The China Mail - 'Devastated' Prince Harry says no UK return but seeks reconciliation

Visibly upset, Harry revealed to the BBC that his father King Charles III no longer speaks to him over the security issue and after he published a memoir critical of the royals, and urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene.

"Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But... I would love for reconciliation," he said.

The prince, also known as the Duke of Sussex, stepped down from royal family duties in 2020, and moved to the United States with his wife Meghan and son Archie, who is about to turn six.

King Charles III's youngest son has been embroiled in a years-long court battle after the UK government downgraded his security.

But he told the BBC from California that he did not want any more legal struggles, suggesting he would not go to the Supreme Court.

"Life is precious. I don't know how much longer my father has... he won't speak to me because of this security stuff," Harry said.

Charles was diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in February 2024 and has been receiving weekly treatment.

Harry reportedly only found out from the media that his 76-year-old father had been briefly hospitalised with ill-effects from his treatment in April.

The prince, 40, said he was "devastated" by Thursday's court judgement, which threw out his bid to restore fully his police protection while visiting Britain.

"It's impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely," he said.

- 'Sense of grievance' -

In response to the court decision, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: "All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion."

Harry was not present for the judgement when Judge Geoffrey Vos dismissed the appeal, saying the duke's "sense of grievance" had failed to translate into a legal argument.

Harry's security was now a "more bespoke, and generally lesser, level of protection than when he was in the UK", Vos said.

This, however, did not "of itself give rise to a legal complaint", he added.

Since moving to California, Harry and Meghan have had a second child, Lilibet, born in 2021.

The government committee that handles protection for royals and public figures in 2020 decided he would not receive the same level of publicly funded protection when in Britain as he did previously.

After losing a High Court case challenging the decision, the prince was allowed to launch an appeal against the interior ministry.

His lawyers argued Harry was singled out for "unjustified and inferior treatment" and that the committee did not fully assess the security threats when downgrading his protection.

- 'I miss the UK' -

Harry, whose older brother Prince William is heir to the throne, has long been haunted by the 1997 death of his mother Princess Diana in a high-speed car crash as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers in Paris.

The prince has blamed the press for the tragedy and cited intense media scrutiny as one of the reasons he and Meghan stepped back five years ago.

The prince admitted to the BBC: "I miss the UK," adding: "It's really quite sad that I won't be able to show... my children my homeland."

In the two-day appeal hearing last month, Harry's lawyers said the Sussexes had been threatened by Al-Qaeda and involved in a "dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi" in New York, as an example of the security dangers he faces.

His lawyer Shaheed Fatima said the prince's "safety... security and... life" were at stake.

Harry called Thursday's court decision a "good old-fashioned establishment stitch up" and accused the Royal household of influencing the ruling.

"This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother," he said in a statement Friday.

While Harry has maintained a low profile since 2020, Meghan has boosted her public presence this year, launching a podcast and Netflix series and making a return to social media.

R.Yeung--ThChM