In June 2023, Harry broke with royal protocol by criticising the UK government in a witness statement submitted to a court. The announcement prompted generally positive commentary about having a mixed‑race person as a member of the royal family, particularly in 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. As with William, the royal family and the tabloid press agreed that Harry would be allowed to study free from intrusion in exchange for occasional photograph opportunities, in what became known as the “pressure cooker agreement”. In January 2020, Harry and Meghan stepped back from their roles as working members of the royal family and relocated to Southern California. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexfn 2 (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family.
Mr Justice Swift also reacted to the Duke’s legal team sending a copy of the ruling to someone who was not a lawyer, describing it as “entirely unacceptable”. After receiving applications by the Duke and the Home Office to keep parts of the case private, the High Court ruled in March 2022 that some parts of it would remain confidential. 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.
- Harry and Meghan stepped away from their roles as senior royals in 2020, the same year they moved to California, where Meghan is from.
- In 2006 he helped found a charity for children in Lesotho; it was dedicated to his mother, who had died in 1997.
- On 8 July 2013, the Ministry of Defence announced that he had successfully qualified as an Apache aircraft commander.
- 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.
- In January 2015, it was reported that Harry would take on a new role supporting wounded service personnel by working alongside members of the London District’s Personal Recovery Unit for the MOD’s Defence Recovery Capability scheme, ensuring that wounded personnel had adequate recovery plans.
- Despite some public admissions about phone hacking and the shuttering of News of the World in 2011, there were still open questions about what the executives at the company knew, and when they knew it.
Early life
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”. 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. 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.
Public life
Harry’s armed security was pulled when he, Meghan, and Archie (then less than a year old) stepped back from senior royalty and moved to the United States in March 2020. In legal filings, according to reports, Harry alleged that his brother, Prince William, had also settled with NGN in 2020 for a “very large sum.” Despite some public admissions about phone hacking and the shuttering of News of the World in 2011, there were still open questions about what the executives at the company knew, and when they knew it. This lawsuit dealt with aspects of the phone-hacking scandal that were familiar to the British public, having been the subject of a major legislative report in 2012. Harry announced that he was signing on to this case against the British print arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2019. X17 eventually admitted that it had shopped around the photos, and the couple’s lawyer told The New York Times that the agency had agreed to pay a portion of their legal fees.
Repairing rift in the royal family
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. The prince appeared in court for the suit in June 2023 and ultimately testified for two days, describing how the disclosure of private information affected his mental health and his relationship with his then girlfriend, Chelsy Davy. The royal family spent most of the 20th century largely avoiding public litigation. On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that, following their decision to step back from royal duties, from 31 March 2020 the Duke and Duchess would not use their Royal Highness styles in practice or publicly.
Private eye with conflicting claims
In January 2025, Harry and Meghan’s appearance at a food bank during the Southern California wildfires in the Pacific Palisades drew mixed reactions from segments of the media and public figures, who labeled it “disaster tourism”. It has been suggested by critics that this fall from public esteem is due to Harry and Meghan’s frequent attempts to achieve ongoing relevancy, and their perceived hypocrisy and selfishness. Writing for The New York Times, Sarah Lyall noted that following the release of his memoir Harry and his wife lost support within segments of the American public and press. 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. In June 2022 and on their way to California after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Harry and Meghan boarded a private jet that was estimated to have emitted “ten times more carbon than flying commercial”.
In September 2019, it was reported that the couple had hired New York-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs, which had been working with them on intermittent projects since 2017. The decision followed a private letter he had sent to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood earlier in the year. In December 2025, it was announced that, for the first time since April 2019, RAVEC would reassess Harry’s threat level. His appeal was rejected by three senior judges in May 2025 and he was likely to be held liable for the UK government’s legal fees.
Judge Carl Nichols ordered that redacted versions of the court documents be released by 18 March 2025. He stated that he had struggled with aggression, experienced anxiety during royal engagements, and had been “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”. He adds in the memoir that he smoked cannabis at Eton and in the gardens Kensington Palace, though he later told a court that “he never smoked in his father’s house”. In 2002, it was reported that, with Charles’s encouragement, Harry had visited a drug-rehabilitation unit to speak with recovering drug addicts after it 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.
In early June 2007, it was reported that he had arrived in Canada to train alongside soldiers of the Canadian Forces and the British Army at CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat, Alberta, in preparation for a possible deployment to Afghanistan, where Canadian and British forces were serving in the NATO-led Afghan War. Clarence House made public Harry’s disappointment with the decision, though he said he would abide by it. By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Harry would not serve in Iraq; concerns included his status as a high-value target – several threats had already been made against him – and the risks this posed to the soldiers around him 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 to Iraq harry casino login the following year.
- Because infant son Archie travelled with the Sussexes, this was “their first official tour as a family”.
- A group called the Royal and VIP Executive Committee makes decisions about access to police protection; it contains representatives from both the royal household and the British government.
- In 2002, The Times reported that Harry would 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 21st birthdays, and a further £8 million on their 40th birthdays.
- In January 2020 Harry and Meghan announced that they would “step back” from their royal duties and become “financially independent.” In addition, they planned to divide their time between the United Kingdom and North America.
- He had served as the RFU’s vice-royal patron since 2010, supporting the Queen as patron.
- By 16 May, however, Dannatt announced that Harry would not serve in Iraq; concerns included his status as a high-value target – several threats had already been made against him – and the risks this posed to the soldiers around him should any attempt be made on his life or if he were captured.
“There’s a difference between public interest and what interests the public,” he said. Harry’s lawyers alleged that unlawfully gathered information was used in dozens of articles about the prince that had been published between 1996 and 2010. After more than six years of courtroom struggles, Harry may be getting ready to bury the hatchet. In June 2023, Harry became the first senior royal to testify in High Court since 1891, when his great-great-great-grandfather Edward VII testified for 20 minutes during a trial.
It did, however, see Harry follow in his brother’s footsteps and the Spencer family tradition, as both his maternal grandfather and his maternal uncle attended Eton. It was also reported that Harry would inherit the larger share of the money left by the Queen Mother for the two brothers, as William is expected to ascend the throne and receive additional financial benefits. In 2002, The Times reported that Harry would 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 21st birthdays, and a further £8 million on their 40th birthdays. Diana sought to give her sons a broader range of experiences and a clearer understanding of ordinary life than previous generations of royal children.
He lost the legal challenge in May 2023, meaning that he will not be allowed to make private payments for police protection. 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. 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 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 October 2024, the judge announced that the two sides should either settle or go to trial in January 2025 and refused to let Harry’s team include allegations that bugs were placed in rooms and cars, and trackers placed on vehicles as “no particulars whatsoever of such allegations” were provided. In May 2024, Mr Justice Fancourt refused Harry the permission to include claims against Rupert Murdoch, expand his case’s scope back to 1994 and 1995 to cover allegations involving his mother or to add new allegations from 2016 involving his then-girlfriend Meghan. In July 2023, the judge ruled that part of Harry’s case involving allegations of illegal information gathering would go to trial but his phone-hacking claims were dismissed for being made too late.