This week, Prince Harry’s lawyers were attending a closed-door hearing regarding the Sussex family’s ability to get and pay for royal protection when they visit the UK. As part of that hearing, Harry’s lawyers released a statement from Harry in which he said: “It was with great sadness to both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.” If you’ve read Spare, Endgame or the recent Byline Times cover story, you understand Harry’s reference – he went into the Sandringham Summit in good faith, believing that they were all negotiating some kind of situation which would see the Sussexes as beloved family members and part-time working royals. Instead, the fix was in, the Sussexes were forced into a “completely out” position, and then they were stripped of security and funding when Harry refused to back off the Christian Jones-Dan Wootton leak issue. All of that is the jumping-off point for the latest Royalist column, all about how Prince William, Kate and Charles feel about the idea that Harry would like to visit the UK more often, if he could get the security issue fixed.

Friends of Prince William and Kate Middleton have ridiculed Prince Harry’s suggestion that he and his family would like to spend more time in the U.K.

“The one saving grace of this whole situation is that they live 5,000 miles away,” the friend said. “The idea of them coming back here will go down like a bucket of warm sick.”

However, a friend of King Charles told The Daily Beast that they thought Charles would be “thrilled” to have Harry and his family back in the U.K. more often.

The differing royal reactions came after Harry revealed, while arguing in the High Court that he should still have the right to automatic police protection on British soil, that he wants his children to spend more time in the U.K. He suggested the only thing stopping them was his family not having the right to the automatic police protection that they would have enjoyed as full time members of the Firm.

On Thursday, to widespread disbelief voiced by his critics on social media, Harry argued in a statement submitted to the High Court that it was not a “choice” to leave the royal family, saying: “It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.” The argument that they were “forced” to leave will not, however, come as a huge surprise to many in the palace. Harry and Meghan had initially hoped to continue representing the monarchy on a part time basis, and have said they felt they had no choice but to quit completely when that was refused.

A former courtier told The Daily Beast: “The idea that they had ‘no choice’ but to quit is a classic example of their ‘this is my truth’ concept. It’s just a figure of speech. It is not actually true. Of course they could have carried on if they had wanted to. They were not forced out.”

Asked why, if he was so enthusiastic to see lots of Harry and his family, Charles had evicted them from Frogmore Cottage where they would have had benefited from the enhanced security of being on the Windsor estate, the friend said: “He can’t be seen to be keeping luxury homes on standby for his children.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Frogmore Cottage is not a “luxury home,” it was a dilapidated shack which the Sussexes lovingly renovated and decorated, and they had a valid and paid lease on it when Charles evicted them. Post-eviction, Frogmore Cottage has been sitting there vacant too, because we have not heard one thing about Charles finding a new tenant. As for this: “The idea of them coming back here will go down like a bucket of warm sick.” I cannot even imagine the cruelty and vile racism coming from William and Kate if this is the way their “friends” openly discuss Harry and Meghan. That too is why the Sussexes were forced out of the country – to appease Will and Kate and their need to be the center of attention.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.