Prince Harry was dealt a coup de grace today in his five-year bid to reinstate taxpayer-funded security for himself, wife Duchess Meghan, and their kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

In January 2020, after Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior members of the royal family, their security protection was stripped, leading Harry into a court battle that reached a bitter end today with the final verdict given in the form of a 21-page decision. The conclusion? His security and the security of his family would not be reinstated.

The Duke of Sussex spoke out in an extraordinarily candid statement, which accompanied a candid BBC interview immediately following the May 2 ruling. In his statement, Harry shared that as far back as November 2017, the same month his engagement to Meghan was announced, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (known as RAVEC) determined that even once she married into the royal family, Meghan would not receive security protection. “Only when I asked for the name of the person willing to carry that risk did they reverse the decision,” Harry said in the quote.

On the original 2020 decision, Harry said, “This reckless action knowingly put me and my family in harm’s way.” Then, he seemingly alluded to the 1997 death of his mother Princess Diana, when he added, “Life is precious, and I understand the fragility of it.”

Harry said that over the course of 2020 and 2021 he attempted to “resolve this issue privately,” even offering to independently cover the costs of police protection in order to protect his family. “No one responded directly to me about my offer when I made it, and even though I challenged the refusal to let me pay, my legal claim failed,” he said.

Cryptically, he added that “the threats are real” and “uncovering how my immediate family’s safety was knowingly put at risk, as well as who was behind it and who sanctioned it, has been truly devastating.”

“No matter where we may agree or disagree, I would never wish harm on anyone,” he added. “This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother, that openly campaigned for the removal of our security, and that continue to incite hatred towards me, my wife, and even our children.”

Despite all these years of stress and legal battles, Harry declared that his fondness for the U.K. continues. “[It] is my birthplace and will always be part of who I am,” he said. “[It] is a place I love.”

Harper’s Bazaar understands that today’s ruling is the final page in a saga that often reads more like fiction than reality. It also complicates Harry’s ability to return to the U.K. with Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet, as the risk is just too high.

The Duke of Sussex told the BBC that he was “devastated” at Friday’s ruling. He said that his father, King Charles (who is currently battling cancer)—“won’t speak to me because of this security stuff,” adding that he does “not know how much longer my father has.”

Harry pointed out that he “would love a reconciliation” with the royal family and he has “forgiven” them. “There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family,” he said. “There’s no point continuing to fight anymore. Life is precious.”

Specifically mentioning his 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry also said, “Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for…lots of things.”

But, at this point, Harry says: “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point.”

When asked whether he had asked his father to intervene in his ongoing security dispute, Harry said he had never made that ask. Instead, he noted: “I asked him to step out of the way and let the experts do their jobs.”

The May 2 ruling was a “surprise” to Harry, and he alleged that there had been “interference” by the Royal Household in the original 2020 decision. His “jaw hit the floor” when he found out a representative of the Royal Household sat on the RAVEC committee, and Harry claimed “Friday’s ruling had proved its decision making process was more influenced by the Royal Household than by legal constraints,” the BBC reported.

“This, at the heart of it, is a family dispute, and it makes me really, really sad that we’re sitting here today, five years later, where a decision that was made most likely—in fact, I know—to keep us under the roof,” Harry said, alluding to the fact that his and Meghan’s security was stripped to keep them as working members of the royal family, dangling their security like a carrot to keep them in the fold.

To this, Buckingham Palace issued a rare response, stating on Friday that “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”

Now, Harry says he can only return to the U.K. if invited by the royal family, as only then would he receive up-to-par security provision. “I love my country,” said Harry, who now lives in California with his family. “I think it’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.”