Prince Harry’s recent acknowledgement that King Charles III no longer speaks to him comes after five years in which he has not fully escaped the royal life he left behind.
The Duke of Sussex took a swipe at his father on May 2 after losing a lawsuit aimed at getting his police bodyguards re-instated on trips to Britain.
The BBC interview came after two years in which Harry and Meghan Markle had managed to mostly shelve their negative feelings about their royal exit in order to detoxify their reputations and focus on the future.
Strikingly though, that two-year period has seen Meghan re-invent herself with a series of new projects, while Harry’s biggest moments have all had their roots in the royal career he left behind in Britain.
Prince Harry’s Swipe At King Charles
Harry told the BBC he wanted reconciliation but also accused his father of blocking his quest to get his police team back, and raised the emotional stakes by arguing that Meghan, Prince Archie and Prince Lilibet cannot travel to the U.K. without them.
“I don’t know how much longer my father has, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. But it would be nice to reconcile,” he said.
“There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands. Ultimately this whole thing could be resolved through him. Not necessarily by intervening but by stepping aside, allowing the experts to do what is necessary.”
At one point, such criticism by Harry of his family were a semi-regular occurrence, but the prince’s broadsides largely stopped after the release of his book, Spare.
That may well owe in part at least to polling that showed a collapse of the couple’s popularity among Americans.
Either way, the strategic pivot was signaled in February 2023 when their spokesperson at the time, Ashley Hansen, confirmed the departure of staff members involved in “those vital ‘look back’ projects, as they [Harry and Meghan] now look forward.”
And Meghan has looked forward, with As Ever, an online shop selling lifestyle products, With Love, Meghan, a Netflix cooking show that is heading for its second season, and Confessions of a Female Founder, her second podcast.
Prince Harry’s Biggest Projects
Yet, Harry’s biggest moments during those two years have all been tied to his past life as a working royal.
The lawsuits over his police security were a literal attempt to force the British government to restore the level of protection he had as a working royal on visits to the U.K.
And his swipe at Charles when he lost the case echoed the narrative from his “look back” Oprah Winfrey interview in which he said: “My family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us.”
Despite losing two lawsuits and an appeal, he is still vowing to fight on by lobbying British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper directly.
In summer 2023, Harry made global headlines by becoming the first royal family member to testify as the claimant in a lawsuit.
And it triggered a high for Harry when he won against Mirror Group Newspapers, though the damages awarded to him were not huge at £140,000 (about $185,000).
The case revolved around the conduct of tabloid journalists decades ago, with some allegations dating to the Princess Diana era and much of his evidence relating to a past relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
The same could be said of another lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, which Harry settled out of court in January, reportedly for a sum in the millions.
Even the Invictus Games, his most successful project, was launched more than 10 years ago during his time as a working royal.
Other big moments in his year include The Diana Award, where the news stories are frequently about efforts made to manage the fact that it works with Harry and Prince William, who cannot be in the same room together, even to honor the legacy of their mother.
And his relationship with the WellChild Awards also dates to his time as a working royal.
Prince Harry’s Newer Projects
Harry at one stage launched a documentary on Netflix about polo, which did not attract enough reviews to have a critics score on Rotten Tomatoes but had an audience score of 25 percent.
And even polo will always be linked to the Royal Family, who are famous for playing the sport.
Another new feature of the past two years was Harry and Meghan returning to international visits.
Yet, again the move so closely mirrored their past royal lives that the British High Commissioner to Nigeria had to clarify to local media that “they are visiting in a private capacity, not an official one,” in May 2024.
The closest Harry has come to getting up and running with a completely new project has been the Archewell Foundation Parents Network, a “support network for parents whose children and families have been impacted by online, social media harm,” according to the couple’s website.
No doubt, it is a worthwhile cause though it is yet to create the kind of show stopping moments that Sussex fans have grown accustomed to.
In short, some will like Meghan’s podcast, TV show and lifestyle brand and others will not, but either way she has moved on and that is something Harry appears to have found far more difficult.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
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