What Next for Harry?
On the eve of his 40th birthday and nearly five years after leaving Britain and his royal duties, the rebel prince faces an uncertain future
Turning 40 is a milestone under ordinary circumstances: an opportunity for reflection and for reassessment, a time for renewed purpose or course correction. But when it comes to Prince Henry Albert Charles David, fifth in line to the British throne behind his older brother William, Prince of Wales, and his three children, the dilemmas of this moment stand in sharp relief. While Harry remains in the line of succession, he is estranged from his father, King Charles III, and he has not spoken to William in almost two years. Harry has made mystifying mistakes and caused damage to himself and others—errors of judgment that cannot be simply swept under the rug.
The cause of these ruptures is well known. The trigger was “Megxit,” the decision by Harry and his wife, the former actress Meghan Markle, to move to California, forge an independent life, and seek a significant fortune just eighteen months after their glamorous wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Harry and Meghan deepened the rift with his father and brother during a two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey on CBS in March 2021, in their six-part Netflix documentary series in December 2022 (scarcely three months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II), and in his scorching memoir, Spare, published just a month later, in January 2023.
“Recollections may vary”
In each instance, Harry and his wife assaulted the royal family and the institution of the monarchy. The nonagenarian Queen was dismayed and exasperated by their behavior. She commented publicly only once through a spokesperson that “recollections may vary.” But there is no denying that Harry and Meghan cast a shadow of unhappiness on her last years.
Harry faces two principal questions at this juncture: Can he repair the relationships with his father, stepmother, brother, and sister-in-law? And how will he earn a living that supports a lavish California lifestyle and provides a purpose for a former royal who has become a celebrity?
As I recall the conversations I had with knowledgeable people before and after Megxit, it’s worth highlighting some of the disparaging disclosures that caused the estrangement. What has been said cannot be unsaid, and so far, Harry has shifted the blame to others while failing to concede the harm he has inflicted. He may have felt that unburdening himself would lead his family to better understand him. But he has wounded and undermined his father and brother, along with Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Queen Camilla.
Spare will appear in paperback next month. Despite Harry’s decision not to include an Afterword and assurances from his camp that he will refrain from giving interviews, his publisher won’t let the occasion go unremarked. Harry’s inflammatory words will again move to the forefront, deepening the wounds he inflicted with the hardcover.
“I’m not sure how honesty is burning bridges”
Although Harry detailed his version of the run-up to Megxit in Spare, nobody in the royal family has commented on his assertions then or, for that matter, in the Oprah interview and the Netflix series—a source of frustration that he expressed in January 2023 to ITV’s Tom Bradby. “I’m not sure how honesty is burning bridges,” Harry said. “Silence only allows the abuser to abuse…The silence [from the royal family] is deafening, to put it mildly.” He said he felt “relief” after having his say, and that he would no longer be “stuck in the past.” He has since remained unapologetic.
I learned of the rumbling discontents within the royal family several months before Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Lady Elizabeth Anson, a cousin and confidante of the Queen, told me in February 2018 that she had met with Meghan, who was “full of charm.” Yet she sensed that Meghan “could turn into nothing but trouble. She sees things in a different way.” Days earlier, the Queen had invited Meghan to tea and “was trying to find out about the [wedding] dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.” I heard from a friend a couple of months later that Harry’s contemporaries thought Meghan was “bossy and puts him down.” In a subsequent conversation with Lady Elizabeth, I asked her if it were true that Meghan was bossy. “So I gather,” she replied, “very much so.”
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