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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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.
- In 2002 The Times reported that Harry would also 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 respective 21st birthdays and would share a disbursement of £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.
- Harry announced that $1.5 million of the proceeds from the memoir were pledged to the charity Sentebale, while £300,000 would be given to WellChild.
- Later that month, he narrated “Hope Starts Here”, a special video rereleased by African Parks to mark the Earth Day in which he urged organisations and communities to preserve biodiversity and paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip for his efforts as a conservationist.
- 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.
- Harry attended the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, where he joined his brother.
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After several years of the Duke of Sussex’s campaigning — including a high-profile court battle which he lost — a full-scale review was granted in December. It follows a report that an official review has found that Harry, 41, meets the criteria for inclusion in the taxpayer-funded security cover. Insiders tell PEOPLE there are “positive” noises coming from the government regarding a reversal of the decision not to grant Harry security, and they are cautiously hopeful that the decision to upgrade his cover will go ahead.
- Nevertheless, the couple would collaborate with Harry’s brother and his wife on mutual projects, such as the mental health initiative Heads Together.
- “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 compared operating the Apache’s weapons systems in Afghanistan to playing video games.
- After several years of the Duke of Sussex’s campaigning — including a high-profile court battle which he lost — a full-scale review was granted in December.
- 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”.
Stepping back and subsequent public appearances
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.
Two years later, alongside his brother William and sister-in-law Catherine, Harry jointly initiated the mental health awareness campaign “Heads Together”. He was commissioned as a cornet into the Blues and Royals and served briefly alongside his older brother, William. “Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But you know … I would love reconciliation with my family … There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. And life is precious,” Harry told the BBC. On Sunday, Sept. 7, the third anniversary of the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, Harry attended the WellChild Awards, an annual charity event for seriously ill children.
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In 2002, it was reported that, with Charles’s encouragement, Harry had paid a visit to a drug rehabilitation unit to talk to drug addicts after it had 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. The announcement prompted generally positive comments about having a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to 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. 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.
Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, apologised to Harry and his brother for invading their privacy, accepting “ultimate responsibility” for the actions of Goodman. Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman had previously stated that he had hacked Harry’s phone on nine occasions. In October 2019, it was announced that Harry had sued the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World “in relation to alleged phone-hacking”.
Harry has repeatedly said that without such security cover, he is unable to bring his wife, Meghan Markle, 44, and their two children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, to the country of his birth — insisting he doesn’t feel safe doing so. There is now a belief that, barring a last-minute intervention from opponents, the duke will be granted the armed guards and institutional backup he used harry casino to get when he was a working royal. Sources at the Home Office have indicated that security is nailed on for Harry.”
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. It was also revealed that during the proceedings Harry had leaked information via email to “a partner of Schillings” and to Johnny Mercer, for which he apologised to the court. Despite his lawyers’ attempts to have him pay no more than 50% of the Home Office’s legal costs of defending his challenge, the judge held him liable for 90% of the costs. In February 2024, the High Court ruled against Harry in his case against the Home Office and upheld the decision by RAVEC, stating that there had been no unlawfulness in the decision-making process for his security arrangements. In June 2023, a Freedom of Information request revealed that Harry’s legal fight with the Home Office had cost £502,236, with £492,000 covered by the state and the remaining £10,000 covered by Harry.
Then, in December, the full-scale review of the Duke of Sussex’s security by the official body that assesses how royals and VIPs are guarded commenced. Harry lost his full security cover when he and Meghan stepped back from frontline royal duties in 2020. On Jan. 4, The Mail on Sunday reported that the committee had found that the criteria for the top-level security measures had been met. He is currently fifth-in-line to the throne, although he is no longer a working member of the British royal family after giving up his senior role in 2020. Agnatically, Harry is a member of the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe’s oldest royal houses. 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.
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They gave up the lease after photos of the house and its interior were published by a paparazzi agency. In May 2018, it was reported that they had signed a two-year lease on WestfieldLarge, located on the Great Tew Estate in the Cotswolds. However, this earlier exchange of vows was not an official religious or legally recognised marriage. In early 2009, it was reported the pair had parted ways after a relationship that had lasted for five years. On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that an agreement had been reached for Harry “to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments”. On 19 December 2017, he succeeded his grandfather Prince Philip as the Captain General Royal Marines.