EXCLUSIVE: The bodyguards-for-hire keeping Harry and Meghan safe: Sussexes are flanked on UK return by two retired ex-Met cops from private firm run by top security expert – including one who protected Duchess at her baby shower
- EXCLUSIVE: Duke and Duchess of Sussex have employed Dave Langdown – who was honoured by the Queen
- Former royal protection bodyguard is one of two ex-officers working for Harry and Meghan on their UK trip
- Mr Langdown is understood to have first been assigned to protect Harry when royal was in his twenties
- He was on Harry’s trip to Las Vegas where the royal reportedly played naked billiards with a stripper
- Dave would later accompany Meghan on her baby shower organised by Serena Williams and Amal Clooney
The Sussexes are ‘paying a bomb’ for two ex-Met Police officers to protect them in the UK including a British bodyguard honoured by the Queen who went with Meghan to New York for her baby shower and accompanied Harry on his trip to Las Vegas where the royal infamously played naked billiards with a stripper, MailOnline can reveal today.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had Dave Langdown in the passenger seat of their Range Rover as they left Frogmore Cottage this morning driven by another man who recently left Scotland Yard having worked in diplomatic protection. Mr Langdown was later seen helping them from their car as the caught a train from Euston.
A senior security source told MailOnline: ‘Dave is lovely guy and a very experienced royal protection officer who worked for Harry for many years. Harry clearly trusts him – so much so that he accompanied Meghan on her baby shower in New York. He was also with Harry in Vegas’.
The couple are in Manchester this evening where Ms Markle will give a speech on gender equality at the opening of the One Young World summit, where they are protected by private security amid the row over who pays for their protection on UK soil.
MailOnline understands that Mr Langdown, now in the private sector, served as Harry’s taxpayer-funded bodyguard for more than a decade, including through some of the most tumultuous periods of his life – and on the royal’s wild trip to Las Vegas in 2012.
In January this year he was given an honour by the Queen – the Royal Victorian Medal – for services to the Royal Family.
When Harry married Meghan Markle, he trusted him to accompany his wife to New York for her baby shower organised by Serena Williams and Amal Clooney and Dave accompanied them on their royal engagements across the UK.
The couple were driven out of Frogmore by two bodyguards who MailOnline can reveal are both former Met Police officers including Dave Langdown (right in front of a smiling Harry today)
Mr Langdown (left) follows Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in New York in 2019 while in the city for her baby shower
Mr Langdown guarded Harry for more than a decade before supporting his wife before they emigrated (pictured left with Meghan in Belfast in 2018 with Harry, right)
Today Mr Langdown (left) helped Harry from a Range Rover as they arrived at Euston for their journey to Manchester
A security officer with a detection dog outside Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend the One Young World 2022 Manchester Summit
Monday, 5 September: One Young World 2022 Manchester Summit
The Sussexes are travelling to Manchester on Monday where Meghan, 41, is due to give a speech on gender equality. The summit brings together young leaders from more than 190 countries.
The area around Bridgewater Hall, which is hosting the summit, will be cleared for 90 minutes ahead of the couple’s arrival, The Times reports.
However, Harry and Meghan have asked private security firms to provide a ‘ring of steel’ in Manchester for their appearance at the forum.
The event runs from 6pm to 8pm.
Tuesday, 6 September: Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023
After Monday’s trip to Manchester, the Sussexes will travel to Dusseldorf on Tuesday to mark a year before Harry’s next Invictus Games.
Harry previously announced the sixth games would be held in September 2023. He and Meghan attended the 2022 Invictus Games last April in the Netherlands.
Wednesday, 9 September
The Sussexes have no official plans on Wednesday. They have not said whether they intend to visit with the Queen who is at Balmoral in Scotland.
Thursday, 8 September: WellChild Awards
The couple will return to Britain for the WellChild Awards ceremony in London on Thursday, where Harry will deliver a speech.
The WellChild Awards looks to ‘celebrate the inspirational qualities of the UK’s seriously ill children and young people, along with those who go that extra mile to make a difference to their lives.’
He was seen carrying her shopping bags while Meghan was heavily pregnant with Archie after partying with her friends in the Penthouse Suite at The Mark Hotel, which is widely reported to be the most expensive hotel room in the US.
Dave is understood to have retired from the Met in the past year with his job protecting the Sussexes believed to be ‘one of his first in the private sector.
He is believed to have first started working for Harry when the Met assigned to protect him when he was in his twenties.
He was photographed next to a topless and single Harry as he drank and danced with his friends at a pool party at the MGM Grand in the heart of Sin City, surrounded by beautiful bikini-clad women in 2012.
It was on the same trip where embarrassing shots of Harry playing ‘strip billiards’ in Room 2401 at the Encore Wynn Hotel emerged. He was alleged to have kissed a stripper, Carrie Reicher, who recently put a pair of his black underpants she claims he tore off up for auction with a $1million price tag.
Mr Langdown is now believed to be working as director of US operations for Broadstone Risks, run by CEO Peter Miles, a former officer with the Home Office and Metropolitan Police whose company has protected stars including Beyonce, JayZ, and Ariana Grande.
Mr Miles gave evidence at the inquiry into the Manchester bombing, where 23 people were murdered by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive after a Ariana Grande gig.
MailOnline has asked Broadstone Risks to comment.
Private security firms will provide a ‘ring of steel’ in Manchester for the Sussexes’ appearance at the One Young World young leaders’ forum today, amid a row over who pays for their protection on UK soil.
Specialist dog teams were seen at the Bridgewater Hall, where Meghan will give her speech. The couple caught the train to Manchester from Euston.
It is understood the couple and event organisers have arranged security after Harry was told he was no longer entitled to taxpayer-funded official armed police bodyguards.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed its officers were not involved, adding that security for the event had been ‘privately sourced’.
