How Prince Harry’s significant update in a “frightening” battle that “intensifies the rift with King Charles.”

Prince Harry is pressing ahead with his legal battle over an issue that’s said to have caused a deeper estrangement between him and his father King Charles.

Harry has been embroiled in a long-running legal case against the Home Office to have his taxpayer-funded police protection reinstated for himself, wife Meghan Markle and children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet when they visit the UK. The Duke of Sussex lost the automatic right to the security when he visits his homeland when he and Meghan sensationally quit their royal roles and left the UK to set up a new life in the United States.

Earlier this year, he lost his legal bid to have the security reinstated but vowed to appeal. And now it seems he is dramatically pressing on with the appeal with the case now listed for a two-day hearing at the Court of Appeal. According to publicly available court lists, the appeal hearing has been set for either April 8 or 9 next year, with the case being officially passed to the Court of Appeal several weeks ago on July 12.

It comes as PEOPLE magazine previously reported the security issue has caused a deepening of his estrangement from his father King Charles, with a source telling the publication: “Harry is frightened and feels the only person who can do anything about it is his father.” But the publication points out a palace source has explained Harry’s security situation is not in the hands of the King.

Last month, Harry did manage to make an under-the-radar visit to the UK where he and estranged brother Prince William both attended a memorial for their uncle Lord Fellowes, the late husband of their aunt and Princess Diana’s older sister Jane, in Norfolk last week. Harry made a secret trip from the US to the UK for the event, reportedly staying with his uncle Earl Spencer, Diana’s younger brother, at the Spencer’s ancestral home of Althorp.

Harry took legal action over the February 2020 decision by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) which ruled he would no longer be given the “same degree” of publicly-funded protection when in the country. Ravec’s decision came as a result of a change in the duke’s ‘status’ after he stopped being a “full-time working member of the royal family “, a judge was told.