Prince Harry, Meghan Markle brace for royal snub in the Netherlands

The Dutch royals will not hold an official reception for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when they visit the Netherlands over the weekend.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be at the Invictus Games at The Hague. The international competition will take place from April 16 to 22. Given they are royalty, there were expectations that the Dutch royals will see to their comfort while in the city.

However, in what is perceived as a royal "snub," they will reportedly not be officially welcomed by the royals. They will not get an audience with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. Likewise, they will have to book their stay at a hotel and no official reception will be arranged for them. Visiting members of the British royal family usually get to stay at the royal residence.

Moreover, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were denied the opportunity to have armed security in the Netherlands. Dutch royal biographer Moniek Bloks believes that the couple would have to turn to Queen Elizabeth II for help in asking her distant cousin King Willem for police protection.

She told The Sun, "Since members of the Dutch royal family will be attending both the opening and closing ceremony, they might be able to 'hitch a ride' with them on those days."

Meanwhile, the former head of royal protection at Scotland Yard Dai Davies thinks that the Dutch police could end up protecting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex if they are granted "VIP status."

He told the Daily Mail, "The truth is I have no doubt that he will be protected, whether he takes his own team or whether the Dutch authorities give him some kind of VIP status. The truth is, if there's a risk both countries - ours and the Netherlands - have sophisticated systems of determining risk."

Davies claimed that the Netherlands "has determined he is no longer at risk. That may or may not be true, but people far better qualified than I am now can make that decision and they never make it lightly." The alleged snub from the Dutch royals at the Invictus Games came after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle bowed out of attending Prince Philip's memorial on March 29.