Expert Says Other Royals ‘Don’t Recognize’ Prince Harry Anymore
In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior royals. The couple moved to California, where they have been establishing a career independent of the royal family.
According to a royal expert, Harry has changed quite a bit since stepping down. The expert alleged that his family members “don’t recognize” him anymore.
Prince Harry has not visited his family often since moving to California
When Harry and Meghan moved to California, the world was under lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, even after restrictions were lifted, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not meet in person with other royals very often.
There were a few exceptions. In 2021, Harry flew to the U.K. in April for Prince Philip’s funeral. Then, in July, he took another trip to his home country to unveil a statue of Princess Diana. More recently, in April 2022, Harry and Meghan both went to the U.K. briefly on their way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games.
According to some news reports, Harry and Meghan do have video calls with their U.K. family members, but it is unclear just how often. There have also not been reports of many royals visiting Harry and Meghan in California, with the exception of Princess Eugenie, who was photographed with the couple in early 2022.
Expert says other royals ‘don’t recognize’ Prince Harry anymore
Now that Harry is no longer a working royal, he is not bound by rules and protocol that other royals follow. For example, Harry is now frequently speaking to the press to share his thoughts—something royals often does not do.
On an episode of 60 Minutes Australia, host Liam Bartlett said to royal author Tina Brown (via Express), “He’s a strange mix, isn’t he, on one hand, he has this pathological hatred of the press and on the other hand, he’s quite happy to use them to seal the entertainment deals, to do the headline interviews, to promote his book.”
“It’s certainly a paradox, that a man who kept saying all he wanted was privacy, now can’t seem to stop talking,” Brown said. “I think that is baffling to his family.”
The author added, “In fact, one of the things, I heard constantly from within the Royal Family, people, they said, like, ‘We don’t recognise Harry. We don’t understand, you know, why he’s doing this, we don’t understand it.’”
Brown also believes Harry’s behavior mirrors that of the late Princess Diana, who was also known for giving shocking interviews to the press.
“In some ways, I mean, Harry’s taken up the legacy of Diana, it seems, to kind of lob these grenades at unexpected moments,” Brown said.
Prince Harry wants to fix rampant misinformation in the media
Thanks to social media and tabloid journalism, it is very easy for people to consume inaccurate information.
At Wired Magazine’s RE-WIRED event in 2021, Harry claimed that “misinformation is a global humanitarian crisis,” and the duke has been speaking out about this issue.
“In one single household you can have 3 or 4 versions of reality,” Harry said (via Town & Country). “This isn’t a case of ‘this could happen to you,’ this is already happening to you. We can all feed into it if we’re not aware of it, but if we’re aware of our digital diet, we can be more conscious about what we pass on, what we don’t, what we’re consuming, and how it’s affecting the way we think.”
He has also expressed his desire to help fix the social media environment for his children.
