In recent days, it’s been interesting to see the security aspect get lost in all of the reporting about the Sussex family’s upcoming UK visit. It’s not even a conspiracy – Prince Harry and Meghan don’t want people to know what kind of security their family will have, so they’re not talking about it. The palace can’t confirm anything on the record because they would basically be admitting that King Charles had the authority to grant security to the Sussexes this whole time. Charles and the courtiers are over a barrel, because if they brief anything false or anything Harry doesn’t like, Harry will grab the nearest microphone and start spilling all. So, Page Six is trying to touch the third rail here – they’re saying that the Sussexes will travel with their own private security, as they understand that their trip will be a huge spectacle.
Prince Harry is expected to bring his own security team with his family visits London next month, as sources said the renegade royal and wife Meghan Markle are preparing for a “huge spectacle.”
Harry — who pays about $3 million a year for private security in the US — has yet to be afforded VIP security after battling the British Home Office for 24/7 armed police escorts, and is in a “holding pattern,” we’re told. But he has been offered a royal residence with private security for his stay with Markle and their kids Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5.
One source in the know said the family won’t fly by private jet, but they will have their own bodyguards, adding, “Harry always travels with one of two of his own security team.”
The family’s first time back to the UK in four years is expected to draw a huge amount of attention. The Sussexes’ trip has been planned to mark the one-year countdown until the Invictus Games takes place in Birmingham next summer, from July 7-10, and Harry wants to use the time to reunite with his father, King Charles, who has barely seen Archie and Lilibet.
“They know it will make the biggest spectacle,” said the source of Harry and Markle. “They will want photos of them being ‘royal.’”
Obvious story is obvious – regardless of whether the Sussexes get police protection (which I think they will), they’re still going to have their private security in tow, likely liaising with the royal protection officers. And yes, some events will be a “spectacle.” I know the “royal way” is for the Windsors to grimly stagger around as literal twos of people stand behind ten rows of barricades, but that’s not what will happen when the Sussexes come to town. H&M will draw large crowds and the crowds won’t be full of Not My King signs and Republic protesters either. Incidentally, Harry and Meghan aren’t the ones turning this visit into a spectacle, that’s on the hysterical British press and the Windsors. (PS… I think the “spectacle” quote reads like something from a William rant, basically “they’re going to get so much attention, waaaaaah.”)
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
