Prince Harry is back in the UK for the last time before he leaves the royal family for good – and one photo highlights the true toll of his decision.Google “2016 and Prince Harry” and you will find a lot of the same sort of photo: The then 32-year-old flashing his signature cheeky grin as he tagged along with William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.Laughing at a 90th birthday event for the Queen; beaming alongside Barack and Michelle Obama; and enjoying a giggle at the launch of their charity Heads Together.There they were again and again, a troika of smiling HRHs looking like they were having a simply smashing time, all the time.What is striking, looking back at those shots now, is that they seem not only to be nearly constantly having a lark but are genuinely happy to be in one another’s company.Which is what makes the first sighting of Harry back in the mother country so arresting.
There was the now 35-year-old on Wednesday, lugging a garment bag and surrounded by protection officers having arrived in Edinburgh by train.And his face? It bore a pained expression somewhere between a glower and a grimace.The Duke arrived back in the UK this week for his final series of engagements before he and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are released from official working royal life on March 31.It is a precipice that only two months ago was nearly unthinkable – the Sussexes exiting royal life wholesale to set up a new home in North America.Looking back at that shot of Harry with Wills and Kate at the Queen’s 2016 birthday bash, which was taken only weeks before he would be set up on a blind date with Meghan, it is blatantly apparent how much has dramatically changed with the man formerly known as the Party Prince.Sure, there is the practical side of things – he’s married, a father and living on a new continent.But gone is the famous smile that the world has come to know and love.Seemingly from birth, Prince William was the Sensible One and Harry was the Fun One (which might have had something to do with the fact that future King-dom and oppressive responsibility must have weighed on Wills’ very young shoulders).That rambunctious quality unquestionably followed Harry into adulthood.He was the naughty and goofy Prince who, in public at least, displayed a charming disregard for the pomp and circumstance of royal life.This was the Harry who photobombed model Winnie Harlow, managed to get the Queen to film a jokey video, melted hearts when he shared his popcorn with a small child and took on William in a lightsaber duel.We now know that inwardly, Harry suffered at times. In 2017, he opened up to the (UK) Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon about his struggles with his mental health, saying: “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”.Professional help, he told Gordon, meant that he was in “a good place”.I wonder if the same can be said for him now.Last weekend, he and Meghan put out a 1000-word plus statement which seemed laced with hostility and resentment about how the events of 2020 have played out.On January 9 the couple declared their intention to basically become part-time working members of the royal family.They would continue to represent the Queen on occasion and also head out into the big wide world to earn a crust for themselves, adios Sovereign Grant cash.Her Majesty, along with Prince Charles and Prince William according to reports, was having none of it.The intersection of HRH life and the commercial world was too dangerous a scenario and thus Harry and Meghan faced a stark choice – remain as Queenly foot soldiers or leave royal life all together.Since then, Harry has not been shy about expressing his disappointment about how things have played out.In January he told a charity dinner “it brings me great sadness that it has come to this”.This most recent statement from the couple reiterated that regret, saying “the preference of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex was to continue to represent and support
Her Majesty The Queen albeit in a more limited capacity”.Clearly no one wanted it to come to this – neither Harry nor his family.The tragedy here is that everyone has lost out. The Sussexes have lost their royal status and their place in the Firm.The royal family, in turn, has lost two of their most popular, drawcard members who brought a much-needed youthful verve to the 1000-year-old institution.However, on a personal level it looks like Harry has also lost in a personal sense too.He clearly felt that he desperately needed to act and that maintaining the royal status quo just was not a possibility.However, how can changing his life so markedly in a practical sense and the schism within his family not have taken an emotional toll?.Back in 2016, Harry was the consummate third wheel to the Cambridges with the group spending time both professionally and personally together.That closeness, according to reports, is a thing of the past with claims spanning more than a year now that the Wales boys were feuding (Harry himself seemingly confirmed this in a TV interview in October).To lose that intimacy with and support of not one but two people must also come at a personal price.Today, Harry will visit the famous Abbey Road studios where Jon Bon Jovi is recording a charity single ahead of this year’s Invictus Games.The UK, if not the world’s, press will be watching closely.If not then, here’s hoping that at some point in the near future Harry will well and truly get his smile back.
There was the now 35-year-old on Wednesday, lugging a garment bag and surrounded by protection officers having arrived in Edinburgh by train.And his face? It bore a pained expression somewhere between a glower and a grimace.The Duke arrived back in the UK this week for his final series of engagements before he and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are released from official working royal life on March 31.It is a precipice that only two months ago was nearly unthinkable – the Sussexes exiting royal life wholesale to set up a new home in North America.Looking back at that shot of Harry with Wills and Kate at the Queen’s 2016 birthday bash, which was taken only weeks before he would be set up on a blind date with Meghan, it is blatantly apparent how much has dramatically changed with the man formerly known as the Party Prince.Sure, there is the practical side of things – he’s married, a father and living on a new continent.But gone is the famous smile that the world has come to know and love.Seemingly from birth, Prince William was the Sensible One and Harry was the Fun One (which might have had something to do with the fact that future King-dom and oppressive responsibility must have weighed on Wills’ very young shoulders).That rambunctious quality unquestionably followed Harry into adulthood.He was the naughty and goofy Prince who, in public at least, displayed a charming disregard for the pomp and circumstance of royal life.This was the Harry who photobombed model Winnie Harlow, managed to get the Queen to film a jokey video, melted hearts when he shared his popcorn with a small child and took on William in a lightsaber duel.We now know that inwardly, Harry suffered at times. In 2017, he opened up to the (UK) Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon about his struggles with his mental health, saying: “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”.Professional help, he told Gordon, meant that he was in “a good place”.I wonder if the same can be said for him now.Last weekend, he and Meghan put out a 1000-word plus statement which seemed laced with hostility and resentment about how the events of 2020 have played out.On January 9 the couple declared their intention to basically become part-time working members of the royal family.They would continue to represent the Queen on occasion and also head out into the big wide world to earn a crust for themselves, adios Sovereign Grant cash.Her Majesty, along with Prince Charles and Prince William according to reports, was having none of it.The intersection of HRH life and the commercial world was too dangerous a scenario and thus Harry and Meghan faced a stark choice – remain as Queenly foot soldiers or leave royal life all together.Since then, Harry has not been shy about expressing his disappointment about how things have played out.In January he told a charity dinner “it brings me great sadness that it has come to this”.This most recent statement from the couple reiterated that regret, saying “the preference of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex was to continue to represent and support
Her Majesty The Queen albeit in a more limited capacity”.Clearly no one wanted it to come to this – neither Harry nor his family.The tragedy here is that everyone has lost out. The Sussexes have lost their royal status and their place in the Firm.The royal family, in turn, has lost two of their most popular, drawcard members who brought a much-needed youthful verve to the 1000-year-old institution.However, on a personal level it looks like Harry has also lost in a personal sense too.He clearly felt that he desperately needed to act and that maintaining the royal status quo just was not a possibility.However, how can changing his life so markedly in a practical sense and the schism within his family not have taken an emotional toll?.Back in 2016, Harry was the consummate third wheel to the Cambridges with the group spending time both professionally and personally together.That closeness, according to reports, is a thing of the past with claims spanning more than a year now that the Wales boys were feuding (Harry himself seemingly confirmed this in a TV interview in October).To lose that intimacy with and support of not one but two people must also come at a personal price.Today, Harry will visit the famous Abbey Road studios where Jon Bon Jovi is recording a charity single ahead of this year’s Invictus Games.The UK, if not the world’s, press will be watching closely.If not then, here’s hoping that at some point in the near future Harry will well and truly get his smile back.
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