King Charles Won't Speak with Prince Harry, but His Close Friends Will Speak to the Press

Major moments from The Duke's interview and how Buckingham Palace responded

In my previous post I looked into key events leading up to the decision to pull Harry’s security. Here, I’ll dive into my key takeaways from the BBC interview, the moments that made me go “what’d he just say?!”, and the royal defense laid out in a Sunday Time’s article.

If it wasn’t clear that the Duke of Sussex had exhausted all legal options after his failed RAVEC appeal, his online statement and BBC interview crystallized it.

Let’s get right into some big themes and key moments from the interview.

Not only does the Royal Household play a significant role in security decisions, they’ve actively interfered in the process, according to Harry. "I’ve never asked him to intervene, I’ve asked him to step out of the way,” The Duke of Sussex said of his father, King Charles. As previously discussed, Charles’s role in ousting Queen Elizabeth II’s Private Secretary, Lord Christopher Geidt, in favor of Sir Edward Young right before Meghan joined the family had a disastrous ripple effect for the couple.

Here’s an example Harry gives about the decision to pull his security in Feb. 2020.

On top of that, it was only through the legal process that Harry even learned that the Royal Household was not only a part of RAVEC, but on equal footing.

Security by invite only. “I can only come to the UK safely if I’m invited,” Harry says. He goes on to say that for court cases, charity engagements, seeing old friends, etc. it’s a different story and the security is insufficient. (Harry’s had armed police security his entire life. Not only do they have jurisdiction, they also have access to the best intel. Private Security can’t deliver all of that.) Despite security apparently being dependent on his official role—a standard not held for other royals—every time Harry wants to go back to the U.K. he has to go through RAVEC and his rep is still from the Royal Household.

So, is he a royal or not? Or just when it’s convenient?

The media successfully created confusion over Harry & Meghan’s security costs. In legal documents, Harry and his team saw the number of times constituents wrote letters to their MPs quoting headlines from British newspapers along with exaggerated figures around the cost of Harry & Meghan’s security. They didn’t want their tax dollars paying for that astronomical amount.

Here’s what Harry had to say:

This is why I never discount the power of the tabloids, especially in the U.K.

Security is Harry’s sticking point. Harry’s willing to leave the past in the past and move forward on everything else except security. He wants to reconcile, but told BBC that his father won’t speak to him at all. (We’ll get into Charles’s response—or at least the response from those close to him—further down)

What Harry wants next. The Duke of Sussex makes it clear that he’s exhausted all legal options, even sounding somewhat flummoxed that, according to the decision handed down by the judges, there is apparently no legal framework to hold RAVEC accountable.

Prince Harry calls on the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to investigate RAVEC and the process through which RMB (risk assessments) are done to ensure it is as unbiased as possible. He mentions that before his security was pulled he had the highest threat level against him of any royal—including the Queen. Overnight, Harry became the lowest, without any RMB performed to make that determination. Sort of like how millions of people became obese overnight in the ‘90s because BMI numbers changed. (BMI is a terribly outdated indicator for health, originally designed off of white, European, male bodies.)

What He’d Just Say?

There were a few statements Harry made that had me like

First up: