Prince Harry and Meghan ‘felt forced’ to step back as senior royals, court told: Live

While Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London, the King and Queen have begun their first full day of their Italian state visit.

Charles and Camilla posed in front of Rome’s Colosseum as they enjoyed one of the surviving marvels of the Roman world.

The couple stood just metres from a ruined temple dedicated to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and Rome on the eve of their 20th wedding anniversary.

Charles and Camilla turned to look at the crowds below them who cheered and they acknowledged them with a wave.

The Duke of Sussex is in London on Tuesday to a appeal a decision made by the High Court last year.

Harry took legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country.

In February 2024, retired High Court judge Sir Peter Lane ruled last year that Ravec’s decision, taken after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit as senior working royals, was lawful.

But Harry is now to appealing the ruling on Tuesday and Wednesday in London.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex “felt forced to step back” from their roles as senior working royals as they felt they “were not being protected by the institution”, the Court of Appeal has been told.

Harry and his wife Meghan quit as senior working royals in January 2020 but “wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family”, the duke’s barristers told a hearing on Tuesday.

In written submissions, Shaheed Fatima KC, for the duke, said: “On 8 January 2020, (the duke) and his wife felt forced to step back from the role of full time official working members of the royal family as they considered they were not being protected by the institution, but they wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen as privately funded members of the royal family.”

Meghan Markle has made a rare acknowledgement of the “media backlash” she’s experienced in recent years.

For the first episode of her new podcast Confessions of a Female Founder, Markle interviewed Bumble founder and close friend Whitney Wolfe Herd.

“When I see the way that you’ve been treated in the media, which is a magnitude I’ll never understand, my heart breaks for you. It’s not fair, and it’s brutalising,” Herd told Markle.

The Duchess agreed, saying: “Well, maybe because you understand it in whatever degree, you know how to show up for me.”

Herd then recalled an experience of walking through an Irish airport and seeing Markle on “the cover of every single magazine and newspaper”.

Recalling her surprise, Herd said: “I’m in Ireland – [you’re] back home in California doing school drop-off, [you’re] the front page of every single one of these things.”

“I know,” Markle agreed.

The Duke of Sussex did not meet the King before Harry’s High Court date, according to reports.

The pair are believed to have last met soon after Charles announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024 and his son, who now lives with his family in California, rushed from the US to see him.

Harry, 40, came to the UK to attend the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday morning for an appeal in his legal challenge over his security arrangements while visiting the UK.

He waved at journalists and did not reply as a reporter asked: “Did you speak to your dad?”

The duke is said to have arrived in London on Sunday, hours before the King, 76, left with the Queen on Monday for a state visit to Italy.

Harry also visited the UK without meeting his father in May last year, during a trip to celebrate his Invictus Games.

He said at the time that he hoped to see his father “soon” after the King’s “full programme” meant a reunion was not then possible.

In written submissions for the Home Office, which is legally responsible for Ravec’s decisions, barrister Sir James Eadie KC said the Duke of Sussex’s appeal “involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees”.

He said: “(The Home Office) has, and continues to, treat (the duke) in a bespoke manner. He is no longer a member of the cohort of individuals whose security position remains under regular review by Ravec.

“Rather, he is brought back into the cohort in appropriate circumstances, and in light of consideration of any given context.”

He stressed that the approach was a matter for the judgement of Ravec, which the judge in the previous court case had found to be lawful.

In his ruling, the judge found that Prince Harry had relied upon an “inappropriate, formalist interpretation” of how Ravec conducts security arrangements, and a “mechanistic, overly literal approach” which was misconceived.

He added: “The appeal is fairly to be characterised in the same way. It involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees, advancing propositions available only by reading small parts of the evidence, and now the judgment, out of context and ignoring the totality of the picture.”

The King has been made a Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and he presented Mr Mattarella with the insignia for a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

“It goes back quite a long way,” said Charles “It’s just a token really of our appreciation, you’ve served for so long.”

“I’m humbled, your majesty,” Mr Mattarella replied.

The Queen was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and told her host: “I’m very honoured and humbled.”

While the King and president held talks, Camilla and Ms Mattarella viewed a selection of antique books on horsemanship in the Biblioteca del Piffetti and toured the State Rooms of the 16th century palace.

The royal couple also visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at Altare della Patria in Rome, before they are due to visit more of the city’s ancient monuments including the Colosseum.

In written submissions for the Duke of Sussex – some of which were redacted for confidentiality reasons – Shaheed Fatima KC said al Qaida had called for Harry “to be murdered” after Ravec’s decision in February 2020 to change the level of security the duke is given while in the UK.

She said that Harry’s security team were informed that the terrorist group had published a document which stated that his “assassination would please the Muslim community”.

Ms Fatima also told the court that Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were involved in a “dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi” in New York in May 2023 involving “reckless disregard of vehicle and traffic laws”.

She continued: “The judge wrongly and inappropriately deferred to Ravec in interpreting the terms of reference and evaluation criteria for decision-making.

“The judge failed to appreciate the role of the RMB (risk management board) analysis in Ravec’s decision-making.

“The judge erred in finding that the terms of reference granted Ravec the discretion to simply not use the terms of reference in certain cases.”