Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex lay ferns and a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the newly unveiled UK war memorial and Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, on October 28, 2018, in Wellington, New Zealand. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on their official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. (Photo by Rosa Woods - Pool/Getty Images)© Pool

Prince Harry reveals real reason he won't let Meghan Markle return to the UK

Meghan and Harry left the UK in 2020 

Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
Los Angeles correspondentLos Angeles
July 25, 2024

Prince Harry has revealed the terrifying reason he won't bring his wife the Duchess of Sussex, to the UK, claiming he is worried about the threat of an acid attack. 

Speaking during a new interview in Tabloids on Trial for ITV King Charles' youngest son said: "All it takes is one lone actor, one person who read this stuff, to act on what they have read, and whether that is a knife or acid… they are genuine concerns for me, they are one of the reasons I won't bring my wife back to this country." 

© Karwai Tang

Harry and Meghan attend an official photocall to announce their engagement in 2017

His comments come almost two years after Neil Basu, the outgoing assistant commissioner of specialist operations at Scotland Yard, told a Channel 4 documentary that "disgusting and very real" threats had been leveled against the pair. 

"If you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that’s online ... you would feel under threat all of the time," he said; Neil was in charge of royal protection before the Sussexes left the U.K. 

"We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats," he concluded. 

© Getty

Harry and Meghan visited Nigeria earlier in 2024

In the sit-down interview with ITV News's Rebecca Barry, the Duke also claimed his desire to take legal action against newspaper publishers played a part in "destroying the relationship" with his family. 

"Yeah, that's certainly a central piece to it," Harry said. "But that's a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press. I've made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. 

"It would be nice if we did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But I'm doing this for my reasons." 

© Getty Images

Harry was last seen with his family at the coronation of King Charles last May

Harry moved his family to California in 2020. The Prince and Meghan live with their two children, Prince Archie, five, and three-year-old Princess Lilibet, in Montecito. 

He settled his case against Mirror Group Newspapers in February 2024, after a judge concluded there was "extensive" phone hacking by MGN between 2006 and 2011, and "even to some extent" during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.

Sign up to HELLO! Daily for all the latest and best royal coverage

Email Address

By entering your details, you are agreeing to HELLO! Magazine User Data Protection Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please click here.

More Royalty

See more