A stalker fixated with Prince Harry was reportedly twice able to pass within feet of him during his UK visit last month.
On September 9, the woman was allowed to enter a ‘secure zone’ at a hotel in central London where the Duke of Sussex was present for the WellChild Awards.
Then two days later she was intercepted by a member of Harry’s private staff at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in west London, at which there was no police presence.
The woman is said to be on a list of individuals known to be obsessed with the royal which was compiled by a private intelligence firm for the Prince’s personal security team.
Her mental health status is unknown but it is believed in the past she has followed the Duke around the globe.
Her visits have even extended as far as Harry and Meghan’s three-day visit to Nigeria in May 2024.
The Prince was shocked after his taxpayer-funded police protection was taken away once he and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced they were moving to the US and stepping back from royal public engagements.
The Duke said earlier this year that it was ‘difficult to swallow’ being told that the couple’s security was being revoked by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) back in 2020.
A stalker fixated with Prince Harry (reported to be the woman circled standing behind the vehicle the Duke of Sussex was travelling in) was reportedly twice able to pass within feet of him during his recent UK visit
The stalker was allowed to enter a ‘secure zone’ at a hotel in central London where the Duke of Sussex was present for the WellChild Awards. Pictured: Prince Harry (right) playfighting with nine-year-old Gwen Foster (left) using swords made from modelling balloons at the WellChild Awards last month
The Duke of Sussex arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on April 8, 2025, for the start of his appeal against a High Court ruling on his legal claim against the removal of his taxpayer-funded police protection when he is in the UK – an appeal he ultimately lost
Harry challenged that ruling during a two-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in April.
While the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision, the Metropolitan Police voluntarily provided personal security to the Prince during his visit last month, sources told the Mail.
It is understood that senior Met officers ‘acted on their own initiative’ to offer him protection while he was in the capital for the WellChild Awards.
The Duke is a patron of the charity, which supports seriously ill children and their carers.
Sources say officers contacted Harry’s representatives ahead of his arrival for the high-profile ceremony on September 8 to offer him protection for that day.
It is understood that the Met’s decision was made without the involvement of either the Home Office or the Royal Family and was instead based on the highly publicised nature of the event and the fact that many children would be present.
But the Duke, 41, who made the trip from his home in Montecito, California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and children Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, was only given protection for the day of the event – and was said to have felt ‘abandoned’ after having to fund his own security for the remainder of his visit.
A friend of Harry said the Duke was acutely conscious that his status put those around him in danger, something over which he felt ‘enormous guilt’, The Telegraph reported.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, laughs with 13-year-old Grace Tutt (centre), recipient of the Special Recognitions award at the WellChild Awards
That may go some way to explaining the small amount of time Harry has spent in his home country since he and Meghan emigrated to the US.
However, the incident with the stalker is likely to have fuelled the Prince’s fears about his safety this side of the Atlantic.
‘It should not be left to two office staff to act as extra eyes and ears or provide a physical barrier,’ the friend told the newspaper.
‘That should not happen. It is only going to take one motivated, lone individual for this to go south very quickly.’
Neil Basu, the former head of the UK’s counter-terrorism police, called the decision not to carry out a formal risk assessment for the Duke a ‘mistake’.
He argues that despite the Prince standing down from his royal duties, the risk profile he faces as a widely recognisable public figure has if anything increased.
He added that the most viable threat posed to the royals was an individual fixated on a specific figure.
‘There’s even a specialist team set up within New Scotland Yard to deal with fixated threat assessments, because there were so many – normally the head of state by a country mile, more than anybody else – but nevertheless, certainly other members of the Royal family. And it is the hardest thing to guard against.’
Harry and Meghan saw the removal of their police protection as a way of trying to strongarm them into returning to the UK – since they felt that without security, visiting Britain would paint a target on their back.
The Duke of Sussex claimed he was ‘singled out’ for ‘inferior treatment’ when the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) stripped him of his top-level security in February 2020, following ‘Megxit’.
The ‘Royal Bombshell’ edition of the Daily Mail which broke news of the couple’s dramatic decision
Whether previously Harry was entitled to a fully armed security detail, he now reportedly has only a liaison officer to contact, who is not security vetted.
The Duke continues to push for a full risk assessment of his safety, something he has been denied since April 2019 – when he was placed in the highest category, level seven alongside the Queen and then prime minister Baroness May.
Indeed, multiple people have been handed jail time for either plotting to kill Harry or making threats against him.
There are reportedly three people currently walking free who have in the past served time for planning violence against him.
