Prince Harry has been accused of "deliberately trying to upstage his father" as he arrived at the High Court today for his "last chance saloon" appeal over his security arrangements in the UK.As the Duke of Sussex arrived at the London court, his father King Charles and Queen Camilla have met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, during their state visit to Italy.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00Yes, I mean, what horrific timing, Bev, just a couple of minutes really before we're expecting the King and Queen to arrive at the Coronale Presidential Palace here in Rome.
00:10Prince Harry has arrived at the Royal Court of Justice in London.
00:13This is really the last chance saloon for Prince Harry in his case against the Home Office.
00:17His security was downgraded when he stood back as a working royal back in 2020.
00:22He disagreed with that. He took the British government to court and, of course, lost that initial case.
00:28Now he's appealing it and it appears that he wants to be there in person to look for judges, the High Court judges directly in the eye to plead his case.
00:40I mean, on the one hand, many people would probably point out that, well, if you feel so scared that your security is so bad in the UK, why have you come across here to argue your case about security?
00:50But on the other, he insists that he does not feel safe bringing his family to the United Kingdom, particularly his wife, Meghan, and his two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lillivet.
01:03So, I mean, we'll just have to see what the courts say on that one.
01:06But, of course, it is horrific timing because now this is completely overshadowing the state visits of the King and Queen in Italy.
01:13It's a ceremonial arrival of the shots you're hopefully seeing on your screen now of the Guard of Honor lined up of all three Italian forces, the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.
01:24You can just about see in the foreground there the president of Italy, President Mattarella and his daughter Laura.
01:32And we're expecting a joint fly pass as well between the British RAF Red Arrows and the Frecce Tricolori, which is the equivalent of Red Arrows here in Italy, flying over the palace.
01:43So it is the kind of symbolism of the joint military operations between the UK and Italy.
01:48But, nonetheless, I think the King and his staff may be a little bit miffed that Prince Harry has decided to slightly upstage his father here.
01:56Cameron, Prince Harry would know better than anybody that there was a state visit, that it's his father's wedding anniversary to Camilla tomorrow, the 20th anniversary.
02:05He does not need to be there in court today. He wasn't there in previous court hearings.
02:09People will think he is deliberately trying to upstage the royal family yet again.
02:14Well, I suppose, on the one hand, Andrew, the court case is the date of the court case is set by the courts.
02:22But you're right. He doesn't absolutely need to be there.
02:25I suspect, you know, that it probably didn't cross his mind.
02:28And if it did, I don't perhaps think that was going to stop him because of the state visits, of course, are planned months in advance.
02:34But we know, don't we, that Prince Harry doesn't isn't really a breath of King Charles's diary.
02:39It's reported that he didn't find out that the king was in hospital a few weeks ago until he read us in the news himself.
02:46So he wasn't given any kind of heads up.
02:48And I think when he was given the news that his father had cancer, it was a very similar situation here.
02:54So clearly, they're not on the best of speaking terms.
02:58But of course, I think the king's focus is going to be on the fact that it is his anniversary tomorrow with Queen Camilla.
03:0320 years of happy marriage, you just saw from those three beautiful photographs taken by Chris Jackson in the gardens of the villa of the UK ambassador here to Italy,
03:15that they clearly are very much, you know, part of a team.
03:18And I think Queen Camilla is his rock, really, particularly over this cancer diagnosis over the last year or so.
03:23And we are expecting them very shortly to arrive here.
03:26And they're going to be guest sponsors at a state banquet tomorrow evening.
03:29And it doesn't just show the kind of workaholic nature of the king, Andrew, the fact that he's continuing to work on his 20th wedding anniversary.