Prince Harry tells US TV he is ‘making sure Queen is protected and has the right people around her’

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Prince Harry said he is ‘making sure the Queen is protected and has the right people around her’ in an interview with a major US TV network as Buckingham Palace officials prepare for further sensational claims later today.

The Duke of Sussex praised the monarch’s ‘great sense of humour’ and said it was ‘really nice to catch up with her’ during their supposedly secret meeting last Thursday before he arrived in The Hague.  

‘Being with her, it was great. It was just so nice to see her, she’s on great form,’ he said in an interview with NBC Today presenter Hoda Kotb while in the Netherlands, where he is currently hosting the Invictus Games.

‘She’s always got a great sense of humour with me and I’m just making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.

‘Both Meghan and I had tea with her, so it was really nice to catch up with her.’

It was the first time the couple had been seen together publicly on this side of the Atlantic for two years.  

Harry said: ‘Home for me now, for the time being, is in the States and it feels that way as well. We’ve been welcomed with open arms and we have such a great community up in Santa Barbara.’  

The couple moved to Montecito, California, following their decision to step down as senior royals in 2020, saying they wanted a new life of personal and financial freedom. 

Harry’s interview was previewed on NBC last night, and will be shown in full on the programme later today from 12pm UK time (7am Eastern Time). 

It comes days ahead of the Queen’s 96th birthday on Thursday and just over a year after the funeral of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh. 

The Palace will be concerned that Harry could make further claims about the Royal Family only a year after his infamous interview to Oprah Winfrey on CBS in which he and Meghan accused unnamed royals of racism.

The Duke has a deeply strained relationship with his family – especially his father Prince Charles and brother Prince William – and missed last month’s memorial service at Westminster Abbey for his grandfather Prince Philip.

Royal aides will be concerned about details from a private meeting being divulged, which come on top of fears over what could be contained in his forthcoming memoirs and Netflix documenting his every move at the Games.

The Duke has already been accused in recent days of using his platform at the Games to promote BetterUp, the California mental health start-up for whom he is ‘chief impact officer’ – after the two announced a partnership.

‘Hoda Kotb sat down with Prince Harry to talk about the Invictus Game, his surprise visit with the Queen, and lie with his wife Meghan Markle,’ the Today show wrote on Twitter, while also sharing an image of Kotb, Harry, and one of the veterans taking part in the sporting event.  

Teasing the interview, Kotb’s co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin added that the Duke of Sussex will also discuss fatherhood and life with his and Meghan’s two children, Archie, two, and 10-month-old Lilibet.  

Meghan will likely not appear in the Today show interview; she has already left the Netherlands and returned home to California in order to reunite with Archie and Lilibet, having confessed to a military veteran at the Invictus Games that she was missing her two children after being separated from them for the longest time since they were born. 

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Harry played table tennis and virtual golf today as his visit to the Games continued.

The Duke was seen walking through a backstage area at the Invictus Games, following what was the first time the couple had been seen together publicly on this side of the Atlantic for two years.

Harry was also seen playing table tennis with Tokyo Paralympics table tennis silver medalist Thomas Schmidberger, gold medalist Valentin Baus and two time Paralympic Competitor Sandra Mikolaschek.

Flanked by his ever-present bodyguard – former US Secret Service agent Christopher Sanchez – Harry walked through the crowds at the Zuiderpark to a tent where visitors can try their luck on a virtual golf course.

He was handed a seven iron and guided by an instructor was shown how to correctly hold the club.

The Prince jokingly warned people to stand back as he took a swing – and drove his ball a distance of 54ft. The crowd cheered when the screen showed his ball bouncing on to the virtual green.

Harry’s on-air sit-down marks the latest in a handful of media interviews that he has done since he and Meghan arrived in The Hague on Friday for the start of this year’s Invictus Games. 

On Monday, the father-of-two broke his silence about the couple’s meeting with the Queen while speaking to the BBC, saying that it was ‘great to see her’ and adding that she ‘would have loved’ to have attended the Invictus Games alongside him. 

