Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry racked up the highest taxpayer-funded security bill of any VIP visiting Canada over a five-year period, it has been revealed.
This includes $365,000 (£195,000) in 12 months while he was courting Meghan Markle.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) records show public spending on protection for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was $539,000 (£286,686) between April 2015 and March 2020.
Canadian taxpayers may even have picked up a $10,586 (£5,642) bill for Mountie bodyguards during the Duchess of Sussex’s private three-day girls’ trip to Toronto with her former best friend Jessica Mulroney in 2018, it has emerged.
State broadcaster CBC has won a six-year freedom of information battle to uncover the true cost of protecting dignitaries visiting the country.
The $539,000 (£286,686) spent protecting Harry was the highest security bill for any VIP over the same five-year period – more than the Obamas, the Clintons and the Trumps.
Harry accounted for more than 10 per cent of the $5million (£2.66million) spent safeguarding around 100 royals, politicians, diplomats and their families while visiting Canada.
His annual security bill peaked at $364,859 in 2017-18, the year he proposed to Meghan, who was filming the final series of Suits in Toronto.
In the 2016-17, the year they first met and began secretly dating, the cost to Canadian taxpayers was $106,000.
The amount spent protecting Harry, then a working member of the Royal Family, dwarfed the $178,584 bill for his father, then-Prince Charles, who visited Ontario and Quebec with Camilla in 2017.
