Sussexes ‘planning return to US’ if bid for tax-payer funded security backfires, just weeks after UK return

It is understood that the Sussexes are already looking to return to the US, just weeks after moving back to the UK, if their bid for tax-payer funded security fails.

Meghan and Harry have been involved in a long-standing battle to see their state funded security reinstated ever since they stepped down as senior royals in 2020, with the UK Home Office still conducting a review into whether the couple should have the protection reinstated.

It comes hot on the heels of the family’s latest security scare after two young men — believed to be paparazzi — were spotted monitoring Prince Archie’s, 7, and Princess Lilibet’s, 5 school on Tuesday morning.

The royal couple condemned the behaviour, with a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry telling The Sun: “The decision by photographers to conduct themselves in this way around a school is extraordinarily reckless.

“There is a world of difference between legitimate media activity and photographers walking the perimeter of a school, stopping to look into the grounds and monitoring children as they go about their day.

“It is concerning enough that certain European paparazzi appear unwilling to respect the privacy of children at school.”

It is believed that the Sussexes are now planning to leave the UK if the government does not reinstate their state protection — a cost that would befall taxpayers millions annually.

Friends of the couple have reportedly revealed the couple’s plan to pull the children out of their school and return to their Montecito home in California, if the review refuses them automatic police protection.

Royal commentator Richard Eden told the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential podcast that their attitude towards their protection was “akin to blackmailing” the UK government, King Charles and the public.

“My goodness, that makes the whole thing seem like… some sort of blackmail,” Mr Eden told the podcast, adding that it was like the couple was brazenly saying, “’We’ll move to Britain in an attempt to get the taxpayers to pay for security.”

“The implications of this are massive because if they get it, what that then means is Harry and Meghan can come and go, and they’ll still be getting police protection, and also they can say that they want it in America,” he told the publication.

“So those hard-pressed taxpayers in the US might find that they’re having to pay for security too. So it could ease any money worries that they have. Harry and Meghan would be absolutely thrilled. They’d have these huge costs paid for by someone else.”

Since stepping down as working royals, the couple have funded their own private security team and have refrained from publicly revealing their new UK home, believed to be in the Cotswolds.

Following the Sussexes’ announcement in August of their UK homecoming, Buckingham Palace issued a statement confirming they were returning as “private citizens” and not as working royals.