Two different dog teams were seen at the venue yesterday including one from private firm Global Support Services, which provides protection dogs, specialist detection dogs, close protection and other security services.
A spaniel was also seen being put into a van marked ‘Specialist Search Dogs’, which had the numberplate SN13 FER.
A team of cleaners were also on site, washing windows and using a leaf blower to clear pathways. The area outside the 2,300-seat venue will be cleared of the public an hour and a half before the couple arrive, it has been reported.
It means they will avoid hearing any public boos which greeted the Sussexes at the Queen’s thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral in June. The couple’s trip comes amid Harry’s ongoing legal battle with the Government over his security when in the UK.
And the Duchess of Sussex smiled back as they headed to the north-west for her speech on gender equality
The couple left in a convoy of Range Rovers ahead of the first leg of their European tour, which will take them to Manchester, Dusseldorf and then back to London
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, clutches her baby bump as she leaves the Surrey Hotel ahead of her baby shower at the Mark Hotel in 2019 followed by Mr Langdown, left
He launched legal action after he was told he would no longer be given the ‘same degree’ of personal protection after stepping back from the Royal Family in 2020.
He said he did not feel safe under current security arrangements bringing his family here and has offered to pay for British police to act as bodyguards himself. Last month, he won a bid to bring a High Court claim against the Home Office. Meghan and Harry are understood to have arrived in the UK on Saturday and stayed at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
A team of private security guards turned up at Windsor on Friday ahead of their arrival.
After today’s trip to Manchester, the Sussexes will travel to Dusseldorf tomorrow to mark a year before Harry’s next Invictus Games. They will return to Britain for the WellChild Awards ceremony in London on Thursday, where Harry will deliver a speech.
The Queen is in Balmoral in Scotland, where she is due to meet the new prime minister Liz Truss tomorrow.
EXCLUSIVE Harry and Meghan catch the TRAIN: Sussexes stop off at Euston flanked by bodyguards as they head to Manchester summit with Duchess set to give gender equality speech
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been pictured going into a side entrance of London Euston today as they take the train up to Manchester for the One Young World summit, where the Duchess will give a keynote speech.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were driven the 27 miles from their UK base at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor to Euston in a hybrid electric Range Rover – a journey taking about an hour – before walking into the railway station.
The couple had earlier been seen grinning at each other when leaving Frogmore as they were photographed for the first time on their return to the UK before beginning their short European tour in the North West of England.
The Sussexes were accompanied by two bodyguards and followed by another Range Rover as they were driven out of the grounds of Windsor Castle, ahead of Meghan making her first speech to a British crowd since Megxit.
The Duke and Duchess had spent the night less than half a mile from Prince William, Kate and their three children – but the families are not expected to meet, in a decision that underlines the deep rift between the brothers.
It is their first public appearance in the UK since returning for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June as Harry’s legal battle with the Home Office rumbles on after they were denied 24/7 taxpayer-funded armed police bodyguards.
They are going to Manchester for the opening of the One Young World summit, an event which brings together young leaders from more than 190 countries and where Meghan, 41, is due to give a speech on gender equality.
The couple’s decision to use at least two private security firms and dog teams to form a ring of steel around Bridgewater Hall comes just days after Meghan told The Cut magazine in the US that it takes ‘a lot of effort’ to forgive and hinted that she can ‘say anything’, in what has been translated as a veiled threat to the Royal Family.
The area outside the 2,300-seat venue will be cleared of the public an hour and a half before the couple arrive after 6pm, it has been reported. Meghan, a counsellor for One Young World, will give the keynote address.
It is understood the couple and event organisers have arranged private security after Harry was told he was no longer entitled to taxpayer-funded official armed police bodyguards. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed its officers were not involved, adding that security for the event had been ‘privately sourced’.
Harry is suing the Home Office, claiming that the removal of his taxpayer-funded armed police protection bodyguards since they quit as frontline royals is ‘unfair’, ‘illegal’ and puts his family at risk.
Next stop is Germany for the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 One Year To Go event which is taking place on Tuesday, before they return to the UK for the WellChild Awards in London where Harry will speak on Thursday.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle go into a side entrance of London Euston today as they travel up to Manchester
As well as not seeing William and Kate, the couple also declined an ‘open invitation’ to stay with Prince Charles at his Scottish holiday house on the Balmoral estate. The Prince of Wales told the couple they were ‘always welcome’ at his home ahead of their trip to the UK, palace sources confirmed.
Today it emerged that Prince William has ‘no plans’ to see his younger brother Prince Harry until after the California-based royal releases his bombshell memoir this winter, even though the pair are currently staying around 380ft apart, as the crow flies, from each other in Windsor.
William, 40, and his wife, Kate Middleton, are said to be avoiding contact with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex until they know what the couple plans to disclose in their Netflix documentary and Harry’s forthcoming book.
‘They have lost their chance of being trusted as the chance is they will record any conversation and use it against them,’ Royal biographer Angela Levin told The Sun.
Levin alleged William does not have faith that Harry, 37, will not repeat their conversations. The author said William’s hesitance to interact with the Sussexes is their ‘own fault for vastly exaggerating and being rude.’
Harry and Meghan, 41, are believed to have arrived at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor on Saturday ahead of their European tour. The property is located just 380 feet away from the Cambridges’ new four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage, where William and Kate spent the weekend with their children.
The insiders told The Mirror that Charles had thought the Sussexes staying with Prince Charles would be a ‘good opportunity for everyone to take stock and relax.’
‘But the invitation was declined, as it has been before,’ the source said, adding that Charles hasn’t ‘wavered’ on his attempts to have a relationship with his son ‘despite the attacks which seem to be coming with increased vigour.’
Source: Read Full Article
