A year after he and his wife Meghan announced they were stepping down from royal duties, Prince Harry said the shock move had been driven in part by the actions of a “toxic” British press which was destroying his mental health.
“I did what any father or husband would do and thought ‘how do I get my family out of here’,” he said in a 2021 interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Six years after that decision to move to the United States, which sent shock waves through the monarchy, Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, will this month return to the United Kingdom where they will send their children to school.
And that will mean returning to the media scrutiny that they had desperately sought to leave behind.
“There’s no doubt that the British press and the British media are going to try and follow their every move,” royal commentator Afua Hagan told Reuters.
“Perhaps they are walking back into the lion’s den but they’re walking back into a lion’s den prepared. They’re not bringing a knife to a gunfight.”
In the years since leaving the UK, Harry has waged war in the courts with the press, successfully suing two major publishers, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, but he lost possibly his biggest battle against the Daily Mail last month.
Many of those accused by his lawyers of being complicit in unlawful behaviour remain in senior posts or have since moved to editor positions, with most of those claims not upheld by the courts.
When he gave evidence at the Daily Mail trial, he held back tears as he said the tabloid had made Meghan’s life “an absolute misery”.
In those circumstances, the timing of the return to the media lion’s den was surprising, one senior former royal aide said.
“You escape by the skin of your teeth being eaten, fight them, lose and then come back to face them again. It’s absolutely baffling,” the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
But royal biographer Robert Hardman said he thought the way the couple would be treated would be different now.
“I think Harry’s sort of moved on. We have to assume that his days as a serial litigant are now over,” he told Reuters.
“They will expect and demand and receive the same sort of privacy that’s accorded to other celebrities. If they’re in a public place, then they’re fair game. If they’re in private, they’re not.”
While Harry still detests the press, and the couple have campaigned on the perils of social media and its damaging effect especially on young people, Hagan said their perspective might have changed.
“I think there’s also probably an element that they have decided that there are more important things in life,” she said.
How they deal with the media is just one of many as yet unanswered questions arising from the couple’s volte-face on living in the UK.
Harry fought and lost a lengthy court battle with the UK government over his security arrangements, after a specialist body decided in February 2020 that Harry would not automatically receive personal police protection.
He said the decision was devastating and could mean his family would not be able to safely return to the country.
Who will now pay for his security and at what level of protection remain unknown.
“This is a private matter,” UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said when asked if the government would pay.
“It’s a matter for Harry and for Meghan, and we wish them well in the moves that they are making.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment about the family’s return to the UK.
But media reports said King Charles welcomed being able to see more of his youngest son and his family.
A YouGov UK poll released on Thursday indicated 33 per cent believe the King’s youngest son and the former Suits star should not come back while 45 per cent said they do not know.
The survey said 21 per cent of respondents were in favour of the Sussexes relocating from the US.
with PA
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