Harry and Meghan security: What happens next for the couple

The question of who pays for Harry and Meghan’s security — and who actually provides it — has never really gone away. Now, with the political landscape shifting on both sides of the Atlantic, the debate is flaring up again with fresh urgency.

Where things stand right now

Harry and Meghan currently rely on a private security team funded out of their own pocket, largely through deals with Netflix and Spotify, plus income from their Archewell Foundation activities. But it’s a setup that Harry has repeatedly called inadequate. He lost a High Court battle in 2023 against the UK Home Office after arguing he should be entitled to the same Metropolitan Police protection he received as a working royal. The court sided with the government. That ruling still stings.

In the United States, they have no entitlement to Secret Service protection. That’s reserved for sitting presidents, vice presidents, and a handful of others under federal law. Private security firms — the kind the couple reportedly employs — can cost upwards of $5 million per year for round-the-clock coverage at the level a former senior royal might expect.

The UK situation remains unresolved

The Home Office hasn’t moved. A government spokesperson said earlier this year that security decisions for individuals are made on a case-by-case basis and that those arrangements are not publicly disclosed. That’s the standard line. It tells you almost nothing.

Still, insiders familiar with royal protection protocols say the door isn’t completely shut. Harry could theoretically reapply for UK protection each time he visits Britain. He’s done exactly that before, submitting individual requests tied to specific trips — including visits around the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.

The problem is that every denial lands in the press and reignites the argument. And Harry hasn’t shown any sign of backing down from the legal route either. An appeal to the UK Supreme Court remains a possibility.

What Meghan’s role means for the calculation

Meghan’s status complicates things further. She’s an American citizen and a private individual with no formal royal title in active use. Her security needs are assessed differently, both by UK authorities and in the US context. Yet she’s arguably a higher-profile target than many people who do receive state-funded protection, given the volume of documented threats the couple has faced.

The pair have cited over 50 specific security incidents in legal filings, a number their legal team used to argue the threat level justifies government-funded cover.

What comes next

Nobody expects a clean resolution anytime soon. The political will in Westminster to revisit the question simply isn’t there, and the Trump administration in Washington has shown zero interest in extending any special arrangements for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

So for now, Harry and Meghan are writing very large checks to stay safe. Whether that changes depends less on courts and more on whether either government decides the optics of the current situation are worse than the cost of fixing it.