LONDON: Prince Harry was once one of the most popular members of Britain’s royal family, but as he turns 40 this weekend, he has become increasingly distant from the British public and his own family. King Charles III’s younger son, who now lives in California with his American TV actress wife Meghan and their two young children, will reach the milestone on Sunday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, five-year-old Prince Archie and three-year-old Princess Lilibet live in the celebrity enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara on the US west coast. But it’s not just geography that divides Harry. “He is completely isolated. I don’t see him coming back with even a minor role… there is no indication that he will have an official role,” Pauline Maclaran of Royal Holloway University of London told AFP. “The public don’t trust him,” added royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams. Harry’s ties to the royal family have become increasingly strained since the couple left royal life and moved to North America in early 2020. First came an explosive TV interview with Oprah Winfrey in which the couple claimed that senior members of the royal family were speculating about their unborn son’s skin color. Meghan is of mixed descent. Thoughts of racism prompted Harry’s brother William, heir to the throne, to declare when asked that the royals were “not a racist family in principle”. The brothers’ grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, also politely disputed Harry and Meghan’s version of events. “Memories may differ,” she said in a statement, promising to look into the matter. A potentially decisive rift came early last year with the release of Harry’s uncompromising and unfiltered autobiography, ‘Spare’. The book, due to be published in paperback in October, was seen as an all-out attack on the century-old institution of the royal family, which still plays a central role in British life. It contains lengthy passages about Harry’s strained relationship with his “beloved brother” William, 42, who he also describes as his “archenemy”, and their father. Experts told AFP they saw no reconciliation on the horizon. “His differences with the other members of the royal family would probably have been resolved by now if any agreement was even possible,” said Mark Garnett of the University of Lancaster in north-west England. “The idea of a divided royal family just adds to the unwelcome media attention.” Harry told US television network ABC in February that he was “confident” that his father’s cancer diagnosis could reunite the family, days after a brief visit with the king. However, on the Prince’s next visit to London in May, father and son attended various events in the area but did not meet. Harry, who has railed against media intrusion, even reportedly declined an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace during his visit and instead stayed at a London hotel. “He’s naive about the damage he’s done,” Maclaran said. Relations between William and Harry, whose once-close bond was strained by the death of their mother Princess Diana in 1997, remain publicly frosty. They were seen together at the late Queen’s funeral in September 2022, but have kept their distance at subsequent events, including their father’s coronation in May last year. Royal author Robert Jobson likened the supposedly speechless couple to stags “whose horns are locked”. “I really don’t see reconciliation in the near future,” he told reporters in London this week. While Harry and Meghan have more supporters in the United States, the British public has also apparently sided with the family feud. Harry and Meghan are languishing at the bottom of the royal popularity polls, alongside his disgraced uncle Prince Andrew, whose ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have made him persona non grata. Conversely, William and his wife Catherine, who is recovering from cancer, are hugely popular. Meanwhile, former British Army captain Harry is busy with several projects, including preparing and promoting the Invictus Games, which he founded for disabled military veterans. He and Meghan also recently completed a mini-tour in Colombia and Nigeria to promote mental health, equality and inclusion. If royal tours are “a vehicle for (British) diplomacy”, the Sussexes’ visits are a way to enhance their “brand”, said Maclaran, who has written about royals and consumer culture. The tours are a way to “stay relevant,” she added. It’s just the “(royal) titles that set them apart from other celebrities,” she added.
