Prince Harry criticised for saying ‘I don’t know how much longer my father has’ in TV interview
Prince Harry has said he wants “reconciliation” with the Royal Family – but claims the King “won’t speak to me”.
In an interview with BBC News after losing a legal challenge over his security in the UK, the Duke of Sussex said “there have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family”.
He said: “Of course, they will never forgive me for lots of things but… I would love reconciliation with my family, there’s no point in continuing to fight anymore.
“Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. It would be nice to reconcile.”
Ailsa Anderson, a former press secretary to the late Queen, told Sky News that Buckingham Palace will be “raising their eyes heavenwards” in reaction to the interview.
“Prince Harry is saying ‘I don’t know how long my father has’ – that’s going to cause real concern and more speculation in the media and the wider public about what his diagnosis is, which is incredibly unhelpful going forward,” she told Sky’s Sophy Ridge.
She added: “What you don’t want to do is have your private life played out in the media. So if you truly want reconciliation, you’ll do it in private, not in a BBC News interview.”
Follow latest: Duke feels it’s ‘impossible’ for family to visit UK
Angry Harry alludes to an establishment stitch-up – and you can tell he believes his father could have done more
Rhiannon Mills
@SkyRhiannon
I’ve been in the room before when Harry has decided to open up. When allowed to talk, he is a man who will very firmly wear his heart on his sleeve.
This interview was meant to be about this appeal court ruling, but he has gone so much further than that.
What is so clear, and we’ve heard this through the court hearings, is that this has been the most personal crusade for him.
He has seen it as a point of principle, but also as an issue that he believes has seriously put him at risk, and more importantly, his family.
What is striking are the other things that he decides to talk about.
Yes, he’s clearly very angry at the decision by the Home Office not to give him automatic police protection, but what is telling is the fact that he talks about the establishment stitch-up, alluding to the men in grey suits who he believes turned against him and Meghan – which is something his mother, Princess Diana, also suggested in the past.
And then, of course, he talks about his family.
If we wanted to have any sense of how much Harry continues to be shut out of family life, it comes in what he says about his father and not knowing how long he has to live.
You can tell that, in some ways, he believes that his father could have done more.
Certainly, there have been suggestions of that over the last year – now we know exactly how much it’s stood in the way of him building bridges with his family and, in particular, his father.
Elsewhere in the interview, Harry said he had now “forgiven” the Royal Family – but added the security row, “that has now been ongoing for five years with regards to my human life and safety”, is “the sticking point” and “the only thing that’s left”.
“Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book,” he said, referencing his 2023 memoir Spare, where he made a series of claims about the Royal Family.
It comes after Harry earlier today lost his legal challenge against the UK government over the level of security he receives when he is in the country.
After he and Meghan stepped down from full-time royal duties and moved to the US in 2020, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) decided to downgrade his high-level police protection for when he was back in the country.
Since then, the duke has argued that his private protection team in the US no longer had access to the UK intelligence information needed to keep his wife and children safe.
At the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday, Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos said that while the duke’s safety concerns were both “powerful and moving”, his “sense of grievance” did not “translate into a legal argument”.
In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”
It’s understood that the King felt it would have been constitutionally improper to intervene while the case was being considered by the government and reviewed by the courts.
Harry ‘let down’ by ruling
In the interview, Prince Harry said he cannot “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point” because of the security decision.
He added he was “let down” and felt the decision was “a good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up,” before adding he worries the decision sets “a new precedent that security can be used to control members of the family”.
He said he believes “what it does is imprison other members of the family from being able to choose a different life,” and added: “If, for me, security is conditional on having an official role – one that both myself and my wife wish to carry on, but then was rejected… by the Royal Household – and the result to that is you lose your security.
“That basically says you can’t live outside of their control if you want to be safe.”
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Duke: PM should ‘step in’
The duke also said the situation was “initiated under a previous government” and said he would ask Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to “step in”.
He said he would ask Ms Cooper to review Ravec and its members, “because if it is an expert body, then what is the Royal Household’s role there, if it is not to influence and decide what they want for the members of their household?”
Ravec includes people from the Home Office, Cabinet Office, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Metropolitan Police, and the Royal Household.
It previously decided Harry should have a “bespoke” arrangement for publicly funded security when in the UK, as he was no longer entitled to the same protection as working royals after stepping down from full-time duties.
‘All I’ve been asking for is safety’
Later on Friday evening, Harry released a written statement attacking Ravec for failing to do an annual risk assessment, and added that legal proceedings “have revealed to me that this basic duty of care was not and is not applied to me”.
He again said he would write to Ms Cooper to “ask her to urgently examine the matter and review the Ravec process” and added the legal action has been “a last resort, but one that has uncovered shocking truths”.
“I remain committed to a life of public service,” he said.
“This has been and will always be, my life’s work, and when you strip away the noise, you’ll be able to hear, all I’ve been asking for is safety.”