In England, the safety of the Windsors is taken very seriously by the authorities.
This also went for that of Meghan Markle, who saw her safety at risk when she lived in the United Kingdom and was still an active member of the royal family.
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In a new interview for Channel 4 News, unveiled on Tuesday November 29, Neil Basu - the former head of counter-terrorism for the Metropolitan Police of London - confirms it: the threats made against the Duchess of Sussex and her husband, Prince Harry, were serious.
“You were in charge of royal protection.
How would you qualify the threats Meghan and Harry have received?” asked journalist Cathy Newman.
To which the person replied: "Well, nauseating and very real."
Victim of “far-right terrorism”
According to Neil Basu, these threats came mainly from “extreme right terrorism”.
"If you had seen, or received the things that were written... With this kind of rhetoric that we find online... you would feel threatened all the time," he insisted.
The Channel 4 News reporter then went on to ask if Meghan Markle could have feared for her life.
“Absolutely, affirmed the former head of the anti-terrorist brigade of London.
We had teams investigating.
People have been prosecuted for these threats.”
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Victim of racist insults, Meghan Markle has regularly faced hatred from white supremacists.
In December 2018, the BBC even revealed that a neo-Nazi group planned to kill Prince Harry, calling him a “traitor” for marrying a mixed-race woman.
Two years later, while the threats were still present, the question of the security of the Sussexes was at the heart of the Megxit negotiations.
The couple asked in particular that their security be taken care of by the British taxpayer, at each of their visits to the United Kingdom.
A request that Elizabeth II ended up refusing.