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The Haunting of Prince Harry

By Rebecca Mead

Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, was Queen Elizabeth’s preferred resort among her several castles and palaces, and in the opening pages of “ Spare ” (Random House), the much anticipated, luridly leaked, and compellingly artful autobiography of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, its environs are intimately described. We get the red-coated footman attending the heavy front door; the mackintoshes hanging on hooks; the cream-and-gold wallpaper; and the statue of Queen Victoria, to which Harry and his older brother, William, always bowed when passing. Beyond lay the castle’s fifty bedrooms—including the one known in the brothers’ childhood as the nursery, unequally divided into two. William occupied the larger half, with a double bed and a splendid view; Harry’s portion was more modest, with a bed frame too high for a child to scale, a mattress that sagged in the middle, and crisp bedding that was “pulled tight as a snare drum, so expertly smoothed that you could easily spot the century’s worth of patched holes and tears.”

It was in this bedroom, early in the morning of August 31, 1997, that Harry, aged twelve, was awakened by his father, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, with the terrible news that had already broken across the world: the princes’ mother, Princess Diana, from whom Charles had been divorced a year earlier and estranged long before that, had died in a car crash in Paris. “He was standing at the edge of the bed, looking down,” Harry writes of the moment in which he learned of the loss that would reshape his personality and determine the course of his life. He goes on to describe his father’s appearance with an unusual simile: “His white dressing gown made him seem like a ghost in a play.”

What ghost would that be, and what play? The big one, of course, bearing the name of that other brooding princely Aitch: Hamlet. Within the first few pages of “Spare,” Shakespeare’s play is alluded to more than once. There’s a jocular reference: “To beard or not to beard” is how Harry foreshadows a contentious family debate over whether he should be clean-shaven on his wedding day. And there’s an instance far graver: an account, in the prologue, of a fraught encounter between Harry, William, and Charles in April, 2021, a few hours after the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen’s husband and the Royal Family’s patriarch, at Windsor. The meeting had been called by Harry in the vain hope that he might get his obdurate parent and sibling, first and second in line to the throne, to see why he and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had felt it necessary to flee Britain for North America, relinquishing their royal roles, if not their ducal titles. The three men met in Frogmore Gardens, on the Windsor estate, which includes the last resting place of many illustrious ancestors, and as they walked its gravel paths they talked with increasing tension about their apparently irreconcilable differences. They “were now smack in the middle of the Royal Burial Ground,” Harry writes, “more up to our ankles in bodies than Prince Hamlet.”

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King Charles, as he became upon the death of Queen Elizabeth , in September, will not find much to like in “Spare,” which may offer the most thoroughgoing scything of treacherous royals and their scheming courtiers since the Prince of Denmark’s bloody swath through the halls of Elsinore. Queen Camilla, formerly “the Other Woman” in Charles and Diana’s unhappy marriage, is, Harry judges, “dangerous,” having “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.” William’s wife, Kate, now the Princess of Wales, is haughty and cool, brushing off Meghan’s homeopathic remedies. William himself is domineering and insecure, with a wealth of other deficits: “his familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me; his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own; his famous resemblance to Mummy, which was fading with time.” Charles is, for the most part, more tenderly drawn. In “Spare,” the King is a figure of tragic pathos, whose frequently repeated term of endearment for Harry, “darling boy,” most often precedes an admission that there is nothing to be done—or, at least, nothing he can do—about the burden of their shared lot as members of the nation’s most important, most privileged, most scrutinized, most publicly dysfunctional family. “Please, boys—don’t make my final years a misery,” he pleads, in Harry’s account of the burial-ground showdown.

As painful as Charles must find the book’s revealing content, he might grudgingly approve of Harry’s Shakespearean flourishes in delivering it. Thirty-odd years ago, in giving the annual Shakespeare Birthday Lecture at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the future monarch spoke of the eternal relevance of the playwright’s insights into human nature, citing, among other references, Hamlet’s monologue with the phrase “What a piece of work is a man!” Shakespeare, Charles told his audience, offers us “blunt reminders of the flaws in our own personalities, and of the mess which we so often make of our lives.” In “Spare,” Harry describes his father’s devotion to Shakespeare, paraphrasing Charles’s message about the Bard’s works in terms that seem to refer equally to that other pillar of British identity, the monarchy: “They’re our shared heritage, we should be cherishing them, safeguarding them, and instead we’re letting them die.”

