Duchess of Sussex faced 'very real and disgusting' threats, senior police chief says

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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was subject to "disgusting" threats against her when living in Britain, according to a senior police officer.

Neil Basu, former counter terror chief of the Metropolitan Police, has insisted the 41-year-old former actress faced "very real" threats from the far-right.

Asked how he would characterize the "threats" that Meghan, and her husband, Prince Harry, 38, received, he said: "Well, disgusting and very real.

"I talked publicly for many years about the threat of extreme right-wing terrorism in this country.

"I’ve often been misquoted as taking my eye off the ball as though I think that was the biggest threat. I’ve never called it the biggest threat, but it was the fastest growing."

Outgoing Met Police assistant commissioner Neil also admitted people have been prosecuted for making threats against Meghan.

When asked if there were "many serious, credible threats" against the duchess "emanating from the far-right", he told Channel 4 News: "Absolutely. If you’d seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it ... the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time."

Quizzed on whether he was convinced there was a genuine threat to Meghan's life on "several occasions", he said: "We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats."

Harry and Meghan moved to the US two years ago, after the pair announced in January 2020 that they were stepping back from frontline royal work.

In July, Harry won the right to bring a High Court challenge against the Home Office over the decision not to grant him automatic police security in the UK.