Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appear to have been granted access to special armored vehicles like those used by real royals, despite not being entitled to state-sponsored security.
As semi-detached members of the royal family, Harry and Meghan are not supposed to receive state-funded protection in the U.K., but they have been spotted using an SUV worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, with number plates that almost match the king’s.
Harry and Meghan’s vehicle has a number plate that differs from one of the king’s cars by just one letter. Both cars are believed to be technically owned by a division of manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.
The revelation will fuel speculation that Harry is being given a duplicate version of royal security through the back door, and provided with vehicles funded under the same opaque terms, despite officials repeatedly stating he is not entitled to state-funded protection.
Rumors that powerful institutional forces have been secretly enabling Harry and Meghan’s gilded return to the UK have been widespread for weeks.
The registration plate of their Range Rover is almost identical to one that King Charles has been photographed in, except Harry’s ends in a “Y” while Charles’s Range Rover plate ends in an “A.”
Prince William has been seen in vehicles with similar number plates, though not quite so strikingly sequential. Meghan has also used “Vehicle Y” on her own, for example when she met Malala Yousafzai for tea at Claridge’s in London.
Public records show that vehicles A and Y were delivered, brand new, to their current owner on Sept. 1, 2025—long before Harry’s return to Britain.
Given that ownership has not been transferred since the vehicle was first registered, the available evidence strongly suggests that Harry has not paid for the vehicle, because if a vehicle is leased by or loaned to a new individual, the name of the keeper must be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (the U.K. equivalent of the DMV).
A source told The Royalist that the responsible entity for both cars is likely to be Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations (JLRSVO), which undertakes the engineering and “up-armoring” of royal protection vehicles. These, The Royalist understands, are then loaned to London’s Metropolitan Police. It is unknown on what terms JLRSVO provides the vehicles to the police. However, the source told The Royalist that in a similar deal with another motor manufacturer, “no money changed hands.”
JLR did not respond to a request for comment.
The source said that when a batch of vehicles is delivered to JLRSVO for up-armoring, they would be registered at that point. Intermediaries of this kind (including dealers) are typically given sequential number plates, suggesting that both Harry’s car and the king’s car were up-armored at the same time.
Although there are no photographs of the king being driven in the petrol hybrid Range Rover Sport that Harry is now using, a security source told The Royalist that it was “blatantly obvious that Harry’s team have access to the same kind of vehicles as the king and the Prince of Wales.”
The revelation that Harry is using a vehicle similar to those provided to his father and brother will renew suspicions that his return to the U.K. is being enabled at the highest levels of British institutional life, despite the fact that Harry is not supposed to have access to police bodyguards, state intelligence networks, or state security apparatus.
King Charles has long sought to dodge responsibility for bringing Harry back, but sources have repeatedly told The Royalist he “encouraged” the move, and he has certainly done nothing to discourage it. He has expressed no opinion about their relocation, beyond an ineffective letter sent on his behalf saying the couple were “private individuals,” which they immediately refuted, without any consequences.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment, but an official source told The Royalist that Harry’s vehicle was “nothing to do” with Buckingham Palace. This would mean Harry is driving around in a car registered to the same owner as the king’s car, without the king’s consent.
Both vehicles cost up to £140,000 ($187,000) new, while up-armoring the vehicles starts at about £100,000.
The king’s office declined to comment. Harry’s office did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did the Metropolitan Police or Jaguar Land Rover.
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