Prince Harry wins big in visa case; records will not be made public despite drug revelations

Prince Harry's US visa application will remain private despite his admission of taking drugs in his memoir Spare, a judge has ruled in a big win for the Duke of Sussex. Harry in his memoir admitted that he took cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms triggering the case as to whether he should have been allowed into US in 2020. His drug admission became public in 2023 when his memoir was published.US judge Carl Nichols rules that his visa details will not be disclosed publicly as it was not in public interest. "Like any foreign national, the Duke has a legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status," the judge ruled.
The judge said Harry revealed intimate details of his life in the book with numerous instances of his drug use. But he concluded that public interest in the Duke's move to America was "outweighed by the Duke's privacy interest".
The ruling comes as the Duke is in New York with a series of high-profile solo engagements scheduled in the city.
What was the visa case against Prince Harry?
In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit their royal duties and left the UK to settle in the US where Meghan had her Hollywood career before her marriage to Harry. In 2023, Harry published his memoir 'Spare' in which he admitted drug use. The Duke said cocaine "didn't do anything for me", adding: "Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me."
A Washington DC-based think tank said application forms for US visas specifically ask about current and past drug abuses. If Harry got US visa, was his visa form not properly vetted, the think-tank asked.
Drug use can lead to the rejection of the visa applications though immigration officers have the final say on it. The Heritage Foundation's lawsuit argued that US law "generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry" to the country.