Prince Harry's Europe trip 'a slap in the face to the Queen' according to royal expert

Prince Harry has been accused of 'insensitive' behavior towards the Queen after it was revealed that he would not be visiting the UK on his upcoming Europe trip. 

• Prince Harry has been criticized for skipping the Duke of Edinburgh's upcoming memorial service, which takes place just a few weeks before he visits Europe on a work trip. 
• The Duke of Sussex will travel to the Netherlands to attend the Invictus Games 2022 at The Hague in April. 
• In other royal news, heartbreak for Prince Harry as Invictus Games member dies in Ukraine conflict.
  

Prince Harry will make his first European trip of the year next month—but a stop in the UK won't be included on the agenda. 

The Duke of Sussex confirmed on 12 March that he will travel to the Netherlands in April for the upcoming Invictus Games at The Hague, marking his first trip to the country since 2019. 

The announcement comes just a few weeks after it was revealed that Prince Harry would miss Prince Philip's memorial service on 29 March—a decision that has been widely interpreted as a snub to the Queen. 

"‘This has obviously surprised a lot of people… to travel to Europe to go to that, but not to his grandfather’s memorial service has, to use a well-worn phrase, got people’s goat," the Daily Mail's royal editor, Rebecca English, said. 

"They feel it is a slap in the face to the Queen and, again, another PR disaster as far as many people in the UK are concerned." 

A spokesperson for Harry has said that, while he won't be joining his royal relatives to honor the late Duke of Edinburgh in person, he still has "hopes to visit his grandmother as soon as possible." 

With the Queen fast approaching her 96th birthday, many folks feel that Harry—who has lived in North America with Meghan Markle since January 2020—is missing a vital opportunity to spend time with the aging monarch. 

"There is that feeling that this could be one of the last chances he gets to see some of the older members of the family,’ the Mail on Sunday’s Editor at Large, Charlotte Griffiths, said. "It just feels so insensitive and so vitriolic and so pointless."

The father-of-two's absence at Prince Philip's service comes shortly after reports that the Duke has refused to return to the UK with Meghan Markle and their two children over security concerns. It's understood that Prince Harry fears his family is not 'safe' in Britain without sufficient police protection—a service that has been denied to him by the Home Office. 

He has since taken legal action against the government, claiming that his private security team "cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the UK."