Harry counts himself among “the Shakespeareless hordes,” bored and confused as a teen-ager when his father drags him to see performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company; disinclined to read much of anything, least of all the freighted works of Britain’s national author. (“Not really big on books,” he confesses to Meghan Markle when, on their second date, she tells him she’s having an “Eat, Pray, Love” summer, and he has no idea what she’s on about.) Harry at least gives a compelling excuse for his inability to discover what his father so valued, though it’s probably not one that he gave to his schoolmasters at Eton. “I tried to change,” he recalls. “I opened Hamlet . Hmm: Lonely prince, obsessed with dead parent, watches remaining parent fall in love with dead parent’s usurper . . . ? I slammed it shut. No, thank you.”

That passage indicates another spectral figure haunting the text of “Spare”—that of Harry’s ghostwriter, J. R. Moehringer. Harry, or his publishing house—which paid a reported twenty-million-dollar advance for the book—could not have chosen better. Moehringer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter turned memoirist and novelist, as well as the ghostwriter of, most notably, Andre Agassi’s thrillingly candid memoir, “ Open .” In that book, published in 2009, a tennis ace once reviled for his denim shorts and flowing mullet revealed himself to be a troubled, tennis-hating neurotic with father issues and an unreliable hairpiece. When the title and the cover art of “Spare” were made public, late last year, the kinship between the two books—single-word title; closeup, set-jaw portrait—indicated that they were to be understood as fraternal works in the Moehringer œuvre. Moehringer has what is usually called a novelist’s eye for detail, effectively deployed in “Spare.” That patched, starched bed linen at Balmoral, emblazoned with E.R., the formal initials of the Queen , is, of course, a metaphor for the constricting, and quite possibly threadbare, fabric of the institution of monarchy itself.

Moehringer has also bestowed upon Harry the legacy that his father was unable to force on him: a felicitous familiarity with the British literary canon. The language of Shakespeare rings in his sentences. Those wanton journalists who publish falsehoods or half-truths? They treat the royals as insects: “What fun, to pluck their wings,” Harry writes, in an echo of “King Lear,” a play about the fragility of kingly authority. During his military training as a forward air controller, a role in which he guided the flights and firepower of pilots from an earthbound station, Harry describes the release of bombs as “spirits melting into air”—a phrase drawn from “The Tempest,” a play about a duke in exile across the water. Elevating flourishes like these give readers—perhaps British ones in particular—a shiver of recognition, as if the chords of “Jerusalem” were being struck on a church organ. But they also remind those readers of the necessary literary artifice at work in the enterprise of “Spare,” as Moehringer shapes Harry’s memories and obsessions, traumas and bugbears, into a coherent narrative: the peerless ghostwriter giving voice to the Shakespeareless prince.

Moehringer has fashioned the Duke of Sussex’s life story into a tight three-act drama, consisting of his occasionally wayward youth; his decade of military service, which included two tours of duty in Afghanistan; and his relationship with Meghan. Throughout, there are numerous bombshells, which—thanks to the o’er hasty publication of the book’s Spanish edition—did not so much melt into air as materialize into clickbait. These included the allegation that, in 1998, Camilla leaked word to a tabloid of her first meeting with Prince William—according to Harry, the opening sally in a campaign to secure marriage to Charles and a throne by his side. (Harry does not mention that, at the time, Camilla’s personal assistant took responsibility for the leak—she’d told her husband, a media executive, who’d told a friend, who’d told someone at the Sun , who’d printed it. Bloody journalists.) They also include less consequential but more titillating arcana, such as Harry’s account of losing his virginity, in a field behind a pub, to an unnamed older woman, who treated him “not unlike a young stallion. Quick ride, after which she’d smacked my rump and sent me off to graze.” The Daily Mail , Harry’s longtime media nemesis, had a field day with that revelation, door-stepping a now forty-four-year-old businesswoman to come up with the deathless headline “Horse-loving ex-model six years older than Harry, who once breathlessly revealed the Prince left her mouth numb with passionate kissing in a muddy field, refuses to discuss whether she is the keen horsewoman who took his virginity in a field.”

The leaks have done the book’s sales no harm, and neither have Harry’s pre-publication interviews on “Good Morning America” and “60 Minutes”; in the U.K., Harry did an hour-and-a-half-long special with Tom Bradby, the journalist to whom Meghan tearfully bemoaned, in the fall of 2019, that “not many people have asked if I’m O.K.” But “Spare” is worth reading not just for its headline-generating details but also for its narrative force, its voice, and its sometimes surprising wit. Harry describes his trepidation in telling his brother that he intended to propose to Meghan: William “predicted a host of difficulties I could expect if I hooked up with an ‘American actress,’ a phrase he always managed to make sound like ‘convicted felon’ ”—an observation so splendid that a reader can only hope it was actually Harry’s.

