Prince Harry’s immigration files must be made public by this coming Tuesday, a US judge has ruled.
Harry, who was born and brought up in the UK, has lived since 2020 in the US, where he shares his Californian home with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children.
There has been speculation over the contents of the files since an FOI request was brought by conservative US think-tank the Heritage Foundation, which alleged that Harry may have concealed past drug use that should have disqualified him from obtaining a visa.
Now the UK’s Sky News reports that Judge Carl Nichols has ordered documents relating to Harry’s original US visa application be published, and has ordered the US Department of Homeland Security to release a redacted version of the paperwork by no later than this coming Tuesday March 18.
Sky News reports that, last September, the same judge previously said there was no public interest in the disclosure of the files, however, the Heritage Foundation pressed for this decision to be changed.
The question of Harry’s application has been raised since the publication of his memoir Spare, in which he wrote about taking drugs including cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
Harry wrote that cocaine “didn’t do anything for me”, adding: “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”
This decision comes a fortnight after the launch of Meghan Markle’s new reality TV show With Love, Meghan, which has not received critical acclaim, but will see a second series – already filmed – later in the year on the Netflix platform.
