Prince Harry is reportedly grappling with significant security challenges as he attempts to bring his wife and children to the UK next week.
The Duke of Sussex faces hurdles regarding their protection and where they would stay during his planned five-day visit.
He had intended for the Duchess of Sussex, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet to accompany him for the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham.
However, a crucial review by the Risk Management Board (RMB), integral to the process by which the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) assesses his security needs, has yet to occur, a development he learned on Friday.
The duke and his security team are understood to be working diligently behind the scenes to ensure the family’s visit can proceed safely.
A spokesman for the duke said: “The duke continues to explore every available option to enable the visit to proceed safely and to give his children the opportunity to enjoy the UK.”
The children are not expected to attend any public events, but Meghan is scheduled to join her husband on visits to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London and an Invictus event at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
There are hopes the King will be able to reunite with his youngest grandchildren for the first time in four years.
Archie, seven, and Lili, five, last saw their grandfather in person during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
Charles has offered the Sussexes accommodation at a royal residence, but it is understood the Royal Household has yet to receive confirmation of acceptance.
It is believed the family will not receive taxpayer-funded protection while in the UK, other than when they are within royal residences.
The spokesman for the duke added: “Prince Harry’s programme in the United Kingdom includes both public and private engagements across the country.
“Safe accommodation is only one element of an effective protective security plan because risk follows the person, not the place.
“The issue has never been accommodation. The issue is whether appropriate and proportionate protective security is being provided throughout the entirety of the visit.
“The independent Risk Management Board that Ravec itself decided was necessary last November has still not taken place.
“It is therefore difficult to understand how the proportionality of the current arrangements can credibly be maintained without that independent assessment.”
Harry has faced a protracted legal battle with the Home Office over the security arrangements for him and his family when in the UK after his level of protection changed when he stepped down as a working royal in 2020.
When the duke lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the Home Office last year, he gave a BBC interview in which he expressed hopes of a reconciliation with his family, revealing Charles would not speak to him because of his security court case.
Harry added: “I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at his point and the things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything you know.”
The duke, who stepped down from the working monarchy six years ago, has levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, his stepmother the Queen, brother the Prince of Wales and sister-in-law the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare since moving to California.
A Government spokesperson said: “The UK Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate.
“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”