There is much in the book that people conversant with the contours of the Prince’s life, insofar as they have hitherto been reported, will find familiar. At the same time, Harry bursts any number of inaccurate reports, including a rumored flirtation with another convicted fel— sorry, American actress, Cameron Diaz: “I was never within fifty meters of Ms. Diaz, further proof that if you like reading pure bollocks then royal biographies are just your thing.” Not a few of the incidents Harry chooses to describe in detail are centered on images or stories already in the public domain, such as being beset by paparazzi when leaving night clubs—he explains that he started being ferried away in the trunk of his driver’s car so as to avoid lashing out at his pursuers—and being required to perform uncomfortable media interviews while serving in Afghanistan in exchange for the newspapers’ keeping shtum about his deployment, for security reasons. (An Australian publication blew the embargo, and Harry was swiftly extracted from the battlefield.)

Given that what Harry dredges up from his past are so often things that have been publicly documented, one wonders whether Moehringer was obliged to indulge Harry’s extended dilation upon media-inflicted wounds , through Zoom sessions that even sympathetic readers will find exhausting to contemplate. There is a certain amount of score-settling and record-straightening, which, though obviously important to the author, can be wearying to a reader, who may feel that if she has to read another word about those accursed bridesmaids’ dresses—of who said what to whom, and who caused whom to cry—she just might burst into tears herself. More significantly, though, there are broadsides against unforgivable intrusions committed by the press, including phone hacking. (Harry is still engaged in lawsuits against a number of British newspapers that allegedly intercepted his voice mails more than a dozen years ago.)

And then there are pages and pages devoted to Harry’s personal trials, which even the most dogged reporter on Fleet Street would not dare dream of uncovering. Chief among these is Harry’s struggle to overcome penile frostnip after a charitable Arctic excursion with a group of veterans, which ends up in a clandestine visit to a Harley Street doctor; he writes, “North Pole, I told him. I went to the North Pole and now my South Pole is on the fritz.” “On the fritz” is an Americanism that we can hope Harry picked up while guiding American pilots—he calls them Yanks—back to base in Afghanistan, rather than the exchange being the ingenious invention of his ghostwriter. Moehringer, on the whole, does a good job of conveying the laddish argot of a millennial British prince, who addresses his friends as “mate” and—repeatedly—calls his penis his “todger.”

Above all, “Spare” is worth reading for its potential historical import, which is likely to resonate, if not to the crack of doom, then well into the reign of King Charles III, and even into that of his successor. As was the case in 1992 with the publication of “ Diana: Her True Story ,” by Andrew Morton—to whom, it was revealed after her death, the Princess of Wales gave her full coöperation, herself the ghost behind the writer—“Spare” is an unprecedented exposure of the Royal Family from the most deeply embedded of informants. The Prince in exile does not hesitate to detail the pettiness, the vanity, and the inglorious urge toward self-preservation of those who are now the monarchy’s highest-ranking representatives.

It’s not clear that even now, having authored a book, Harry entirely understands what a book is; when challenged by Tom Bradby about his decision to reveal private conversations after having railed so forcefully about the invasive tactics of the press, Harry replied, “The level of planting and leaking from other members of the family means that in my mind they have written countless books—certainly, millions of words have been dedicated to trying to trash my wife and myself to the point of where I had to leave my country.” Pity the poor ghostwriter who has to hear his craft compared to the spewing verbiage of the media churn—by its commissioning subject, no less. (Man, what a piece of work.) Remarkably, Prince Harry has suggested that he sees the book as an invitation to reconciliation, addressed to his father and brother—a way of speaking to them publicly when all his efforts to address them privately have failed to persuade. “Spare” is, you might say, Prince Harry’s “Mousetrap”—a literary device intended to catch the conscience of the King, and the King after him.

If so, the ruse seems about as likely to end well for Harry as Hamlet’s play-within-a-play efforts did for him. Moehringer, at least, knows this, even if Harry may hope that his own royal plot will swerve unexpectedly from implacable tragedy to restitutive melodrama. In a soaring coda, Moehringer has the Prince once again reflecting on the royal dead, describing the family he belongs to as nothing less than a death cult. “We christened and crowned, graduated and married, passed out and passed over our beloveds’ bones. Windsor Castle itself was a tomb, the walls filled with ancestors,” Harry writes. It’s a powerful motif: the Prince—shattered in childhood by his mother’s death, his every step determined by the inescapable legacy of the countless royal dead—as an unwilling Hamlet pushed, rather than leaping, into the grave.

