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”.
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Diana wanted her sons to have a broader range of experiences and a better understanding of ordinary life than previous royal children. Harry and his elder brother, William, were raised at Kensington Palace in London, and Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. 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.
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- 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.
- Following the first court hearing of the case by the High Court, it was revealed that Harry had ‘exceptional status’ and the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) still determined his personal protective security on a case-by-case basis.
- 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.
- The case was settled later that year with Splash UK agreeing to no longer take unauthorised photos of the family.
- 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.
- He had previously visited a minefield in Mozambique with the charity and spent two days learning about their work and mine-clearing techniques.
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.
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Harry attended the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, where he joined his brother. 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. He was immediately pulled out due to the fear that the media coverage would put his security and the security of fellow soldiers at risk.
It was later announced that the series, titled The Me You Can’t See, would be released on 21 May 2021. In April 2019, it was announced that Harry was working as co-creator and executive producer on a documentary series about mental health together with Oprah Winfrey, which was initially set to air in 2020 on Apple TV+. In April 2024, it was announced that Archewell Productions is working with Netflix to produce two new shows – on lifestyle and on polo – for the streaming platform. In June 2023, Spotify announced they would not proceed with the deal, cancelling Archetypes which had run for a single season of 12 episodes. In September 2019, it was reported that the couple had hired New York-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs, which represented them until 2022. In December 2025, it was announced that, for the first time since April 2019, RAVEC would reassess Harry’s threat level.
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In the same month, Conservative politician and MP Johnny Mercer, who was leading the efforts to waive visa fees for foreign-born UK veterans and their families, announced in the Commons that the Duke of Sussex was supportive of their proposal and viewed it as “morally right” and not as “a political intervention”. 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. He added that he had struggled with aggression, had suffered from anxiety during royal engagements, and had been “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”. 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. In the memoir, he also detailed taking magic mushrooms at a party at Courteney Cox’s house in January 2016. 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.
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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. In the interview with Bradby, Harry harry casino said that he “would like to get my father back, I would like to have my brother back”. During the interview, Harry criticised his father’s parenting style, mentioned his father did not answer his calls and had cut him off financially, and he had no relationship with his brother. Despite the palace congratulating the Duke and Duchess on the birth of their daughter Lilibet in June 2021, a few days later the BBC reported that Harry and Meghan had not sought the permission of the Queen before naming their daughter with her personal family nickname. In March 2020, the couple took Splash UK to court after the Duchess and their son were photographed without permission during a “private family outing” while staying in Canada. The publisher agreed to cover Harry’s legal costs and pay damages reported to be in the region of £300,000.
Sussex Royal and Archewell
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 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.
- Harry faced difficulties with obtaining and maintaining publicly funded security, both in Canada and the United Kingdom, after he and Meghan announced their self-demotion within the royal family.
- Despite the palace congratulating the Duke and Duchess on the birth of their daughter Lilibet in June 2021, a few days later the BBC reported that Harry and Meghan had not sought the permission of the Queen before naming their daughter with her personal family nickname.
- Harry had some particularly barbed comments for Charles and his elder brother, heir-to-the-throne Prince William, leading to a total breakdown in his relationship with his family.
- 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.
- 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.
- On 17 January 2014, the Ministry of Defence announced that Harry had completed his attachment to 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, and would take up a staff officer role, SO3 (Defence Engagement) in HQ London District.
“I don’t know how much longer my father has. He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile.” Harry had some particularly barbed comments for Charles and his elder brother, heir-to-the-throne Prince William, leading to a total breakdown in his relationship with his family. Since Harry and his wife, Duchess Meghan, moved to California in 2020, they have been highly critical of the royal family and the institution in interviews, TV documentaries and Harry’s autobiography, “Spare.” Harry, the Duke of Sussex, last saw his father in February 2024, shortly after it was announced that Charles was undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
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.
Following the first court hearing of the case by the High Court, it was revealed that Harry had ‘exceptional status’ and the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) still determined his personal protective security on a case-by-case basis. In January 2022, it was reported that Harry had been in a legal fight since September 2021 over the Home Office’s refusal to allow him to pay for police protection. The Government of Canada announced RCMP security would not be provided after March 2020 when the couple’s status changed. In June 2023, Harry broke royal protocol by criticising the UK government in his witness statement to a court.
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