Palace not confirming security specifics

THE address for the security bill for Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, remains unclear, with Buckingham Palace refusing to release any details.

The cost of the security for the couple, estimated at up to $A14 million per year, was one of the sticking points in negotiations about their new transAtlantic life.

Canada has been pressured to pick up some to the bill when the couple make a permanent base there.

But Buckingham Palace was tight lipped yesterday about what the couple needed and who would pay for it.

“Buckingham Palace does not comment on the details of security arrangements,” a statement said. “There are well established independent processes to determine the need for publicly-funded security.”

The couple would be a terrorism target because of their profile, even without the royal titles that they have had to give up for their new-found freedom.

That threat means there would be significant pressure on the British Government to sign off on the bill.

Meghan has been staying at a Vancouver Island mansion in Canada with baby Archie and a yoga friend, Heather Dorak, jetted in for the weekend.

Harry was due to fly back to Canada within days, fresh from signing the deal.

Any new property they purchase may also need to be upgraded with extra fences and security cameras.

The Canadian Government has said that Harry and Meghan would be safe there, but there were cost concerns.

Chris Matthews, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer said: “They need personal body guards all the time.

“You have to pay those peoples’ salaries,” he told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.