Recalling the meeting with his father and brother in the Frogmore burial ground with which the book began, Harry invokes the most famous soliloquy from the play of Shakespeare’s that he says he once slammed shut: “Why were we here, lurking along the edge of that ‘undiscover’d country, from whose bourn no traveller returns?’ ” Then comes a final, lovely, true, and utterly poetry-puncturing observation: “Though maybe that’s a more apt description of America.” In moving to the paradisaical climes of California, Harry has been spared a life he had no use for, which had no real use for him. The unlettered Prince has gained in life what Hamlet achieved only in death: his own story shaped on his own terms, thanks to the intervention of a skillful Horatio. You might almost call it Harry’s crowning achievement. ♦

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11 Takeaways From Prince Harry’s Memoir, ‘Spare’

The much-anticipated book offers few revelations, in the wake of leaks and high-profile interviews, but it tucks familiar incidents into a broader narrative.

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By The New York Times Books Staff

“ Spare ,” the hotly anticipated memoir by Prince Harry, has captivated people across the world, and is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest books.

A series of high-profile interviews, along with leaked excerpts and premature sales of the book in Spain, heightened interest in a memoir that offers a frank, if one-sided, look at Harry’s life.

Harry says he decided to write “Spare” when he traveled to Britain for his grandfather’s funeral in April 2021. There he had the “staggering” realization that neither his father nor his brother truly understood why he and his wife, Meghan, had moved to California. “I have to tell them,” he thought. “And so: Pa? Willy? World? Here you go.”

Here are 11 takeaways from the book.

He talks candidly about Princess Diana’s death

The morning after Diana, Harry’s mother, died in a car crash in Paris, Charles, his father, woke him up to tell him what had happened.

“He sat down on the edge of the bed,” Harry writes. “He put a hand on my knee. Darling boy, Mummy’s been in a car crash .” He went on, “ They tried, darling boy. I’m afraid she didn’t make it.”

Harry writes that “none of what I said to him then remains in my memory. It’s possible that I didn’t say anything. What I do remember with startling clarity is that I didn’t cry. Not one tear. Pa didn’t hug me. He wasn’t great at showing emotions under normal circumstances, how could he be expected to show them in such a crisis? But his hand did fall once more on my knee and he said: It’s going to be OK . That was quite a lot for him. Fatherly, hopeful, kind. And so very untrue.”

Years after his mother’s death, Harry asked to see the secret police files related to the crash. Harry’s private secretary obtained the files, though he removed the most “challenging” ones, Harry wrote. Still, he saw many paparazzi photos of his dying mother.

The men who followed her “never stopped shooting her while she lay between the seats, unconscious, or semiconscious,” he writes. “Not one of them was checking on her, offering her help, not even comforting her. They were just shooting, shooting, shooting.”

Prince William and Harry begged Charles not to marry Camilla

“When asked, Willy and I promised Pa that we’d welcome Camilla into the family,” Harry writes. “The only thing we asked in return was that he not marry her. You don’t need to remarry, we pleaded. … We support you, we said. We endorse Camilla, we said. Just please don’t marry her.”

Press leaks from his family were common, he says

According to the book, Charles and sometimes Camilla approved damaging press leaks about Harry and William.

On one occasion, Harry writes, Charles — advised by a spin doctor — cooperated with the tabloids on a story about Harry and drugs to bolster his own faltering reputation. “No more the unfaithful husband, Pa would now be presented to the world as the harried single dad coping with a drug-addled child.” Much later, in 2019, Harry writes, William was “seething” because “Pa and Camilla’s people had planted a story or stories about him, and Kate, and the kids, and he wasn’t going to take it any more. Give Pa and Camilla an inch, he said, they take a mile.”

Separately, the news report that Harry and Meghan were leaving England included a tidbit that Harry believes was leaked by the palace.

The article, which appeared in The Sun, “included the telling detail that we’d offered to relinquish our Sussex titles,” Harry writes. “There was only one document on earth in which that detail was mentioned — my private and confidential letter to my father. To which a shockingly, damningly small number of people had access. We hadn’t even mentioned it to our closest friends.”

While in Afghanistan, he killed 25 Taliban fighters

“Most soldiers can’t tell you precisely how much death is on their ledger,” Harry writes of his tours during the war. “My number: 25.”

He added: “While in the heat of combat, I didn’t think of those 25 as people. You can’t kill people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods. I’d been trained to ‘other-ize’ them, trained well. On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering.”

Harry describes suffering anxiety and panic attacks

Fear of public speaking morphed into a fear of crowds, and then full-blown anxiety attacks on the cusp of his 30th birthday. In the book, Harry sees the afflictions as a form of PTSD, attributing them to both his military service and the death of his mother. When he told his father what was happening, Charles said: “I suppose it’s my fault. I should’ve got you the help you needed years ago.” Harry writes: “I assured him that it wasn’t his fault. But I appreciated the apology.”

