‘Great sadness’: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘forced’ into Megxit: Court hears

Prince Harry sensationally told a court he wanted to return to the UK after he and Meghan Markle were ‘forced’ out of royal duties and left no choice but to flee to the US.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were “forced” to leave the royal family and their home for a new life in the United States, a court heard.

In a written statement to the UK’s High Court to challenge the loss of state-funded security, Prince Harry claimed it was not a “choice” to quit frontline royal duties and exit Britain in the seismic self-exile that became widely known as “Megxit”.

“It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020,” Harry said.

“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the United States.”

Prince Harry’s witness statement, read in court, claimed he never wanted to quit the royal family or permanently leave the United Kingdom. Picture: AFP

Prince Harry’s statement, read before the court by his lawyer Shaheed Fatima KC, came after the Home Office said it was the Duke’s choice to move his family to the US, which led to the downgrade of security in the UK.

The Duke said he never chose to leave the royal family behind, and that his children, Archie and Lilibet, can never feel at home in the United Kingdom “if it is not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil”.

“I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too,” he added in the statement.

The House of Sussex quit the royal family and moved to North America in early 2020 to find what they called financial independence, which came in the form of tell-all exposes on their bad blood with King Charles and Prince William.

Their tax-payer-funded security was subsequently removed and the couple was evicted from their UK home, Frogmore Cottage.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle carry Lilibet and Archie to Frogmore Cottage before their eviction. Picture: Netflix

Prince Harry is suing the UK government in an attempt to reinstate police protection while returning to the country.

The three-day hearing, which is closed to the public, heard that the decision to change the security arrangements was “unlawful and unfair” given Prince Harry’s royal status and the death of his mother.

Princess Diana was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.

But lawyers for the government reject that he was “singled out” and treated “less favourably” or that a proper risk analysis was not carried out.

James Eadie, a lawyer for the interior ministry, rejected claims that Prince Harry was “singled out” to be treated less favourably than working members of the royal family.

Eadie added that Prince Harry was treated in a lawful “bespoke manner” when it came to his security on visits home.

“As a result of the fact that he would no longer be a working member of the royal family, and would be living abroad for the majority of the time, his position had materially changed,” he argued.

“In those circumstances, protective security would not be provided on the same basis as before.”

Originally published as ‘Great sadness’: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘forced’ into Megxit: Court hears