Meghan "nervous" over school run as Harry’s family security remains unsettled

The Duchess of Sussex is nervous about doing the school run while security for her family remains unsettled, a pal says.

Meghan and Harry are in a secret luxury countryside location after returning to the UK.

The pair have barely left the house since arriving last week and she is said to be worried about driving Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, to and from their prep school.

It is understood they have some level of security, but are still without proper police protection.

It means their current bodyguards cannot be armed with any weapons to protect them.

Having a regular drop-off and pick-up time increases the security risk, the friend says.

A friend said: “They go out as they need to go out but it’s a gilded cage without protective security.”

The pal added: “The school run is a tricky issue and I understand they are nervous about it.”

Critics say the pair, who gave up up royal duties to move to California in 2020, are “prisoners of their own making” by coming back without protection in place.

But it emerged yesterday that Harry gave the security committee less than two weeks’ notice, when rules say he must give 28 days.

A poll has found 63 per cent of the public believe the pair should pay for their own private guards.

Questions have been raised over why the duke came back despite saying last year he could not bring his family without proper security.

It is understood they expect they will eventually get some taxpayer-funded protection reinstated.

That is because a Risk Management Board has finally assessed the threat level against him for the first time in seven years, and have passed that into Ravec – the independent body that decides security for the Royal Family and other VIPs.

Ravec will make a decision based on that, but it is not clear when they will decide or what his security will look like if they do give it back.

The couple have been discussing the move for months and it is understood the “stars aligned” making last week the best possible time.

Royal expert Phil Dampier said Harry has become a “prisoner in his own home” – but he said it is “of his making”.

He said: “He has brought it on himself. It was his decision to stop being a working member of the Royal Family.

“It was his decision to come back at very short notice, when no one was expecting him.

“He could become a prisoner of his own home. Clearly he can have private security but his bodyguards would not be allowed to be armed in the UK as they are in the US. It’s all of his own making.”

But as well as choosing schools in the UK, Harry also wants to be closer to family such as the Spencers.

It was not confirmed whether they visited his mother Diana’s grave at Althorp on the 29th anniversary of her death yesterday.

A Government spokesman said of the protection system: “It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”

It comes as it emerged furious Harry accused Britain’s security committee of failing to inform him about a 2023 threat from al-Qaeda.

He wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood this month asking her to take a personal role in determining whether his family receive close police protection.

His legal team is also understood to have alleged in the letter that the chair of Ravec – which decides security arrangements – was aware of a threat made by the terror group but did not pass this to his security staff or to US authorities.

In November 2023, intelligence passed to the FBI identified an al-Qaeda document specifically referencing the “assassination” of Prince Harry.

It also called on followers in the West to kill military personnel who had served in Afghanistan – one of at least six documented threats against him since 2007.

There was a reported kill or kidnap plan in 2007 during his planned Iraq deployment.

The following year al-Qaeda-supporting websites called for him to be captured or killed after disclosure of his Afghanistan deployment.

In 2010, al-Qaeda supporters threatened to shoot down Prince Harry’s Apache and capture him if he returned to Afghanistan.

In September 2012, a Taliban spokesman said commanders had been instructed to “eliminate him”, and the Taliban attacked Prince Harry’s base at Camp Bastion.

And then in January 2023, following the release of Spare, senior Taliban figures accused prince harry of war crimes. It renewed hostility towards him, but was not counted as a direct death threat.