And a nasty case of frostbite

A trip to the North Pole left Harry with some discomfort. “Upon arriving home I’d been horrified to discover that my nether regions were frostnipped as well, and while the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn’t,” he reports. When home remedies — like applying Elizabeth Arden cream — did not work, he finally saw a doctor.

Meghan convinced him to return to therapy

One evening during their courtship, “Meg said something I took the wrong way,” so “I snapped at her, spoke to her harshly — cruelly.” Meghan left the room. “I went and found her upstairs. She was sitting in the bedroom. She was calm, but said in a quiet, level tone that she would never stand for being spoken to like that.” Harry writes:

She wanted to know where it came from. I don’t know. Where did you ever hear a man speak like that to a woman? Did you overhear adults speak that way when you were growing up? I cleared my throat, looked away. Yes.

Harry told Meghan he’d tried therapy, but it hadn’t helped. “No,” she told him. “Try again.”

Charles told Harry there wasn’t money to support him and Meghan

The exchange between father and son when Harry announced his intention to marry did not go as expected.

Does she want to carry on working? Say again? Does she want to keep on acting? Oh, I mean, I don’t know, I wouldn’t think so. I expect she’ll want to be with me, doing the job, you know, which would rule out “Suits” … since they film in … Toronto. Hmm, I see. Well, darling boy, you know there’s not enough money to go around. I stared. What was he banging on about? He explained. Or tried to. I can’t pay for anyone else. I’m already having to pay for your brother and Catherine.

Harry writes: “Pa didn’t financially support Willy and me, and our families, out of any largesse. That was his job. That was the whole deal. We agreed to serve the monarch, go wherever we were sent, do whatever we were told, surrender our autonomy, keep our hands and feet in the gilded cage at all times, and in exchange the keepers of the cage agreed to feed and clothe us.”

But it wasn’t about money, of course: “Pa might have dreaded the rising cost of maintaining us, but what he really couldn’t stomach was someone new dominating the monarchy, grabbing the limelight, someone shiny and new coming in and overshadowing him.”

William didn’t want Harry to be the best man at his wedding

“The public had been told that I was to be best man, but that was a bare-faced lie,” Harry writes. “Willy didn’t want me giving a best-man speech. He didn’t think it was safe to hand me a live mic and put me in a position to go off-script. He wasn’t wrong.” Still, he managed to present the newly married couple with an ermine thong at the wedding reception: “The room let out a collective gasp,” he writes, then “a warm, gratifying wave of laughter.”

Harry singles out Rupert Murdoch’s media empire for blame

“I couldn’t think of a single human being in the 300,000-year history of the species who’d done more damage to our collective sense of reality,” he writes. But those hired to shoot photographs for British tabloids are targets of his anger, too.

“The paps had always been grotesque people, but as I reached maturity they were worse,” he says. “They were more emboldened, more radicalized, just as young men in Iraq had been radicalized. Their mullahs were editors, the same ones who’d vowed to do better after Mummy died.”

Harry and Meghan felt blindsided during negotiations over their future

The couple chose to leave England, but hoped to keep up some of their royal duties and to retain the security that came with their titles. Instead, after a meeting dubbed “the Sandringham Summit” in January 2020, they learned that, in Harry’s words, “the fix was in” — they would no longer represent the queen and their security would continue for only a 12-month transition period. (In fact, they would lose that security several months later.)

“I love my Mother Country, and I love my family, and I always will,” Harry writes. “I just wish, at the second-darkest moment of my life, they’d both been there for me.”

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The Story Behind Prince Harry’s Democratic Roots

By Hadley Hall Meares

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It was a poignant comment. On his way home from his second tour in Afghanistan in 2013, Prince Harry responded to a reporter’s question. “Normal for me? I don’t know what is normal anymore. I never really have.”

It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Since childhood, Prince Harry has claimed to be searching for a normal, more equitable life. Uncomfortable with the royal hierarchy, Harry and Meghan Markle have made a new life in the United States. Here they have traded the rarefied world of the constitutional monarchy for Hollywood, a place populated by those whose talent or drive have propelled them to the heights.

Harry’s democratic roots seem to have been instilled in him by his mother, Princess Diana. Herself a child of privilege, she was determined to make sure Prince Harry and Prince William understood life outside of the palace walls.

“Princess Di insisted that she herself would be responsible for the upbringing of William and Harry,” says Nigel Cawthorne, author of Call Me Diana: The Princess of Wales on Herself . “Royal children, like Charles , were previously handed over to a nanny who had her own four footmen. Even the queen was only allowed to see her children if the nanny agreed.”

