The brothers also received the original lyrics and score of “Candle in the Wind”, by Bernie Taupin and Elton John, as performed by John at Diana’s funeral. Harry and his brother William inherited the “bulk” of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown since her 1997 death to £10 million each in 2014. His mother died in a car crash in Paris the following year while he and William were staying with their father at Balmoral Castle.
Harry’s paternal grandmother, Elizabeth II, issued letters patent on 8 February 1960 declaring his father to be a member of the House of Windsor. In July 2021, Harry and Meghan were among people who were selected by UK-based charity Population Matters to receive the Change Champions Award for their decision to have only two children and help with maintaining a smaller and more sustainable population. In December 2010, the German charity Ein Herz für Kinder (“A Heart for Children”) awarded him its Golden Heart Award, in recognition of his “charitable and humanitarian efforts”. While on his gap year in Lesotho in 2003, Harry was given the nickname Mohale (transl. ’the warrior’), a name that belonged to the younger brother of Moshoeshoe I.
Sussex Royal and Archewell
- In June 2023, Harry broke royal protocol by criticising the UK government in his witness statement to a court.
- There is now a belief that, barring a last-minute intervention from opponents, the duke will be granted the armed guards and institutional backup he used to get when he was a working royal.
- In 2017 and during an appearance on Bryony Gordon’s podcast Mad World, Harry acknowledged that with the support of his brother he had sought counselling years after his mother’s death.
- Prince Harry’s fight to have his official, armed full-time security reinstated when he visits the U.K.
- 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.
- Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals in January 2020, moved to Meghan’s native Southern California, and launched Archewell Inc., a Beverly Hills-based mix of for-profit and not-for-profit business organisations.
They are still referred to as “His/Her Royal Highness” in legal and private settings. Writing for The Guardian, Stephen Bates stated that Harry’s “megaphone diplomacy isn’t working” and “his private security needs are probably not near the top of anybody’s priorities”. Referring to the press as “the devil”, he also alleged that “certain members” of his family were “in the bed” with them to “rehabilitate their image”.
Harry has repeatedly said that without such security cover, he is unable to bring his wife, Meghan Markle, 44, and their two children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, to the country of his birth — insisting he doesn’t feel safe doing so. There is now a belief that, barring a last-minute intervention from opponents, the duke will be granted the armed guards and institutional backup he used to get when he was a working royal. Sources at the Home Office have indicated that security is nailed on for Harry.”
In June 2019, the Duke was present at the launch of Made by Sport, a charity coalition set to raise harry casino 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.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quietly make decision about their children Archie and Lilibet’s future
The memoir is reportedly the first of a four-book publishing deal that is set to include a second book by Harry and a wellness guide by Meghan. In October 2021, Harry and Meghan announced their partnership with Ethic, a sustainable investment firm based in New York City, which also manages the couple’s investments. In the following month, UCAS reported an increase in the percentage of students declaring mental health issues on their university applications, citing self-help books and Harry’s statements on his struggles with “panic attacks and anxiety” as contributing factors.
He joined his father in Turkey to attend commemorations of the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign in April 2015. The new household released a statement announcing they had established their own office at nearby St James’s Palace to look after their public, military and charitable activities. Previously, William and Harry’s affairs had been handled by their father’s office at Clarence House in central London. Judge Carl Nichols ordered for the redacted versions of the court documents to be released by 18 March 2025.
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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.
Privacy and the media
- On 17 March 2015, Kensington Palace announced that Harry would leave the Armed Forces in June.
- 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.
- After some months in Canada and the United States, the couple bought a house in June 2020 on the former estate of Riven Rock in Montecito, California.
- On Jan. 4, The Mail on Sunday reported that the committee had found that the criteria for the top-level security measures had been met.
- On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that an agreement had been reached for Harry “to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments”.
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 December 2017, Harry guest edited BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, conducting interviews with his father, then Prince of Wales, former US president Barack Obama, and others on issues such as youth violence, the Armed Forces, mental health, the Commonwealth, conservation and the environment. After taking part in an unfinished trip to the North Pole with Walking With The Wounded in 2011, Harry joined the charity’s 200-mile expedition to the South Pole in Antarctica during December 2013, accompanying twelve injured servicemen and women from the UK, the US and the Commonwealth. In October 2008, Harry and his brother embarked on the 1,000 mile eight-day Enduro Africa motorbike ride across South Africa to raise money for Sentebale, UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
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The BBC reported on the “scrapped case”, highlighting NGN’s statement which said that the settlement agreement “drew a line under the past” and that they rejected the claims that would have been made in court about a corporate cover-up. Following Harry and Meghan’s trip to Nigeria in May 2024, Lucia Stein of the ABC argued that the couple could have been used by the royal family, and added that “perhaps how helpful they would have been” had an agreement on a “hybrid working model” been achieved. Harry and Meghan’s exit from the royal family was satirized in a 2023 episode of South Park.
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”.
After several years of the Duke of Sussex’s campaigning — including a high-profile court battle which he lost — a full-scale review was granted in December. It follows a report that an official review has found that Harry, 41, meets the criteria for inclusion in the taxpayer-funded security cover. Insiders tell PEOPLE there are “positive” noises coming from the government regarding a reversal of the decision not to grant Harry security, and they are cautiously hopeful that the decision to upgrade his cover will go ahead.
