Prince Harry made the decision to travel to the UK earlier this week to attend the Court of Appeal hearing into his security arrangements in the UK on April 8 and 9. This appearance has, however, been deemed as “unnecessary” by one royal expert – with guests on the latest Palace Confidential programme questioning whether the 40-year-old has forgotten a major “unwritten rule” that should be followed by senior working royals.

On the latest episode, host Jo Elvin, quoting an article posted by the Mail’s writer Richard Kay, said: “…then Richard Kay did write a piece this week… he quotes a court here as saying [that] ‘it is an unwritten rule that when the monarch is on an official overseas visit [that] the rest of the Royal Family have a duty to avoid anything that grabs the limelight’.” The King and Queen Camilla paid a four-day visit to Italy earlier this week, celebrating the strong relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom.

After arguing Harry may have “forgotten about royal life”, Mr Kay’s Mail colleague and royal biographer Robert Hardman added: “Well, I certainly, I mean you’ve seen the headlines this week why Harry decided to come to [the UK] for legal proceedings… it’s a long way, it wasn’t round the corner and he thought I’d just pop into the court.”

Adding that planning had to be involved, he added, “It required planning, and it seemed, to me, an unnecessary and quite a surprising appearance.”

Before flying back to the UK, Harry then made a surprise, and previously unannounced, trip to Ukraine. Harry, who served in the British Army for 10 years and launched the Invictus Games in 2014, visited the Superhumans Center – an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians – to see the services provided in a country in the midst of war.

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