Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘are being lined up to present the Best Picture Oscar’ next week despite both pulling out of Prince Philip’s memorial service.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were said to have been approached at the end of last year, but it is not yet known whether they have agreed to attend the event, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27 – just two days before the London service.
According to reports, Harry and Meghan had initially been lined up to present the award for Best Actress in a nod to their work on women’s rights, but the plan was scrapped after Kristen Stewart was nominated for her role in Spencer, a film about the life of Diana.
A source told The Sun newspaper: ‘It would be seen as a final kick in the teeth for the royal family if he did – he’s too nervous to fly to London without police protection, but happy to stand up in front of a huge live audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Not great optics.’
It comes days after Harry confirmed he won’t be attending a memorial service for the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey on March 29, but said he will be attending the Invictus Games at The Hague in the Netherlands next month in a bizarre joke video which was pilloried by royal experts who said: ‘His grandfather would have given him a clip around the ear and told him to grow up.’
The decision not to attend the service comes after the duke took the Government to court over its decision not to provide full police protection when he visits Britain, his lawyers saying that Harry does ‘not feel safe’ without the protection of Scotland Yard officers.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘are being lined up to present the Best Picture Oscar’ next week despite both pulling out of Prince Philip’s memorial service in London
It is not yet known whether they have agreed to attend the event, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 27
According to reports, Harry and Meghan had initially been lined up to present the award for Best Actress in a nod to their work on women’s rights, but the plan was scrapped after Kristen Stewart was nominated for her role in Spencer, a film about the life of Princess Diana
Harry was criticised for releasing a video promoting this year’s Invictus Games just hours after confirming he won’t attend Prince Philip’s memorial service
The clip shows the Duke of Sussex learning Dutch ahead of the games, which will take place in the Netherlands in April, before ripping off his hoodie top to reveal an all-orange outfit
Harry and Meghan may be attending the Oscars in LA on March 27, and the duke has confirmed he will attend the Invictus Games in The Hague on April 16. But the couple are not attending a memorial service for Prince Philip in London on March 29
What is Harry and Meghan’s schedule?
GOING? MARCH 27 – THE OSCARS, LOS ANGELES
Harry and Meghan may be attending the Oscars to present an award at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
According to reports, Harry and Meghan had initially been lined up to present the award for Best Actress in a nod to their work on women’s rights, but the plan was scrapped after Kristen Stewart was nominated for her role in Spencer, a film about the life of Diana.
It is not confirmed if the couple are attending.
NOT GOING! MARCH 29 – PHILIP’S MEMORIAL SERVICE, LONDON
Harry’s spokesman has confirmed that the duke and duchess will not be flying to London to attend Prince Philip’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey.
Experts had predicted that Harry would not attend Philip’s Service of Thanksgiving, after his lawyers last month told a court the prince does ‘not feel safe’ in the UK without the protection of Scotland Yard officers, during his ongoing legal battle over security.
Royal biographers accused the duke of ‘snubbing the Queen’ by not attending. It is believed that he gave the monarch barely any notice of his plans not to go to the service.
GOING! APRIL 16 – THE INVICTUS GAMES, HJOLLAND
Harry has confirmed that he will be attending the Invictus Games in The Hague, Holland on April 16.
The duke was pilloried for releasing a light-hearted video promoting the sports contest for wounded veterans in which he ripped off his hoodie to reveal an all-orange outfit.
In the promo piece, which appears to have been filmed in his $14million Californian mansion, Harry told his team he ‘really wants to get this right’ – before putting on orange sunglasses and a hat. Pointing down into the camera, he then tells his Invictus colleagues he is ‘ready’ for the games.
In a promo video for the Invictus Games, which appears to have been filmed in his $14million Californian mansion, Harry told his team he ‘really wants to get this right’ – before putting on orange sunglasses and a hat and ripping off his hoodie to reveal an all-orange outfit. Pointing down into the camera, he then tells his Invictus colleagues he is ‘ready’ for the games.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady, who cooked for Princess Diana, commented: ‘His grandfather would have given him a clip around the ear and told him to grow up. The Queen will be devastated, and Princess Diana would, too, if she were here.’
Experts had predicted that Harry would not attend Philip’s Service of Thanksgiving, after his lawyers last month told a court the prince does ‘not feel safe’ in the UK without the protection of Scotland Yard officers, during his ongoing legal battle over security.
Royal biographer Angela Levin slammed the duke as a ‘child stamping his feet’ over the decision and said the move was tantamount to ‘blackmail’, warning Harry could use dropping out of major events at the last minute as leverage to secure personal protective security in the UK.
Levin warned that though Harry ‘has snubbed the Duke of Edinburgh… really he is snubbing the Queen’ who is still ‘grieving the loss of her husband of 73 years’ – and was only given 15 minutes advance notice of Harry’s announcement.
‘He has got this all wrong. If he comes over for a royal event he gets police protection. What they won’t do is, if he goes out with his friends he gets security. He’ll probably use this same excuse to try to get out of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations,’ she said.
‘It’s all about “me, me, me” rather than going out of his way for his grandmother and showing her he cares. He’s behaving like a child stamping his feet’.
