A new team member! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hired Christopher Sanchez, who used to work for former U.S. president Barack Obama, as part of their security team.
The former Secret Service agent has been spotted alongside the Duke of Sussex, 37, and his wife, 40, at this year’s Invictus Games, which kicked off in The Hague, Netherlands, on Saturday, April 16. The event was postponed to this month after the coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to cancel the games two years in a row.
Before joining the royal couple’s staff, Sanchez spent five years working for the U.S. government. He has more than two decades of security experience in areas including crisis management, site vulnerability assessment and advance threat protection.
Harry has been fighting for increased security for his family over the past several months, arguing that it has not been sufficient since he and the Suits alum made their royal exit permanent in March 2020. The couple share son Archie, 2, and daughter Lili, 10 months.
In January, the former military helicopter pilot applied for a judicial review of the U.K. Home Office’s previous decision not to allow him to fund personal police protection for his family while visiting England.
“Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats,” the royal’s legal spokesperson said in a statement at the time. “While his role within the Institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.”
The BetterUp CIO has personally funded a private security team since he and Meghan moved to California, but his spokesperson claimed that the team couldn’t provide sufficient protection in the royal’s home country. “In absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return home,” the rep added in a statement.
One month later, the duke’s attorney Shaheed Fatima told a London court that Harry “does not feel safe” traveling to the U.K. with Archie and Lili.
“This claim is about the fact that the claimant does not feel safe when he is in the U.K. given the security arrangements that were applied to him in June 2021 and will continue to be applied to him if he decides to come back,” Fatima continued in the hearing. “And, of course, it should go without saying that he wants to come back: to see family and friends and to continue to support the charities that are so close to his heart. Most of all, this is, and always will be, his home.”
Before the Invictus Games began this month, the Sussexes stopped in England to see Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. The visit marked the first time Meghan had returned to the U.K. in more than two years. Their children, however, did not join them for the journey.
Keep scrolling for five things to know about Sanchez.
Sanchez began his Secret Service career with former U.S. president George W. Bush, whom he served under for two and a half years. He then continued his work with the agency under Obama, spending another two and a half years as part of the president's protection detail. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/Shutterstock
During a July 2020 interview with the "Always Moving Forward" podcast, Sanchez revealed that the 1993 film In the Line of Fire inspired him to pursue a career in security. "I was enamored with the whole Secret Service mantra and the mystique of the Secret Service," he explained, noting that he first watched the movie in high school. The Oscar-nominated film stars Eastwood as a Secret Service agent who must protect the president from a would-be assassin played by John Malkovich. Bruce Mcbroom/Columbia Tri Star/Kobal/Shutterstock
Before joining the Secret Service, Sanchez had only ever traveled to Mexico, but that quickly changed. "When I went up to the Secret Service, that was my footprint and my way into international travel," he explained. "In the Secret Service, one of the big things is that you get the job done no matter what it takes." News Licensing/MEGA
Sanchez's career has put him in the path of world leaders and celebrities, but his family is no longer quite as starstruck as they once were. "You take pictures with the president, the family and whatnot," he recalled during the podcast. "About the fourth time we were going, my youngest son and youngest daughter go, 'Dad, do we have go to the White House again?'" Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock
After leaving the Secret Service, Sanchez became a vice president at TorchStone Global, a firm with offices in cities including New York City, Chicago, Boston and Palo Alto, California. "Mr. Sanchez specializes in conducting site security advances and criminal investigations, as well as physical, threat and vulnerability assessments to include protective intelligence investigations," reads the security guard's bio on the company's website. "He also assists clients in achieving their desired level of protection in accordance with the Department of Homeland Security’s SAFETY Act. Christopher helps professional sports teams manage threats and increase opportunities to teams, players, ownership organizations and events by integrating key capabilities to help sports organizations and event venues manage threats to their brand, their teams and their fans." News Licensing/MEGA
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