Prince Harry has truly become the Duke of Hazard.
He has shut himself out of the royal family with his appearance on Oprah Winfrey, his memoir Spare – and now his ongoing battle at the Supreme Court to get the British government to reverse its decision to offer him less police protection when he returns for visits .
Much has been said about him being “whining” and costing the now very hard-pressed British taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds by continuing his security battle at the High Court.
But everyone would do well to remember that this is a man deeply haunted by Princess Diana’s death.
His beloved mother tragically died in a car accident that could so easily have been avoided and was partly caused by her giving up her Scotland Yard protection.
I vividly remember meeting Diana at Kensington Palace in November 1993 when she asked me, “What would be the best advice you could give me?”
I didn’t hesitate to say, “I don’t know your future plans, ma’am – I urge you not to let down your Scotland Yard security – yes, at times we have invaded your privacy, but we have kept you alive.”
Six weeks later she resigned from security at Scotland Yard and was then forever haunted by the world’s media until her accident in Paris.
Harry was understandably traumatized after her death and has denounced the paparazzi who chased her before the crash.
He has repeatedly used the debate that the hounding paparazzi in the last years of his late mother’s life and the fatal crash in Paris in 1997 were the cause of her death.
But the latest investigation into her death in London confirmed that the crash was primarily caused by driver Henri Paul drinking excess alcohol – and not by the pursuing paparazzi.
He and his wife Meghan have waged successful privacy battles and are not facing the same era of rampaging mobs as Diana.
It’s completely understandable that her death clearly makes him reconsider his safety, but I hope he can begin to heal and remove the nagging fear that he and his wife could suffer the same fate as Diana in the past.
My advice to him – and his family – is this: accept the British government’s offer of limited protection, to work with your own private security while you are in Britain.
This is the best option available to Harry at the moment.
His decision to give up his royal duties was his and his alone, and he can no longer expect the same level of security as working royals, especially when he lives in LA most of the time.
After his meeting with the late Queen Elizabeth about his and his wife’s royal ‘Megxit’, she acknowledged his situation and offered a compromise – but it was a compromise he never expected.
In short, Her Majesty said: “You are just part of this working family here in Britain.”
In other words, Harry’s hopes of a six-month stint in and a six-month stint out of the royal family were shattered every year!
Once in the US and away from his royal duties, Harry was no longer a working royal – and with it his personal security.
It was a fair exchange. He wanted to leave, and he got out. But the loss of his full royal security angered him immensely, and he still seems completely unable to understand why that protection was withdrawn.
His worldwide popularity and the constant media attention he attracted rightly require protection for him and his family while they are in the US.
But the only option left to him when he left The Firm was to hire personal celebrity protection at his expense.
It’s true that Harry has every reason to worry about his safety.
There can be no doubt that he and his wife’s actions and business interests in America – including their interview with Oprah, Netflix deals and the publication of Harry’s memoir – attract curious and sometimes dangerous, fixated individuals, who push the boundaries of their safety.
But Harry and Meghan have to accept that their privacy is occasionally invaded in annoying ways.
This is unfortunately part of the package of their privileged lives.
Harry’s main concerns appear to be for his and his family’s safety as they enter Britain. And like I said, a lot of that worry comes from the fact that he’s clearly haunted by the circumstances of Diana’s death.
He should take comfort in the fact that the Home Office and Scotland Yard have agreed that, in the circumstances of his visits to Britain, a full risk assessment would take place and appropriate protection would be provided.
In short, a Royal Protection Command liaison officer would be replaced to work alongside his personal security detail.
According to Harry, this is completely unacceptable, hence the legal action that he alone has initiated.
From my personal experiences working with incoming members of foreign royal families to the UK, each have their own protections, and having a deputy liaison officer assigned to them in the UK was both efficient and effective, providing access to both royal and government property when necessary.
This compromise should address any concerns Harry has about his safety here in Britain.
However, his insistence on requiring a full protection team from the Royal Protection Command cannot, based on my experience of royal protection, be justified without his royal status.
As protection officer for Harry’s late mother Diana from 1987 to 1993, I regularly witnessed intrusions into her life.
She was often openly annoyed by such intrusions, but like all other members of the royal family, Diana accepted it as a ‘detriment’ of her privileged position – and went on with her life, as did the other members of the royal family.
Harry would do well to remember how she responded to the many incidents in which her privacy was violated, in order to move on with his life – and stop this incessant nagging.
SAS-trained officer Ken Wharfe was chosen to lead security for the Queen’s grandchildren, Prince William and Prince Harry, who affectionately called him ‘Uncle Ken’ as children.
A year later, in 1987, he was appointed Personal Protection Officer to the Princess of Wales. His best-selling books about his time with the royal family include
Diana – Well-guarded secret and Guarding Diana – Protecting the princess around the world.