Diana was particularly insistent that the boys would receive their education at a normal school with non-royal classmates. “Diana won her argument with Charles about sending their sons to school with other children from the start, rather than having them tutored in the palace, as Charles was before he was shipped off to a boarding school—an experience he despised yet he seemed to think would be appropriate to repeat it with his own boys,” says royal historian Leslie Carroll, author of American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry .

She also made sure the boys were exposed to everyday actions that seem comical to commoners. “Diana gave them pocket change so they would understand how ‘normal’ people lived, because Charles never gave the boys money and didn’t understand why they needed it,” Carroll says. “Diana may have had many faults, but a lack of empathy wasn’t one of them. She wanted her sons to grow up knowing what the real world was like,” says Christopher Andersen, author of the Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan . “That meant trips to McDonald’s, amusement parks, go-kart tracks, and the movies—where, in sharp contrast to their royal cousins, she made the princes wait in line with everybody else.”

In Harry: A Biography of a Prince , royal journalist Angela Levin recounts one morning when Diana brought the boys to Selfridges to see Santa. Even though they arrived at 9 a.m., there was already a line, and the boys waited with everyone else. Harry left the store with a giant teddy bear.

Much like his mother, from a young age the gregarious Harry, who former bodyguard Ken Wharfe reportedly compared to a friendly Labrador who liked everyone, sought out friendships with those outside the royal bubble. “In hindsight, Harry, more so than William…seems to have internalized the democratic nature, and the excitement, of being able to mingle with everyone else,” Carroll says.

He seemed to particularly like seeking out friendships with employees at the various royal residences. “Even as a small child, he was eager to rake leaves with the palace groundskeepers or help out in the kitchen,” Andersen says. “Harry was always the hands-down favorite of the royal worker bees—the bodyguards, butlers, footmen, maids, cooks, and nannies who keep the whole thing running.”

Diana also made sure that William and Harry felt comfortable connecting with people who faced enormous hardships—taking them to missions, rescues, and hospitals. “Diana drummed compassion into her boys,” Andersen explains. “[She]  trained  them to be more than those cardboard cutout figures waving from the Buckingham Palace balcony.”

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Prince Harry has credited his mother with his ability to connect with people from all walks of life. “My mother took a huge part in showing me an ordinary life, including taking me and my brother to see homeless people. Thank goodness I’m not completely cut off from reality,” Prince Harry told Levin.

After his mother’s death in 1997, a lost Harry found in military life a way to disappear into a team. In 2005, he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as Officer Cadet Wales. While he was never academically gifted, he excelled as a soldier, and relished the opportunity to be one of the guys. Levin writes in Harry: A Biography of a Prince :

He called his fellow cadets “really good guys” who treated him “normally” and “always give me support if some rubbish comes up in the papers.” It made him feel “really lucky”; one of the best things about Sandhurst, he said, was knowing “you’ve got a platoon of guys, that everyone’s going through the same thing and the best thing about that is being able to fit in as just a normal person.”

After graduating from Sandhurst, Prince Harry was commissioned as an army officer in 2006. “The happiest times in my life were the 10 years in the army. Without question,” Prince Harry shared in the Apple TV+ docuseries The Me You Can’t See . “Because I got to wear the same uniform as everybody else. I had to do all the same training as everybody else. I started from the bottom up like everybody else.”

“To Harry, the modern British military was a democratic institution in the first place, where promotion was based on merit, and he was bunking with men from all social strata, all focused on the same mission,” Carroll says. “And it was vital to him to be just Harry Wales, one of the lads, comrades in arms, all in it together, in the same gritty circumstances eating the same shitty food. His Army ID number was WA 4673A and to the other pilots he was simply known as call sign ‘Widow Six Seven.’”

Throughout his military career, which included two tours of Afghanistan, Harry treasured the friendships he made with other soldiers. “This is what it is all about, what it’s all about is being here with the guys rather than being in a room with a bunch of officers,” he said. “I think this is about as normal as I’m ever going to get.”

Harry seemed to crave the approval of people from more typical backgrounds and was eager to prove he wasn’t just a snobby royal. “More than any of the other princes…Harry went out of his way to bond with his fellow soldiers, taking on the dirtiest and most dangerous assignments, kicking around a soccer ball with them in the middle of the desert, pulling practical jokes,” Andersen says. “He always wanted to be treated like just one of the guys, and he got his wish.” 

However, Harry’s royal status inevitably got in the way. During his first tour of Afghanistan in 2008, he was pulled out of the country when the media revealed his location. “I felt very resentful. Being in the army was the best escape I’ve ever had,” he remembered. “I felt as though I was really achieving something. I have a deep understanding of all sorts of people from different backgrounds and felt I was part of a team…I also wasn’t a prince. I was just Harry.”

