Could U.S. taxpayers be on the hook for Harry and Meghan’s security?

Even die-hard Sussex Squad members might be hard-pressed to justify Prince Harry and Meghan Markle potentially becoming eligible to receive round-the-clock security while living in California as self-exiled royals, provided to them by local, state or federal law enforcement and paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Royal experts said this week that could happen if Harry wins approval from the British Home Office to once again receive automatic, high-level protection when he visits the United Kingdom. Harry and Meghan lost that protection in 2020, when they decided to stop being working members of the royal family and move to the United States to launch careers in media, philanthropy and lifestyle branding.

Since then, Harry and Meghan have had to find ways to pay for their own security. But that could change if the British government decides they merit  protection. The couple could then be entitled to the status of “internationally protected persons” under international law, said Daily Mail columnist Richard Eden. This would put them in the same category as diplomats, visiting heads of state or other members of the British royal family, traveling to the United States on official business.

For such dignitaries, the U.S. provides security, which is something Americans probably understand, just as the British government extends this courtesy to visiting American officials, Eden said. But he pointed out that Harry and Meghan no longer represent the British government or work on its behalf. They live as private citizens — in a $30 million mansion in Montecito — and any public appearances they make are on behalf of themselves, their commercial brands or nonprofit causes they are trying to promote.

“When you have a couple who live (in the United States) getting protection 24 hours a day, that’s a whole different kettle of fish,” Eden said on the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential YouTube channel.

Fellow columnist Richard Kay said he heard that Harry and Meghan have to fork over an estimated $10 million a year for security, given the possible threats they receive as globally famous celebrities who have many loyal fans but who also have become divisive figures and increasingly unpopular in the U.K.

If they become internationally protected persons, the U.S. government might end up paying “a sizable chunk of that” $10 million, Kay said. “I think that might be a real problem for Harry and Meghan’s fans to answer.” Kay also wondered how the British government would make such an controversial arrangement with the government of President Donald Trump, who is known to not be fond of either the Duke of Sussex or his American wife.

As Harry has waged a court battle with the British government to regain his security, Eden suspects that Harry’s real aim all along has been to once again become an internationally protected person, as he had been for much of his life. This status, and the financial benefits that come with it, could help him and Meghan save a lot of money.

“It would mean they are under less pressure financially,” Eden said, adding that viewers of the couple’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey might recall Harry saying that he and Meghan had no choice but to pursue lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify because their funding for security had been cut when they left the U.K.

In addition to creating potential diplomatic headaches for Harry’s father King Charles, letting the couple be designated as internationally protected persons will also “open a can of worms” within the royal family. For now, even working royals, such as the king’s siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, only receive police protection when they are carrying out public engagements. “It would be bizarre for Harry and Meghan, who carry out no public duties, to have round-the-clock protection but not the working royals,” Eden said.

Harry’s security issues in the U.K. have been back in the news as he prepares to travel to London next week for a court case involving one of his lawsuits against a British tabloid. Last spring, he lost his long-running court battle with the Home Office, over its decision to remove his security.

Actually, Harry and Meghan are eligible to receive police protection while in the U.K., but on a case-by-case basis and he must notify the Home Office a month in advance. Still, he complained in a BBC interview that the decision to revoke his automatic protection has made it difficult for him to reconcile with his estranged father. It also means he doesn’t feel safe bringing Meghan and their two children to the U.K. to visit, therefore making it impossible for his children to spend time with their grandfather.

Harry subsequently appealed the decision directly to the Home Office, which has agreed to review its decision by conducting a new risk assessment.