Meghan Markle And Prince Harry’s Wedding Day, And The Specter Of Assassination — Yes, Really!
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding day will be the highlight of both of their young lives, but in the backs of their minds, the couple will have to contend with one rather ugly reality: someone, somewhere, wants one or both of them dead, and security needs to be a top priority.
As E! Online reports, one rather ugly aspect of being a Royal — even a Royal who isn’t in direct line to the throne, like Prince Harry — is the fact that your life is a target. It’s been that way for centuries, says Dai Davies, a former Head of Royal Protection and Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Service, and it isn’t going to change any time soon.
“In the last thousand years there hasn’t been a King or Queen that someone hasn’t tried to murder.”
Of course, the days may be long gone of warring political factions vying for the Throne, but that doesn’t mean that terrorism, or simply crazed individuals acting from a place of derangement, aren’t still things.
And as it turns out, the modern face of the Royal Family — that is, Prince William, Princess Kate, and Harry and Meghan, whom the British media are dubbing “The Fab Four” — have become targets in their own way. Prince Harry, specifically, fought in Afghanistan, and has faced real threats from terrorist groups. Similarly, Meghan, who is partially of African heritage, has received threats from crazed individuals who take exception to her race. Just last week, she was the victim of a racially-charged hate letter and an Anthrax scare.
On the wedding day proper, Harry and Meghan will be at their most vulnerable at a specific point on their wedding day: a two-mile long stretch of road across Windsor where the couple will be surrounded on all sides by tens of thousands of well-wishers.
Countdown to the Royal Wedding: The Very Real Danger Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are Facing on Their Big Day https://t.co/yIJsbaBaQm
— E! News (@enews) March 1, 2018
Davies makes it clear that this particular route puts the happy couple at even more risk.
“Windsor is a much harder area to secure than London, which is so much better prepared. In Windsor, there are shops, buildings, houses, you name it and there is a history of people trying to get into Windsor Castle.”
As of this writing, neither Kensington Palace nor the London Metropolitan Police are giving much in the way of details about security plans, for obvious reasons. Looking to history as a guide, however, reveals that security for Meghan and Harry’s wedding day is going to come with a big price tag.
Authorities spent $33 million on security for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding day — a price tag that included the cost of snipers on rooftops, undercover police in the crowd, and months of investigation by terrorism experts, looking for hiding places for explosives, for example.
Officials expect that the bill for Meghan and Harry’s security may be even higher.
