Dubai Telegraph - Prince Harry turns 40, distanced from royals

EUR -
AED 3.938479
AFN 73.284283
ALL 98.19234
AMD 417.267449
ANG 1.943348
AOA 978.447316
ARS 1071.53141
AUD 1.629089
AWG 1.930079
AZN 1.82711
BAM 1.955647
BBD 2.17713
BDT 128.849948
BGN 1.9562
BHD 0.406468
BIF 3183.551653
BMD 1.072266
BND 1.425189
BOB 7.467417
BRL 6.152562
BSD 1.078316
BTN 90.972903
BWP 14.300884
BYN 3.528725
BYR 21016.42052
BZD 2.17343
CAD 1.49386
CDF 3073.115756
CHF 0.939162
CLF 0.03726
CLP 1028.119797
CNY 7.698019
CNH 7.63378
COP 4640.937963
CRC 551.556973
CUC 1.072266
CUP 28.415058
CVE 110.256399
CZK 25.259812
DJF 192.015021
DKK 7.459869
DOP 64.934934
DZD 142.958848
EGP 52.835878
ERN 16.083995
ETB 133.503285
FJD 2.399951
FKP 0.820465
GBP 0.830088
GEL 2.916983
GGP 0.820465
GHS 17.683621
GIP 0.820465
GMD 76.671173
GNF 9295.27488
GTQ 8.33535
GYD 225.592402
HKD 8.336174
HNL 27.205878
HRK 7.386875
HTG 141.888931
HUF 407.236454
IDR 16786.168917
ILS 4.020796
IMP 0.820465
INR 90.481213
IQD 1412.489812
IRR 45134.375558
ISK 148.766647
JEP 0.820465
JMD 171.076654
JOD 0.760348
JPY 163.686863
KES 139.08915
KGS 92.433433
KHR 4378.658423
KMF 493.644665
KPW 965.039476
KRW 1499.246878
KWD 0.328832
KYD 0.89853
KZT 530.808592
LAK 23665.153893
LBP 96559.167469
LKR 315.465391
LRD 204.33406
LSL 18.869628
LTL 3.166124
LVL 0.648604
LYD 5.232592
MAD 10.648369
MDL 19.338491
MGA 4988.610841
MKD 61.5252
MMK 3482.679288
MNT 3643.561097
MOP 8.633826
MRU 42.957649
MUR 49.75717
MVR 16.566921
MWK 1869.754141
MXN 21.634265
MYR 4.699212
MZN 68.521819
NAD 18.869628
NGN 1788.626462
NIO 39.676905
NOK 11.794827
NPR 145.556645
NZD 1.797446
OMR 0.412628
PAB 1.078316
PEN 4.044584
PGK 4.328662
PHP 62.679371
PKR 299.424042
PLN 4.325898
PYG 8431.342275
QAR 3.931893
RON 4.977143
RSD 116.980874
RUB 104.99181
RWF 1478.084695
SAR 4.02742
SBD 8.943509
SCR 14.390377
SDG 644.972153
SEK 11.594849
SGD 1.4214
SHP 0.820465
SLE 24.501684
SLL 22484.885861
SOS 616.251927
SRD 37.497551
STD 22193.748611
SVC 9.435264
SYP 2694.101668
SZL 18.864528
THB 36.687634
TJS 11.462006
TMT 3.763655
TND 3.347839
TOP 2.511359
TRY 36.822021
TTD 7.327428
TWD 34.580984
TZS 2878.975413
UAH 44.514627
UGX 3946.692121
USD 1.072266
UYU 45.046486
UZS 13787.924411
VEF 3884341.194834
VES 47.874003
VND 27101.532073
VUV 127.301648
WST 3.003615
XAF 655.905833
XAG 0.031788
XAU 0.000394
XCD 2.897854
XDR 0.808437
XOF 655.905833
XPF 119.331742
YER 267.878982
ZAR 19.79817
ZMK 9651.687743
ZMW 29.35571
ZWL 345.269328
  • JRI

