Harry withdrew the libel claim in January 2024 and became liable for the publisher’s £250,000 legal costs. The prince’s lawyer said the “substantial damages” paid by the publisher would be donated to the Invictus Games Foundation. However, his popularity fell after stepping back from royal duties, and it plummeted after the release of his controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, his Netflix docuseries, and his memoir. After his marriage, Harry’s popularity skyrocketed above all the other royals as he was deemed likable by 77 per cent of respondents in a poll of 3,600 Britons conducted by statistics and polling company YouGov. Harry received backlash again in August 2021 and 2022 for taking a two-hour flight on private jets between California and Aspen, Colorado, to participate in an annual charity polo tournament. In view of their environmental activism, Harry and Meghan were criticised in August 2019 for reportedly taking four private jet journeys in 11 days, including one to Elton John’s home in Nice, France.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined by dog Pula for first appearance of 2026
In early June 2007, it was reported that Harry had arrived in Canada to train alongside soldiers of the Canadian Forces and British Army, at CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat, Alberta. By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Harry would not serve in Iraq; concerns included Harry being a high-value target (as several threats by various groups had already been made against him) and the dangers the soldiers around him would face should any attempt be made on his life or if he were captured. In 2006 it was announced that Harry’s unit was scheduled to be deployed in Iraq the following year. The decision to place Harry at Eton went against the past practice of the Mountbatten-Windsors to send children to Gordonstoun, which his grandfather, father, two uncles, and two cousins had attended.
In 2002 The Times reported that Harry would also share with his brother a disbursement of £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on their respective 21st birthdays and would share a disbursement of £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays. At his mother’s funeral, Harry, then aged 12, accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and maternal uncle Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, in walking behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexfn 2 (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984), is a member of the British royal family.
The commission later concluded that the foundation did not act unlawfully, but criticised the board of directors for expending a “substantial proportion of funds” to setting up and closing the charity. In July 2019, Harry and Meghan’s new charity was registered in England and Wales under the title “Sussex Royal The Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex”. Nevertheless, the couple would collaborate with Harry’s brother and his wife on mutual projects, such as the mental health initiative Heads Together. In his statement, he lent his support to the charity by arguing that its role in bringing sport into the life of disadvantaged people would save “hundreds of millions of pounds” towards treating the issues among young people.
In June 2019, the Duke was present at the launch of Made by Sport, a charity coalition set to raise money to boost sport in disadvantaged communities. In 2012 Harry launched Coach Core alongside his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. He had served as the RFU’s vice-royal patron since 2010, supporting the Queen as patron. In September 2025, Harry announced that he had personally donated £1.1 million to BBC Children in Need in December 2024, describing it as a “significant investment” in grassroots organisations in Nottingham supporting young people affected by violence. In April 2017, he hosted the Landmine Free 2025 reception at Kensington Palace, during which the UK government announced an increase in its financial support for de-mining efforts.
Privacy and the media
His appearance marked the first time a member of the royal family had been cross-examined in court since Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, appeared as a witness in court in 1891. In his lawsuit, Harry sought damages in excess of £200,000 from the publisher of the News of the World and The Sun and alleged an earlier agreement between News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the royal family which would see he and William not take legal action in return for an apology had not been honoured. At the time of the announcement of Harry and Meghan’s decision to “step back” as senior members of the royal family in 2020, 95% of the couple’s income derived from the £2.3 million given to them annually by Harry’s father, Charles, as part of his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they were stepping back from their role as senior members of the royal family, and would balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America. He adds in his memoir that he smoked cannabis at Eton and in Kensington Palace gardens, but he later told a court that “he never smoked in his father’s house”.
- In the same month, it was reported that Harry was top of his class in extensive training undertaken at the Naval Air Facility, El Centro, California.
- In April 2021, Harry returned to the UK to attend the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
- Prince Harry and his father, King Charles III, have reunited amid the royal family’s estrangement from the outspoken prince.
