Prince Harry’s security case: What happens if Duke loses appeal?

Prince Harry is once again at the center of a legal battle in the UK, after he appealed against the UK court’s 2024 decision to uphold the Home Office’s removal of his special security in the UK.

The Duke of Sussex landed in the UK for a two-day hearing this week, with the Court of Appeal hearing his case from April 8 to April 9, during which, as per Sky News, he claimed that his ‘life was at stake’ in the UK.

For the unversed, Harry lost his special security privileges in the UK reserved for royals, paid for by taxpayers, after he stepped away as a senior royal in 2020 with wife Meghan Markle and relocated to the US.

In recent written submissions, however, his lawyers claimed that the couple ‘felt forced to step back’ as senior royals because they felt "they were not being protected by the institution".

Speaking for Prince Harry at the Royal Courts of Justice this week, his lawyer Shaheed Fatima KC said, “One mustn't forget the human dimension to this case. There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security, whose life is at stake.”

The court is expected to make and hand a decision in the case after Easter.

What happens if Prince Harry loses his appeal?

As royal enthusiasts await the court’s decision, the Sussex camp may also have to make some serious decisions in the event that Prince Harry loses out on his appeal.

For starters, a dismissal of his case once again may damage Harry’s brand even further.

Just days before the hearing in his security case, the Duke resigned from he co-founded in honour of his late mother Diana. This came after an alleged row between the trustees and the chair of its board.

Harry set up Sentebale in 2006 with co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, seeking to help people with HIV and Aids in Africa. The charity is now under investigation by the UK Charity Commission, after its chairwomen Sophie Chandauka submitted a complaint against the trustees.

Amid this, one can only imagine the kind of blow a loss at the courts would be to Prince Harry, who is already pretty unpopular with the British publish; recent YouGov favourability ratings placed him and wife Meghan at the bottom of their popular royals list, with both having net negative ratings among Britons.

That’s not all. If Prince Harry were to lose his security privileges in the UK for good this time, it may be hard to imagine him ever returning back to his homeland without kicking up a storm, what with his sensational comments about how ‘unsafe’ he and his family would be here without the said security.

However, it is also pertinent to note that Prince Harry is more than capable of arranging and paying for his own high-level security if he feels that there are significant enough threats to his and his family’s safety, and so the matter could only be that of a settlement of egos rather than the case at hand.

While one can only do guess work until a decision is announced, it is safe to say that 2025 is shaping up to be quite the year for Prince Harry.

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