    0.1600

    13.53

    +1.18%

  • BCC

    1.4700

    142.32

    +1.03%

  • BCE

    0.3000

    28.37

    +1.06%

  • GSK

    -0.3700

    36.29

    -1.02%

  • RBGPF

    61.4000

    61.4

    +100%

  • CMSD

    0.2350

    25.125

    +0.94%

  • RIO

    -3.0400

    64.43

    -4.72%

  • SCS

    0.0600

    13.14

    +0.46%

  • CMSC

    0.1600

    24.84

    +0.64%

  • BTI

    -0.0100

    35.39

    -0.03%

  • RELX

    0.3200

    47.98

    +0.67%

  • VOD

    -0.0100

    9.31

    -0.11%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.15

    +0.14%

  • BP

    -0.8800

    28.93

    -3.04%

  • NGG

    -0.3600

    63.94

    -0.56%

  • AZN

    -0.2000

    64.49

    -0.31%

Prince Harry turns 40, distanced from royals
Prince Harry turns 40, distanced from royals / Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS - AFP

Prince Harry turns 40, distanced from royals

Prince Harry was once one of the British royal family's most popular members, but as he celebrates his 40th birthday this weekend he is increasingly distanced from the UK public and his own family.

Text size:

The younger son of King Charles III, now living in California with his American television actress wife Meghan and their two young children, reaches the landmark on Sunday.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Archie, aged five, and three-year-old Princess Lilibet live in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, near Santa Barbara, on the US West Coast.

But Harry is not only separated by geography.

"He is completely isolated. I don't see him coming back even with a minor role... there's no sign of an official role for him," Pauline Maclaran, from Royal Holloway University of London, told AFP.

"They (the public) don't trust him," added royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

- Fraught ties with royals -

Harry's ties with the royal family have been increasingly fraught since the couple quit royal life and moved to North America in early 2020.

First came an explosive television interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which the couple claimed that senior royals speculated about the colour of their unborn son's skin.

Meghan is of mixed heritage.

Suggestions of racism prompted Harry's brother William, heir to the throne, to declare when asked that the royals were "very much not a racist family".

The brothers' grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, also politely questioned Harry and Meghan's version of events.

"Recollections may vary," she said in a statement, promising to look into the matter.

A potentially decisive rupture came early last year with the publication of Harry's uncompromising and unfiltered autobiography "Spare".

The book, which is set to be released in paperback in October, was seen as an all-out attack against the centuries-old institution of the royal family, which still plays a central role in British life.

It includes lengthy passages on Harry's strained relationship with his "beloved brother" William, 42, whom he also describes as his "arch-nemesis", and their father.

Experts told AFP they did not see any reconciliation on the horizon.

"His differences from other members of the royal family probably would have been settled by now if any agreement had ever been possible," said Mark Garnett, from the University of Lancaster in northwest England.

"The idea of a divided royal family only increases unwelcome media attention."

Harry told American TV network ABC in February that he was "sure" his father's cancer diagnosis could reunite the family, days after a brief visit to the king.

However, on another visit by the prince to London in May, father and son were at separate events nearby 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 is naive about the damage he has caused", said Maclaran.

- 'Locked horns' -

Relations between William and Harry, whose once-close bond was forged with 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 pointedly kept their distance at subsequent events, including at their father's coronation in May last year.

Royal author Robert Jobson likened the pair, who are reportedly not on speaking terms, to stags "who have locked horns".

"I can't really see a 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 taken sides in the family feud.

Harry and Meghan languish at the bottom of royal popularity surveys, alongside his disgraced uncle Prince Andrew, whose links to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have made him persona non grata.

In contrast, William and his wife Catherine, who is recovering from cancer, are hugely popular.

Former British Army captain Harry, meanwhile, is keeping busy with several projects, chief among them preparation and promotion of the Invictus Games he founded for military veterans with disabilities.

He and Meghan also recently completed a mini-tour in Colombia and Nigeria promoting mental health, equality and inclusion.

If royal tours are a "vehicle for (British) diplomacy", the Sussexes' visits are a way of refining their "branding", said Maclaran, who has written about the royals and consumer culture.

The tours are a way to "stay relevant", she added. It is only "the (royal) titles that make them different from other celebrities", she added.

X.Wong--DT