Prince Harry has revealed the behaviour of the British tabloids is one important reason why he won’t bring Meghan Markle back to the UK.

The Duke of Sussex was speaking to Rebecca Barry on the ITV documentary Tabloids on Trial, which aired on Thursday night, as he gave an insight into his legal battles with the UK media, whom he has accused of phone hacking and other illegal methods of obtaining information about him.

In the programme, Harry raised concerns that a lone attacker could use a weapon to target his family if they were to come back to the UK, someone spurred on by critical articles about him and his wife in the media.

Meghan has not been back to Britain in nearly two years, with Harry citing her treatment at the hands of the tabloids as a cause for her absence.

in 2020, the couple stepped down as working members of the Royal Family and sought their escape in Montecito, in Meghan’s home state of California.

There has been speculation that Meghan’s unpopularity, as well as their ongoing battle to restore their taxpayer-funded security, could also be behind her decision to stay away.

In the programme Harry made it clear he would not back down in his fight to bring the tabloids to justice, especially because he felt that his late mother Princess Diana was looking down urging him on.

The Duke also admitted that his determination had played a “central” role in his rift with the Royal Family, as his brother Prince William had chosen to settle his own media claim out of court.

Ms Barry asked him: “To what extent do you think your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family?”

Harry responded: “Yes, I think that’s a central piece to it. But it’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.

“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family, I believe from a service standpoint and in a public role these are the things we should be doing.”

In February, Harry was awarded £140,600 in damages by the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) after he claimed information about him was published that was obtained through phone hacking and other illegal methods.

In a statement, an MGN spokesperson said: “We welcomed the judgement in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.

“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation.”

The Duke also has ongoing civil cases against the publishers of The Sun and the Daily Mail, both of whom deny all allegations of illegal information gathering.