After leaving the army in 2015, Harry increasingly became one of the Firm’s most effective communicators, much like his mother had been before. It was something he prided himself on and seemed insistent on proving. “Thank goodness I’m not completely cut off from reality, but not everyone can understand that I can be a prince and still understand them,” he once said.

“It’s awfully hard not to look at Harry and see something of yourself in him—a disarming measure of self-doubt beneath the cloak of affability,” Andersen says. “Harry may look like a relaxed, casual character, but I think he works hard at it.”

From the start of their courtship, Harry and Meghan both spoke of yearning to live a more ordinary life and relished the simple pleasure of sharing meals together or going on dates undetected. According to Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers: William and Harry—The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult , Queen Elizabeth sympathized with this impulse. He writes:

She had heard and read much of Harry and Meghan’s wish to live an “ordinary” existence…she could recall such a period in her own life—her “Malta Moments” between 1949 and 1951, when Philip was serving as a naval officer on the Mediterranean island and she would fly out to stay with him. In Malta, Elizabeth had tasted “normal” life as a young naval officer’s wife, not a king’s daughter…and [did] own shopping with real money out of her handbag.

Despite the queen’s empathy, it became increasingly clear that the Sussexes would never be able to escape the royal fishbowl in England. They increasingly looked to America—much as Princess Diana had after her divorce. “Diana always felt at a home in the U.S., where her openness, compassion, and charisma made her even more popular than she was in Britain,” Andersen says.

According to Carroll, it was an affinity shared by her youngest son. “Even when Harry was a boy, America came to symbolize a concept of freedom to be oneself—whether actually true or not—that he didn’t have as a member of the British royal family,” she says. “Britain’s social hierarchy has always been class-based, rather than a meritocracy, and Harry has expressed discomfort with the concept that solely because of his birthright he’s a notch, or several, ‘more than’ those he interacts with, goes to school with, or works alongside.”

Andersen agrees. “Harry always seemed an ideal fit for life in America, and his marriage to Meghan sealed the deal,” he says. “Harry has always seemed slightly embarrassed by his position at the top of Britain's class system and would like nothing better than to fit in like a regular bloke—something his father, Prince Charles, was congenitally incapable of doing.”

Since his family’s move to Montecito, California, Harry has spoken of enjoying simple things like riding a bike with his son and walking on the beach unnoticed. Of course, it is impossible not to point to the inherent contradictions in his new lifestyle. “I’m not sure that living on an [seven-acre] estate in California can be considered a normal life,” Cawthorne says. “It is hard to deny that by signing a deal with Netflix and appearing with Oprah he is trading on the fame endowed on him by birth. The latter is the essence of royalty; he has adapted it to modern times.”

But Carroll believes that in moving to America, Harry has the freedom to make it or break it on his own terms, despite the privilege of his position.

“Harry had wanted to earn a wage and mix with ordinary people before he became a full-time working royal,” she says. “Who expects him to become a hermit after leaving the U.K. for California? When was that ever part of the equation? In America he can continue to focus on, and bring awareness to, the same philanthropic and charitable interests that he did in the U.K. In fact, now that he is no longer a working senior royal, he is also no longer financially constrained.”

In other words, in America, Meghan and Harry get to define their version of ordinary contentment of success just like everyone else.

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About the book, about the author.

Angela Levin, the author of nine books, writes for The Daily Mail and Newsweek. Her profile of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall was a cover story for Newsweek worldwide in 2015. This was followed by a substantial profile and cover story on Prince Harry for Newsweek. The feature on Price Harry appeared in June 2017 and appeared in headlines worldwide. She will appear on major media for Harry: A Biography of a Prince. Please visit her website www.angelalevin.co.uk.

Product Details

• Publisher: Pegasus Books (May 3, 2018)
• Length: 304 pages
• ISBN13: 9781681779102

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Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, married Prince Harry in 2018 at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

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1981-present

Who Is Meghan Markle?

Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Doria, a clinical therapist and yoga instructor, and Thomas, a television lighting and photography director.

When she was 11, Markle wrote a letter to various notables, including then-First Lady Hillary Clinton , about a TV advertisement featuring the idea of women being bogged down by greasy cookware. The youngster deemed the ad sexist when male classmates started yelling, upon seeing the commercial, that the kitchen is where women belonged. (The language of the ad was subsequently changed.) Markle went on to study theater and international relations at Northwestern University School of Communication, graduating in 2003.