- The Government of Canada announced RCMP security would not be provided after March 2020 when the couple’s status changed.
- In October 2019, along with other members of the royal family, Harry voiced a Public Health England announcement, for the “Every Mind Matters” mental health program.
- Mahfouz had met Harry in 2013 and 2014 and donated £50,000 to his charity Sentebale and £10,000 to Walking With The Wounded, of which Harry is patron.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Christmas plans with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet confirmed – report
- In May 2025, Harry was interviewed by Nada Tawfik of the BBC, during which he reflected on his loss of taxpayer-funded security and his ongoing estrangement from his family.
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexfn 2 (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984), is a member of the British royal family.
- Harry was the subject of a prank by the Russian comedy duo Vovan and Lexus, who posed as climate activist Greta Thunberg and her father during two phone calls on New Year’s Eve and 22 January 2020.
- It was later reported that Harry helped Gurkha troops repel an attack from Taliban insurgents, and performed patrol duty in hostile areas while in Afghanistan.
- In January 2025, the two parties settled with NGN paying more than £10 million in pay outs and legal fees in the settlements involving both Harry and former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson.
- In June 2023, a Freedom of Information request revealed that Harry’s legal fight with the Home Office had cost £502,236, with £492,000 covered by the state and the remaining £10,000 covered by Harry.
It emerged during that case that he and Meghan, 44, and the family had not had an assessment since 2019. It emerged on Oct. 6 that a female stalker came within harry casino feet of Prince Harry on a couple of occasions when he was on a charity visit to the U.K. To be reunited with his father, King Charles.
Interviews
In December 2022, Harry was found to be the third most disliked member of the British royal family by YouGov, preceded by his uncle Prince Andrew and his wife Meghan. The criticism was in line with the reactions the royal family faced in June 2019, after it was revealed that they “had doubled their carbon footprint from business travel”. Harry referred to the incident as the “CBE scandal” in December 2021 and stated that he severed ties with Mahfouz in 2015 after expressing “growing concerns” about his motives, though aides from his father’s household denied having any discussions with him regarding Mahfouz. Chandauka reported the charity to the Charity Commission due to what she described as “poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the coverup that ensued”. In March 2021, it was reported that the Charity Commission for England and Wales was conducting a review of the Sussex Royal organisation in a “regulatory and compliance case” regarding its conduct under charity law during dissolution. In June 2019, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would split from The Royal Foundation and establish their own charity foundation by the end of 2019.
In October 2008, it was announced that Harry would follow his brother, father and uncle in learning to fly military helicopters. As was the case with his brother, the royal family and the tabloid press agreed Harry would be allowed to study free from intrusion in exchange for occasional photograph opportunities in what became known as the “pressure cooker agreement”. It did, however, see Harry follow in his elder brother’s footsteps and the Spencer family’s, as both his mother’s father and her brother attended Eton. Harry, who recently lost a legal battle with the British government over his security, said in May that he wanted to repair his family relationships despite past emotional tensions.
In 2002, it was reported that, with Charles’s encouragement, Harry had paid a visit to a drug rehabilitation unit to talk to drug addicts after it had emerged that he had been smoking cannabis and drinking at his father’s Highgrove House and at a local pub in the summer of 2001. The announcement prompted generally positive comments about having a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to Commonwealth countries with populations of blended or native ancestry. Harry’s tour made him the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands War. It was reported that Harry would inherit the bulk of the money left by the Queen Mother for the two brothers, as William is set to ascend to the throne, which will bring him additional financial benefits.
Two years later, alongside his brother William and sister-in-law Catherine, Harry jointly initiated the mental health awareness campaign “Heads Together”. He was commissioned as a cornet into the Blues and Royals and served briefly alongside his older brother, William. “Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But you know … I would love reconciliation with my family … There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. And life is precious,” Harry told the BBC. On Sunday, Sept. 7, the third anniversary of the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, Harry attended the WellChild Awards, an annual charity event for seriously ill children.