Harry, who founded the event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women in 2014, said the 96-year-old monarch ‘had plenty of messages for Team UK’ when he met her at Windsor Castle last week. 

He added he had passed these onto the team, telling the BBC: ‘So, it was great to see her and I’m sure she would love to be here if she could.’ 

There were reports Harry and Meghan had promised the Queen she would meet her great-grandchildren Archie and Lilibet ‘in the near future’ during the ‘very cordial’ secret meeting on Thursday. 

According to The Mirror, senior royal sources described the meeting as ‘very cordial’ and ‘incredibly warm and good natured’. 

One royal biographer has claimed the meeting was a way for Prince Harry to ‘slowly starting to rebuild some bridges’ with his father Prince Charles. 

Harry and Meghan reportedly also opened the door to a return from their $14.5 million mansion in California for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, and told her of their plans to visit again so she can spend time with their children.  

While the Queen had the opportunity to meet Archie – who was born while Meghan and Harry were still living in the UK and serving as senior working royals – she has not yet met her great-granddaughter Lilibet, who is named after her. 

Meghan gave birth to Lilibet Diana in June of last year at a hospital near the couple’s Montecito home and they have yet to bring their daughter over to the UK.  

Indeed, the couple’s brief trip to the UK last week marked the first time that Meghan has returned to Britain since she and Harry sensationally quit the royal family in March 2020 – a move that has become widely known as ‘Megxit’. 

Prince Harry has made just a handful of visits to the UK since the couple relocated to California in the wake of Megxit but he chose not to attend Prince Philip’s memorial service, which took place last month – just over two weeks before the Sussexes made their trip to see the Queen.   

His decision to skip the emotional event was met with severe criticism from royal insiders, with Prince Philip’s former protection officer describing Harry’s absence as ‘pathetic’. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex remained at their mansion in Montecito while the rest of the royal family, including the Queen despite recent health issues, gathered in London for the poignant event. 

Harry’s absence at the event came amid an ongoing battle about his security; he is currently pursuing a legal challenge against the Home Office in the UK after being told he would no longer be given the ‘same degree’ of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.

It is unclear exactly what agreement was reached with regards to security before Meghan and Harry returned to the UK last week. 

However reports about their meeting with the Queen suggest that the couple is open to attending the Monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June. 

Insiders claim that they have been invited to appear at several family events during the multi-day event, including the traditional balcony appearance and a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s to celebrate the monarch’s 70 years on the throne. 

As well as doing several interviews during his time at the Games, Harry has also been followed by a crew of cameramen from Netflix, which is making a documentary about the sporting event as part of the Sussexes reported multi-million pound deal with the streaming giant. 

Harry’s interview with Kotb is thought to mark the first time that the pair have spoken on-air, although Kotb did interview Oprah Winfrey last year in the wake of her sit-down with the Sussexes.  

Winfrey, 68, spoke with Kotb in May 2021 – just hours after Harry publicly aired more damaging allegations about his family in an Apple TV+ series about mental health. 

During the interview, the TV mogul defended Harry and Meghan’s public bashing of the royal family, insisting that the Sussexes ‘deserve’ to ‘not be intruded and invaded upon’ – but claiming that this shouldn’t mean they are unable to speak out about their experiences.

‘You know, I ask for privacy, and I’m talking all the time,’ she said. 

‘So I think being able to have a life that you are not intruded upon by photographers, or people flying overhead, or invading your life, is what every person wants and deserves — to not to be intruded and invaded upon.

‘That’s what people are missing. Privacy doesn’t mean silence.’ 

Her public defence of the couple came just hours after Harry launched fresh attacks on his family in their new five-part mental health series, which sees the Duke accusing his father Prince Charles of making him ‘suffer’ as a child and claiming that the royals tried to ‘bully him into silence’. 

Harry also alleged that the royal family tried to ‘trap’ him and Meghan, claiming that the couple faced ‘total silence, total neglect’ when they asked The Firm for help. 

The full interview will air on NBC News’ TODAY Wednesday, April 20.