Prince Harry has revealed why his wife Meghan Markle will not return to Britain, saying there are “genuine concerns” for her safety.

The Duke of Sussex has told a British TV documentary that he “won’t bring my wife back to this country” because of tabloid newspaper stories that pose threats to her.

“All it takes is for one lone actor who reads this stuff to act on what they’ve read,” he told ITV’s Tabloids on Trial, which aired in Britain on Thursday.

“Whether it’s a knife or acid, these are things that are genuine concerns for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.”

The Tabloids on Trial interview represents 39-year-old Harry’s most extensive comments since he won a major court victory last year when a judge found phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at Britain’s Mirror Group Newspapers.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left Britain in 2020. They cited intrusions and the media’s racist attitude towards Meghan, who is biracial.

They also later suggested a racial bias within the royal family, an allegation likely to have further alienated the prince before his memoir, Spare, removed all doubt of a division.

Harry remains fifth in line to the throne while the couple’s children – Archie and Lilibet – are sixth and seventh.

Harry’s court challenges broke with the royal family’s attitude of “never complain, never explain”.

In legal filings he has said his father, the King, opposed the litigation. He also revealed that his older brother William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, had secretly settled a complaint against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers for a “huge” sum.

Harry told ITV his decision to launch the multiple legal battles was “central” to his rift with the royal family.

“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family,” he told interviewer Rebecca Barry.

“I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good.

“But, you know, I’m doing this for my reasons.

“I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is.

“For me, the mission continues. But it has … yes, it’s caused, yeah, as you say, part of a rift.”

But he also told Barry the legal battles had the blessing of his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth.

“We had many conversations before she passed. This is very much something that she supported,” he says.

“She knew how much this meant to me, and she’s very much up there going, ‘see this through to the end’, without question.”

The program also features actor Hugh Grant, former British PM Gordon Brown and England soccer great Paul Gascoigne.

Grant, who is involved with the group Hacked Off to expose the impact from the widespread phone hacking scandal that sank Murdoch’s News of the World in 2011, recently settled his lawsuit against News Group for what he called “an enormous sum of money”.

Grant said he reluctantly settled because a court policy that discourages lengthy trials could stick him with a £10 million ($A20 million) legal bill if he was awarded anything less than the settlement offer.

Grant accused The Sun tabloid of unlawfully tapping his phone, bugging his car and breaking into his home to snoop on him, among other intrusions.

“I don’t hold massive grievances against the foot soldiers, or these guys who did this stuff, not against them,” Grant said in the documentary.

“But I remain bitter and determined to exact justice on the executives who commissioned this stuff.”

Harry continues in his fight. His lawsuit against News Group is ongoing and he has a similar case pending against the publisher of the Daily Mail, which disputes his claims.

News Group issued an unreserved apology in 2011 to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World. NGN said it has settled 1300 claims for its newspapers, though The Sun has never accepted liability.

-with AAP