The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English says the decision has been seen by Palace insiders as ‘a slap in the face to the Queen’.
‘Within a couple of minutes of announcing that he would not be attending the Duke of Edinburgh’s service of thanksgiving, Harry’s team also announced that he would be attending the Invictus Games in the Hague in April, just a few weeks later,’ she said.
‘This has obviously surprised a lot of people… to travel to Europe to go to that, but not to his grandfather’s memorial service has, to use a well-worn phrase, got people’s goat.
‘They feel it is a slap in the face to the Queen and, again, another PR disaster as far as many people in the UK are concerned.’
The Mail on Sunday’s Editor at Large Charlotte Griffiths believes that the move could have even more profound implications.
‘There is that feeling that this could be one of the last chances he gets to see some of the older members of the family,’ she said. ‘It just feels so insensitive and so vitriolic and so pointless.’
It came after Harry and Meghan announced they made donations to several charities including The Halo Trust.
The non-political charity helps communities across the world remove deadly landmines from their land.
Halo has 8,500 staff in 25 countries and territories and has been providing ambulances and logistics to medical authorities in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau.
A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex last week confirmed he would not be leaving his Montecito mansion to attend a memorial marking the passing of his grandfather, which is due to be held at Westminster Abbey on March 29
Royal watchers have discussed how Prince Harry’s decision not to attend his late grandfather Prince Philip’s service of thanksgiving could be perceived by the Queen (pictured)
The duke made an emotional pilgrimage to Africa in 2019 to retrace the steps of his mother Diana, who famously walked through a partially cleared Angolan minefield in 1997 to highlight the trust’s efforts and the threat of the military munitions.
Footage was released on Friday of the duke holding a video call with two women who have made the decision to stay in Ukraine with the Halo Trust which has been clearing military ordinance in the eastern European country since 2016.
Diana worked with the Halo Trust in Huambo, Angola, during the 1990s in a fight against landmines. At the time, her support for an international treaty banning use of the explosive devices was seen as a political stance, but it was widely regarded as one of her greatest humanitarian efforts.
Harry, who has served as the charity’s patron and visited Angola to see the work they are doing, met virtually with Olesia, Halo’s communications manager in Ukraine, and Maryna, 25, the charity’s monitoring and evaluation officer.
What is Harry’s concern with UK security and why is he taking legal action?
Are Harry and his family covered by security arrangements currently?
He and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, personally fund a private protection team in the US for their family.
The Sussexes have signed multimillion-pound deals with Netflix and Spotify, with Harry telling Oprah Winfrey he secured these to pay for his security.
But he and Meghan lost their taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK in the aftermath of quitting as senior working royals.
Why did they lose their taxpayer-funded security?
Their security provision was one of the key issues when the couple announced they wanted to step down in 2020.
Speaking to Winfrey during the couple’s sit-down interview in 2021, Harry said he was told that ‘due to our change of status – we would no longer be ‘official’ members of the royal family’.
He said he had been shocked by this and ‘pushed back’ on the issue, arguing that there had been no change of threat or risk to the couple.
Meghan, during the same interview, told how she had written to her husband’s family urging them not to ‘pull his security’, but had been told ‘it’s just not possible’.
At the time of announcing their stepping back from royal life in 2020, their website suggested the Home Office, through the Metropolitan Police, should continue to provide protection for the couple and Archie, their only child at the time.
Have they offered to pay for police protection in the UK themselves?
Yes. Harry wants to fund the security himself, rather than ask taxpayers to foot the bill, his legal representative said.
He first offered to personally pay for police protection in the UK for himself and his family during the so-called Sandringham summit in January 2020, but the legal representative said that offer ‘was dismissed’.
The representative added that Harry ‘remains willing to cover the cost of security, as not to impose on the British taxpayer’.
Can they use the same security team they have while in the US?
Harry’s legal representative said that while the couple personally fund a private security team for their family, ‘that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the UK’.
His argument is that the US team does not have adequate jurisdiction abroad or access to UK intelligence information which is needed to keep the Sussex family safe.
So what is Harry doing about the issue of his UK security now?
In September 2021, he filed a claim for a judicial review against the Home Office decision.
His legal team said this course of action was taken ‘after another attempt at negotiations was also rejected’.
They said the judicial review bid is an attempt to ‘challenge the decision-making behind the security procedures, in the hopes that this could be re-evaluated for the obvious and necessary protection required’.
What threats do the couple see themselves as facing in the UK?
In a statement, the legal representative said: ‘He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats. While his role within the Institution has changed, his profile as a member of the Royal Family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.’
Has the Home Office said anything about the bid for judicial review?
A Government spokesperson said: ‘The UK Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate. It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements. To do so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.
‘It would also not be appropriate to comment on the detail of any legal proceedings.’
Will the couple return to the UK if the issue is not resolved in the way they would like?
A spokesperson for the duke has said that, in the absence of what they consider to be the necessary protection, ‘Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home’.
They insisted the UK ‘will always be Prince Harry’s home’, adding that it is ‘a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in’.
But they added: ‘With the lack of police protection, comes too great a personal risk.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10629627/Harry-Meghan-lined-present-Best-Picture-Oscar-week.html
