King Charles III could be dragged into Prince Harry’s court case.
“[The legal battle] puts Harry in with the people who are carrying out the king’s orders,” royal author Sally Bedell Smith shared in an interview with People published on Tuesday, April 15. “If his father was to say something even seemingly innocuous, it could end up landing in the middle of the court case.”
Harry spent two days at London’s Royal Courts of Justice earlier this month to appeal a 2020 hearing that pulled his and wife Meghan Markle’s security detail after they departed the royal family and moved out of the U.K. that same year.
It’s been widely speculated that issues within the courtroom stem from Harry and Charles’ estrangement.
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A source told People on Tuesday that “nothing has changed” between the father and son, with a second insider stating that their relationship is “distant.” (Harry previously flew to the U.K. to be with Charles in February 2024 after the king received a cancer diagnosis.)
Bedell Smith told People that most of the issues between Harry and Charles stem from the 2023 release of Harry’s memoir, Spare.
“These are things that would have been considered confidential,” the author noted, referring to anecdotes shared in the book.
Harry and Meghan, 43, got married in May 2018, and less than two years later, they announced their decision to step away from the royal family. Their official exit took place in March 2020, with the couple moving to America.
Following their departure, the late Queen Elizabeth II fought for Harry and Meghan to continue receiving state-funded official security, but the Royal and VIP Executive Committee disagreed as they no longer “fit readily” into the organization’s framework.
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As a way to protect his family — Harry and Meghan share son Prince Archie, 5, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 3 — the Duke of Sussex applied for judicial review in January 2022, which started the process to get his security detail reinstated. The U.K.’s high courts ruled against him in 2024, but the appeals process has continued.
Harry told People on April 9 that he felt “exhausted and overwhelmed” after two days in court, noting that his “worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case and that’s really sad.”
Harry also hinted to The Telegraph in a separate interview that the ongoing rift with Charles is at the forefront of this legal issue, noting that some statements made in the private trial were “difficult to swallow.”
An official ruling is set to come within weeks.
