Private Security Firms to Form ‘Ring of Steel’ to Protect Harry and Meghan During Duchess Speech

Prince Harry is bringing legal action against the UK Home Office over a decision by the government’s Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures not to allow him to pay for police protection for himself and his family when they are in the UK.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s own security teams and event organizers are expected to protect them on Monday at the One Young World summit in Manchester, where the Duchess of Sussex will deliver a speech on gender equality at the event’s opening ceremony later in the day.

The couple reportedly landed in Britain late last week for their first visit to the country since returning to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.

The Sun cited an unnamed Greater Manchester Police source as saying that its officers were not providing a “dedicated police resource,” with the event at the Manchester Central Convention Complex “being privately secured.”

“There is provision for individuals to be protected on an ad hoc basis. We saw when Harry arrived for the Jubilee that he was tailed by the Queen’s own car with security guards. There is no way anyone would want to let anything happen to either when they are on UK soil,” the source added.

The Daily Mail in turn reported that Harry and Meghan would be protected by at least two private security firms and dog teams forming a “ring of steel” around the Manchester venue during the duchess’s speech.

The couple and organizers of the One Young World summit arranged security as Harry is suing the Home Office over the removal of his taxpayer-funded armed police protection bodyguards since the two quit life as frontline royals.

The prince slams a decision by the government’s Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures as “unfair”, “illegal” and something that puts his family at risk.

Relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal family have remained tense since the 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. In their first appearance since they quit their royal duties, the couple told Oprah that the Royal family disregarded Meghan's psychological well-being during her pregnancy, as she was near-suicidal.

They also claimed that one of the senior royals expressed "concerns" about the skin color of their son Archie, and accused the palace of failing to protect Meghan from “racist” attacks from the British press.

The Sussexes left the UK in March 2020 to relocate to the United States, where they decided to start a "simple life" in a posh mansion with their son Archie, who was joined by his sister Lilibet "Lili" Diana in June 2021.