by Prince Harry has truly become the Duke of Hazard.
He has excluded himself from the royal family with his appearance on Oprah Winfrey, his memoir Spare and now his ongoing High Court battle to get the UK government to reverse its decision to give him less police protection when he returns to visit. .
Much has been made of him “whining” and costing the now hard-pressed British taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds to continue his fight for security at the High Court.
But everyone would do well to remember that this is a man deeply tormented by the death of Princess Diana.
His beloved mother was tragically killed in a car accident that could easily have been avoided and was partly due to her giving up her protection from Scotland Yard.
I vividly remember meeting Diana in November 1993 at Kensington Palace when she asked me: “What would be the best advice you could give me?”
I did not hesitate to say, “Without knowing your future plans, ma’am. I urge you not to abandon your Scotland Yard security. Yes, we invaded your privacy at times, but we kept you alive.”
Six weeks later, she left Scotland Yard’s security service and the world’s media followed her forever until her accident in Paris.
Understandably, Harry was traumatized after her death and reported the paparazzi who chased her before the accident.
He has repeatedly used the debate that the paparazzi who pursued him in the last years of his late mother’s life and the fatal accident in Paris in 1997 were the cause of her death.
But the final inquest into her death in London confirmed that the accident was mainly the cause of driver Henri Paul’s excessive drinking, and not the paparazzi who were chasing her.
He and his wife Meghan have fought successful battles for privacy and do not face the same era of frenzied mobs as Diana.
It’s totally understandable that her death clearly makes him think about his safety, but I hope he can begin to heal and eliminate that lingering fear that he and his wife could suffer the same fate as Diana in the past.
My advice to him (and his family) is this: accept the UK government’s offer of limited protection and work closely with your own private security while in the UK.
This is the best option available to Harry at the moment.
Her decision to step down from royal duties was hers and hers alone, and she can no longer expect the same level of security as working royals, especially when she lives most of the time in Los Angeles.
Following his meeting with the late Queen Elizabeth about his and his wife’s royal ‘Megxit’, she acknowledged his situation and offered a compromise, but it was a compromise he never anticipated.
In summary, Her Majesty said: “You are part of this working family here in the UK only.”
In other words, Harry’s hopes of a six-month stint in and out of the royal family each year were dashed!
Once in the United States and away from his royal duties, Harry was no longer an active royal, and with that his personal security disappeared.
It was a fair exchange. She wanted to go out and she went out. But the loss of all real security cover from him made him very angry, and he still seems totally unable to understand why such protection was withdrawn.
His global popularity and the constant media attention he attracted rightly demand protection for him and his family while in the US.
But the only option left to him when he left The Firm was to hire celebrity personal protection at his expense.
It’s true that Harry has every reason to worry about his safety.
There is no doubt that his and his wife’s actions and business interests in the United States (including their interview with Oprah, the Netflix deals, and the publication of Harry’s memoirs) attract obsessed, curious, and sometimes dangerous people, who They will test the limits of your security.
But Harry and Meghan must accept that sometimes their privacy will be annoyingly invaded.
Unfortunately, this is part of the package of their privileged lives.
Harry’s main concerns appear to be the safety of himself and his family as they enter the UK. And like I said, a lot of that concern is because he’s clearly haunted by the circumstances of Diana’s death.
You need to take comfort in the fact that the Home Office and Scotland Yard agree that, given the circumstances of your visits to the UK, a full risk assessment will be carried out and appropriate protection provided.
In short, a Royal Protection command liaison officer would be appointed to work alongside your personal security team.
In Harry’s view, this is totally unacceptable, hence the legal action he has single-handedly instigated.
From my personal experiences working with members of foreign royal families arriving in the UK, each has their own protection, and a deputy liaison officer in the UK assigned to them was efficient and effective, allowing access to royal properties and governmental. when necessary.
This commitment should address any concerns Harry has about his safety here in the UK.
However, his insistence on demanding a full protection team from the Royal Protection command cannot, in my experience in royal protection, be justified without his royal work status.
As a protection officer for Harry’s late mother Diana from 1987 to 1993, I witnessed intrusions into her life regularly.
She was often openly upset by such intrusions, but like all other members of the royal family, Diana accepted it as a “drawback” of her privileged position and moved on with her life, as did the other royals.
Harry would do well to remember how she reacted to the many such incidents where her privacy was invaded, move on with his life, and stop these incessant complaints.
SAS-trained officer Ken Wharfe was chosen to head security for the Queen’s grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry, who affectionately called him “Uncle Ken” as children.
A year later, in 1987, he was appointed Personal Protection Officer to the Princess of Wales. His best-selling books about his time with royalty include
Diana – Closely guarded secret and protecting Diana – Protecting the princess around the world.
