Police clear crowd blocking Harry and Meghan's car in Nottingham

Police in Nottingham had to clear a path for Prince Harry and Meghan's Range Rover on Thursday after a crowd blocked the vehicle outside Epic Partners on Edale Road, the final stop on the couple's first joint engagement in Britain since 2020.

You'll get a view, don't worry.

Officers from Nottinghamshire Constabulary told onlookers to "tuck in" and "keep shuffling back" so the car could move through. GB News, whose specialist royal editor Dorothy Reddin was at the scene, filmed the exchange. Enough space eventually opened for the vehicle to pass safely.

Who decides on protection

Harry does not have automatic police protection in the United Kingdom, although individual forces can decide to provide cover when they judge it necessary for a visit to an area they are responsible for. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC on 8 October that the duke's protection would be kept under review.

There is a national process which looks at the risk posed to different people and assesses whether they need personal police protection. There are a small number of tens of individuals who justify that.

Asked by LBC's Nick Ferrari whether the arrangements were under review, Rowley said Harry had stated publicly that he used to be protected and no longer is, and that the force would keep the position under review. The decision was not his, he said, but one for a government committee on which the police, the security services and others sit.

LBC also reported that close protection specialist Richard Aitch questioned the handling of Harry's security, warning that the couple are "rolling the dice" with the limitations of private bodyguards in Britain and that leaving royal duties behind had not made the threats against the duke disappear.

Ravec has commissioned Risk Management Board threat assessments for both Harry and Meghan since their return to Britain in late August, and the results remain pending, GB News reported. The duke is seeking permanent reinstatement to the Ravec cohort, the group of senior public figures, including senior royals, who receive automatic police protection.

The operation on the ground

Police cars were stationed on streets near Epic Partners and an unmarked vehicle was positioned to restrict access to Edale Road, GB News reported. Nottingham City Council deployed Community Protection Officers to help manage the public, and barricades were erected outside the Community Recording Studio. Harry and Meghan were shadowed by their own private security detail at all three engagements.

GB News described that combination of private bodyguards, council officers, marked and unmarked police vehicles and physical barriers as a carefully coordinated approach, and said it understands police are regularly deployed for crowd control at big events. Nottinghamshire Police has not published its own account of what it deployed in Nottingham or why.

A HELLO! correspondent who was at the visit reported seeing an unmarked police car around the corner from the Community Recording Studio earlier in the day, and said the officers in it did not comment when approached. HELLO! said the couple's willingness to take part in public visits in Nottingham suggested they felt comfortable with the security measures in place.

Five uniformed officers were seen managing the crowd and the road outside Epic Partners, one of the couple's three stops, The Blast reported, citing ITV News.

Whether any of those officers were assigned to protect the couple personally is not established by the available reporting. The Blast said the presence of police at an event does not necessarily mean those officers have been assigned to provide personal protection, and that it remained unclear whether public funds were specifically allocated for the Sussexes' protection during the visit.

A disputed count online

An X user, Paula Matanovich, shared photographs from the visit and wrote that there were "5 policemen and 6 Scotland Yard ARMED Royal police protection officers plus barricades," according to The Blast. The post pointed to the couple's status as private citizens and revived the argument over whether they should be given police protection on visits to Britain.

The claim has not been independently verified, The Blast said, and the photographs do not establish the identities, assignments or armed status of the security personnel said to have been present.

Criticism then turned to King Charles. One X user, posting as @GrangePeters, wrote that the king is weak and said Prince William would treat his younger brother and sister-in-law differently when he eventually became king, The Blast reported.

The Blast said that criticism reflected the commenter's frustration rather than any confirmed involvement by the king, and that no evidence has been presented that the monarch personally authorised the police presence in Nottingham or directed how security was handled during the visit.

A downgrade, then a court loss

Harry held International Protected Persons Status as a senior working royal, and it was downgraded after he and Meghan left Britain in 2020. He has been challenging that decision since September of that year. His legal fight against the Home Office ended unsuccessfully in May 2025, after which he said he could not see a world in which he would bring his wife and children back to the UK.

Three stops in Nottingham

Thursday's visit took in three charitable organisations, beginning at the Community Recording Studio and ending at Epic Partners on Edale Road, HELLO! reported. It was the first joint public engagement Harry and Meghan have carried out in the UK since they stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to the United States.

The recording studio is a youth charity Harry has supported for more than a decade, and Epic Partners works with young people through sport and mentoring, the Associated Press reported. The couple helped prepare food parcels at Himmah, which works on food poverty, and Meghan donated £10,000 to it in 2021 from sales of a cookbook released after the Grenfell Tower fire.

A spokesperson for the couple said Nottingham carries particular significance as the place where they made their first joint appearance after announcing their engagement in 2017.

Asked by HELLO! how it felt to be back in the UK, Harry answered "Great" and gave a thumbs up. Meghan, asked whether she was happy to be back, said "Yes, of course."

What remains unresolved

The couple returned to the UK for 10 days in June, when Meghan pulled out of a string of appearances in London, citing security concerns in the capital, HELLO! reported. They moved back to Britain in late August with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

The outcome of the Risk Management Board assessments of the threat against Harry and Meghan has not been announced, and no date has been given for a decision on the duke's request for permanent reinstatement to the Ravec cohort.