Archie and Lilibet Changed Schools After Two Days as Meghan Faces First Security Review Since Royal Exit

Prince Harry and Meghan Sussex’s return to Britain has already produced a real-world test of the security concerns Harry has raised for years.

Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are changing schools after just two days following discussions between their parents and the family’s private security team. At almost the same time, RAVEC decided Meghan should receive her own Risk Management Board assessment, her first security review since the Sussexes left working royal life in 2020. Harry will undergo a separate reassessment based on the family’s changed circumstances in Britain.

Neither development guarantees taxpayer-funded police protection. But together they make one point increasingly difficult to dismiss: officials cannot sensibly decide security based on royal status alone when a family’s risks stem from where it lives, how it moves, and how predictable those movements become.

RAVEC has reportedly asked Harry and Meghan to provide detailed information about their daily routines so officials can establish what security professionals call a “pattern of life.” This includes school journeys, addresses, timings and regular routes.

Within days of Archie and Lilibet beginning school, one of those supposedly ordinary routines had already become difficult enough to secure that their parents changed schools.

Archie and Lilibet’s School Run Became a Security Issue

The Sussexes’ spokesperson confirmed that the children’s school move followed discussions with their security team.

“The decision for the children to move school was taken following a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements,” the spokesperson said, while stressing that Harry and Meghan remained grateful to the teachers and staff and that the decision was not a criticism of the school.

Ravec, which is part of the Home Office, has asked the couple to provide as much detail as possible about their routines to evaluate any changes to the level of threat they face. It is understood to have explained the need to establish a “pattern of life”, based upon the minutiae of the family’s new life in Britain. This will include daily journeys such as the school run, the specific addresses involved, timings and various routes taken, as well as other regular movements made by all members of the family and any other evidence they consider relevant.

The Telegraph

So to be clear, Harry and Meghan did not withdraw the children because they disliked the school. Reports said heavy traffic, the distance from the family’s home and difficulties maintaining a secure convoy made the school run difficult to manage. A predictable daily journey involving two young children also creates fixed locations, timings and routes.

Meghan Is Now Getting Her Own Assessment

Meghan’s assessment may be the most revealing development of all. She reportedly has not received an individual Risk Management Board assessment since she was a working member of the Royal Family. That means RAVEC is assessing her current risk profile separately for the first time since the Sussexes established an independent life outside the institution.

Risk assessments also have to account for the individual concerned, their movements, routines, locations and identifiable threats. Meghan’s separate review means officials will now assess her circumstances independently rather than treating her risk as identical to Harry’s.

Harry’s Security Concerns Were Never Theoretical

For years, critics have treated Harry’s security battle as though he were demanding a royal perk after walking away from royal duties. The documented threat history makes that argument increasingly difficult to sustain.

A confidential assessment commissioned by Harry’s private security firm and obtained by ITV identified at least six terrorist plots targeting Harry, five originating in Britain. The report also said the Metropolitan Police were aware of nearly 500 potential stalkers targeting the Royal Family, around half of whom had demonstrated a threat towards Harry, Meghan and their children.

The family’s history includes two neo-Nazi podcasters jailed for terrorism offences after calling for the deaths of Harry and Archie, a suspicious package containing white powder sent to Meghan that police investigated as a racist hate crime, and Metropolitan Police officers dismissed after sharing racist messages about her.

That is why the debate cannot begin and end with “Why should taxpayers pay?” The first question should be what threat the family faces and what protection that threat requires. The government does not routinely disclose detailed costs of individual royal protection arrangements. Yet Sussex security is routinely discussed first as a financial question. Risk should come before cost.

Harry’s argument has never simply been that he wants more security personnel around him. He already pays for private protection. The dispute concerns what those guards cannot replicate. Private security officers in Britain cannot carry firearms and do not have access to the intelligence available to British authorities, including information from MI5 and MI6. Harry has argued for years that those limitations become particularly important when dealing with organised, extremist or armed threats.

If an official assessment concludes that the Sussexes do not face a threat requiring police protection, then that should determine the outcome. If it concludes that they do, their departure from working royal life does not make the threat disappear.

Final Thoughts

There is a grim irony in Harry’s security battle. Diana reportedly rejected police protection, and former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Condon later told her inquest that he believed she might still be alive had she kept it. Her son has spent six years doing the opposite.

Harry challenged the removal of his protection through the courts because he believes his family faces a serious risk. The Court of Appeal rejected his challenge in May 2025. Yet his father is now King, while Harry’s departure from working royal duties remains central to the security arrangements imposed on him since 2020.

King Charles cannot simply be treated as a distant bystander to what has happened to his son and grandchildren. Now RAVEC itself wants the family’s routes, addresses and daily movements, while Harry and Meghan’s security team has already found one ordinary routine difficult enough to secure that Archie and Lilibet changed schools after two days.

Diana rejected protection. Harry is asking for it. Given what happened to his mother, the fact that her son has had to fight this hard for six years should shame the institution his father leads.