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Prince Harry's female stalker was reportedly found hiding in a hotel toilet 'mumbling odd comments' about the Duke just 20 minutes before he arrived at a charity event.
The woman was later allegedly pictured next to his car after she was thrown out of the Royal Lancaster Hotel in west London.
Harry, 41, was arriving there for the WellChild Awards on September 8.
It is claimed she had to be 'body-checked' by two of the Prince's private team 48 hours later when he left the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in west London.
A source told The Sun: 'There was no police presence or close protection. It was left to two staffers from his office to intervene. This time they got lucky.'
The woman is said to be on a list of individuals known to be obsessed with the royal which was compiled by a private intelligence firm for the Prince's personal security team.
Her mental health status is unknown but it is believed in the past she has followed the Duke around the globe.
Her visits are even said to have extended as far as Harry and Meghan's three-day visit to Nigeria in May 2024.
The Prince was shocked after his taxpayer-funded police protection was taken away once he and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced they were moving to the US and stepping back from royal public engagements.
The Duke said earlier this year that it was 'difficult to swallow' being told that the couple's security was being revoked by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) back in 2020.
Harry challenged that ruling during a two-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in April.
While the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision, the Metropolitan Police voluntarily provided personal security to the Prince during his visit last month, sources told the Mail.
It is understood that senior Met officers 'acted on their own initiative' to offer him protection while he was in the capital for the WellChild Awards.
The Duke is a patron of the charity, which supports seriously ill children and their carers.
Sources say officers contacted Harry's representatives ahead of his arrival for the high-profile ceremony on September 8 to offer him protection for that day.
It is understood that the Met's decision was made without the involvement of either the Home Office or the Royal Family and was instead based on the highly publicised nature of the event and the fact that many children would be present.
But the Duke, 41, who made the trip from his home in Montecito, California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and children Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, was only given protection for the day of the event – and was said to have felt 'abandoned' after having to fund his own security for the remainder of his visit.
A friend of Harry said the Duke was acutely conscious that his status put those around him in danger, something over which he felt 'enormous guilt', The Telegraph reported.
That may go some way to explaining the small amount of time Harry has spent in his home country since he and Meghan emigrated to the US.
However, the incident with the stalker is likely to have fuelled the Prince's fears about his safety this side of the Atlantic.
'It should not be left to two office staff to act as extra eyes and ears or provide a physical barrier,' the friend told the newspaper.
'That should not happen. It is only going to take one motivated, lone individual for this to go south very quickly.'
Neil Basu, the former head of the UK's counter-terrorism police, called the decision not to carry out a formal risk assessment for the Duke a 'mistake'.
He argues that despite the Prince standing down from his royal duties, the risk profile he faces as a widely recognisable public figure has if anything increased.
He added that the most viable threat posed to the royals was an individual fixated on a specific figure.
'There's even a specialist team set up within New Scotland Yard to deal with fixated threat assessments, because there were so many – normally the head of state by a country mile, more than anybody else – but nevertheless, certainly other members of the Royal family.
'And it is the hardest thing to guard against.'