife and kids to the U.K. without the proper security measures in place.
Summary
“This claim is about the fact that the Duke does not feel safe when he is in the U.K. given the security arrangements applied to him in June 2021 and will continue to be applied if he decides to come back,” Harry’s lawyer, Shaheed Fatima, said in a statement obtained by E! News on Feb. 18. “It goes without saying that he does want to come back to see family and friends and to continue to support the charities that are so close to his heart. This is and always will be his home.”
