Relations between Prince Harry and his father have sunk to a new nadir in the increasingly vituperative row over Harry’s security.

Friends of King Charles III told The Daily Beast Prince Harry is using “emotional blackmail” by dangling the threat of the king never again meeting his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet. They alleged that Harry is trying to put pressure on the monarch to use his influence to get Harry and his family automatic security while in the U.K.

However, a source close to Harry rejected that notion, telling The Daily Beast that vile “neo-Nazi and extremist” threats to Harry were very real, and that one of the main reasons the prince wanted U.K. police security was so his children could get to “know his home country.” The source pointed out that Harry had even offered “to cover the cost of security, so as not to impose on the British taxpayer.”

The blistering back and forth represents the latest salvo in Harry’s long running battle with the U.K. Government over his security status.

He was stripped by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) of the right to automatic police protection when on U.K. soil when he quit the working royal family. His offer to pay for any such protection himself was rejected on the grounds that armed British police are not available for hire.

Harry has lost round after round of the case seeking to have those privileges restored, and is currently squaring up for a last chance to appeal the excoriating rulings which have consistently gone against him.

It is thought he has spent well over a million dollars on the case.

The issue burst into the open again last week when Harry claimed in a television interview that his wife Meghan Markle could not safely return to the U.K., and that he feared her being the target of an acid or knife attack triggered by negative tabloid coverage of her.

“The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it.”

— Friend of King Charles

His remarks did not directly mention his children, but Harry has made it clear in the past that he also considers them targets. They have often been the target, along with Meghan, of deeply disturbing racist abuse.

However, one friend of the king told The Daily Beast: “Harry has lost his security case in court, and is now trying the emotional blackmail route to get what he wants instead, cynically using the threat of Archie and Lilibet never meeting their grandfather again as a tactic to coerce the king into overruling RAVEC.

“The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it. Using it as leverage, as a reason to withhold his kids from their grandfather, is beyond contempt. Charles is being treated for very serious cancer, so even if he could find the time, he cannot just fly to Los Angeles at the drop of a hat, like Harry can—and actually did earlier this year—in the other direction.”

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