Former Counterterrorism Head Says Meghan Markle Faced “Disgusting and Very Real” Threats While Living in the U.K.

While it’s long been documented that Meghan Markle’s time spent living in the U.K. was anything but smooth sailing, the former head of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, Neil Basu, recently confirmed it may have been worse than we thought.

During a new interview with Channel 4 News, which occurred shortly after Basu resigned as Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations for the Met Police, the former official said that there were definitely genuine threats to Markle’s life when she resided in the U.K. 

"You were in charge of royal protection. How would you characterize the threats that Meghan and Harry received?" journalist Cathy Newman asked during the interview.

“Well, disgusting and very real," Basu replied. “I’ve talked publicly for many years about the threat of extreme right-wing terrorism in this country ... I’ve never called it the biggest threat, but it was the fastest growing.”

Newman followed up by asking, “But there were many serious, credible threats against Meghan, were there? Emanating from the far-right?” to which Basu replied, “Absolutely, and if you'd seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that's online. If you don't know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time.”

When asked if the Duchess of Sussex’s life was genuinely threatened on more than one occasion, Basu said, “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats.”

The former officer’s interview follows a string of conflicts surrounding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s security in the U.K., including Harry’s previous comments that he doesn’t feel safe traveling to the country with his young family.