Prince Harry will visit London without his wife and children as part of a trip to the UK next week, a source close to him told AFP Saturday, after he was reportedly refused police protection for his family.
The prince had previously been expected to make his first family trip back to the UK in four years, but the source close to the Duke of Sussex told AFP that his wife Meghan, son Archie and daughter Lilibet would not accompany him on the London part of the trip.
Arrangements for the rest of the trip were still under consideration, the source said, leaving it unclear whether the whole family would visit but stay outside the capital.
British media reported Harry, 41, would fly in on Monday for a five-day visit marking the one-year countdown towards next year’s Invictus Games, launched by the prince in 2014 for wounded veterans.
The prince was also expected to attend engagements with his other charities during the trip.
The Sun newspaper reported Saturday, citing a source, that Harry and Meghan had planned to visit a London hospital together in her first such engagement since leaving the UK, but he would now go alone “for security reasons”.
Harry and his family were currently in Europe and were still hoping to make the trip to the UK “in some form”, the tabloid reported.
A source close to the prince said last month that he and his family would stay at royal residences, and the BBC reported that they would be guests of King Charles III.
– Safety concerns –
But the BBC reported last weekend that Harry was reconsidering the visit after his formal request for taxpayer-funded police security protection for his family was refused by the government.
This would mean he had to rely on his own private security team except when they were on royal estates, the BBC reported.
The prince had expressed concerns about his family’s safety in the UK last year, after losing a court case to have full police protection restored during visits to the country.
“It’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely,” he told the BBC then.
Harry and Meghan left Britain for North America in 2020 and stepped back from royal duties amid a bitter feud with the family, which worsened in the following years as Harry published his tell-all memoir “Spare” and was embroiled in legal battles in the UK.
Harry’s visit was to coincide with the delivery of a judgement, expected Tuesday, in the case he and other celebrities brought against the Daily Mail owner, Associated Newspapers, over alleged unlawful information gathering.
The king’s younger son has said he would like to reconcile with his father, but it is unclear whether the two will meet during the visit.
He is last believed to have briefly met with his 77-year-old father, who is being treated for an undisclosed cancer, at the king’s Clarence House residence in London in September 2025.
AFP
