Court to hear demand Prince Harry's visa record be unsealed over drug use

A judge has agreed to hear an appeal from a thinktank demanding Prince Harry’s records are unsealed to check whether he admitted using drugs on his visa application.

A federal judge in Washington DC has agreed to hear the conservative thinktank’s request for access to the royal’s visa application.

The Heritage Foundation has taken issue with the Duke of Sussex’s revelation of illegal drug use, including marijuana, magic mushrooms and cocaine, in his bombshell memoir Spare, which was released this January.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, tweeted on Tuesday that a hearing on his organisation’s suit will be heard on 6 June and be open to the press.

In the US visa application, the admission of drug use is usually grounds for inadmissibility.

The Duke admitted to taking marijuana, magic mushrooms and cocaine in his memoir. / Credit: PA

The thinktank demanded to know whether Harry had been “properly vetted” before he entered the US.

In theory, if Harry failed to disclose prior drug use, he could be barred from applying for citizenship or deported.

The Heritage Foundation had previously requested that the application be made public in an expedited manner under the Freedom of Information Act.

But a court denied that request on the grounds that Harry’s move to California with wife Meghan Markle in 2020 did not raise significant enough questions about governmental integrity to warrant the unsealing of the records.

The right-wing thinktank then appealed to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, where a judge has reportedly agreed to hear their case.