In 2002, Markle landed her first TV role with a guest spot on General Hospital , and she went on to appear in a number of other series that included Cuts , The War at Home , CSI: NY and 90210 . As a biracial actress, Markle would eventually talk about the challenges of navigating Hollywood’s check-a-box casting landscape while also finding her voice as an actress.

Starring Role in 'Suits'

In 2011, Markle had her big break, landing the role of paralegal Rachel Zane on the USA network series Suits , co-starring Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams and Gina Torres. The legal drama centers on the shifting intrigues of a Manhattan corporate law firm, with the savvy Zane attending Columbia Law School to pursue her own dreams of becoming an attorney. The show became a top performer among USA Network’s scripted programs and began taping its seventh season in 2017, though the network announced that Markle would be leaving the program following the news of her engagement to Prince Harry.

Markle has done big-screen work as well, appearing in such films as Get Him to the Greek (2010), Horrible Bosses (2011) and Anti-Social (2015), as well as the TV movies When Sparks Fl y (2014) and Dater’s Handbook (2016).

Romance With Prince Harry and Wedding

Previously best known for her role on the TV series Suits , Markle made international headlines when it was revealed in 2016 that she was seriously dating Prince Harry of Great Britain. The two met while Harry was attending the Invictus Games in Toronto, where Suits is filmed. Much speculation ensued about the direction of their romance, with Markle becoming the most Googled actress of 2016 as a result of the relationship. Yet some of the scrutiny was toxic, with Kensington Palace issuing a statement calling for the couple’s privacy to be respected and pointing out the indecency of racist and sexist online trolling directed at the actress.

On November 27, 2017, Markle and Prince Harry revealed that they had secretly gotten engaged earlier in the month. Among the congratulatory messages, Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge , said, "It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together."

A few weeks later, Kensington Palace announced that the royal wedding would take place May 19, 2018, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The news came shortly after Google's announcement that Markle had topped the year-end rankings for most searched actress for the second year in a row, finishing only behind fired TV personality Matt Lauer for 2017's most Googled person. On December 21, fans found another reason to hit their search engines with the release of the couple's official portrait photographs.

In January 2018, it was confirmed that Markle was adhering to royal tradition by shutting down her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Through Kensington Palace, Markle said she was "grateful to everyone who has followed her social media accounts over the years."

On February 10, more details about the royal wedding emerged: After the marriage ceremony, scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. U.K. time, the newlyweds would ride in a carriage along the High Street through Windsor Town, before returning to Windsor Castle along the Long Walk. Later, following an afternoon break, they would attend a private evening reception hosted by Prince Charles .

Markle made headlines by breaking royal protocol — albeit in adorable fashion — during a visit to Birmingham on International Women's Day in March 2018. Introduced to a 10-year-old student, who told the soon-to-be princess that she wanted to become an actress, Markle gave the girl a hug, violating the handshake-only rule in place for the royal family.

News soon leaked that the couple would not sign a prenuptial agreement before the big day, despite their hefty individual assets. Insiders pointed to the lack of prenup enforcement in U.K. courts, as well as Prince Harry's steadfast belief that the marriage would be a lasting one.

In late March, it was reported that the duchess-to-be and her family would receive a specially designed coat of arms from Kensington Palace before the wedding. Markle's father, a U.S. citizen residing in Mexico, reportedly needed to prove one of his ancestors was a subject of the Crown in order to receive his gift. Markle's coat of arms was expected to be completed in time to feature on the souvenir program for the royal wedding, with elements from that design and Prince Harry's to be incorporated into the coats of their future children.

On May 19, 2018, the couple married at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The bride wore a dress designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy. Shortly before the wedding, Queen Elizabeth conferred Markle with the title of Meghan, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex.

Markle later revealed that three days prior to the public wedding, she and Harry actually had a small ceremony with just them and the archbishop of Canterbury.

Pre-Wedding Family Drama

On the eve of Markle and Harry's nuptials, a few members of Markle's family became the subject of tabloid drama that unfolded on an almost daily basis.

Markle's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., wrote a handwritten letter, warning Prince Harry, not to marry Markle, describing her as a "jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage." Clearly offended he wasn't invited to the wedding, he added: "... To top it all off, she doesn’t invite her own family and instead invites complete strangers to the wedding. Who does that?" The letter was published in In Touch on May 2nd.

Shortly after, Markle's father, Thomas Sr., who was expected to walk his daughter down the aisle, was caught allegedly staging photos of himself that showed him preparing for the big day. When the news broke, Markle's father was so embarrassed, he told reporters he was rescinding his invitation.

If that weren't enough, Markle's half-sister, Samantha, publicly interjected in their father's defense, claiming she was behind the staged photos because she had hoped it would put him in a good light. (Samantha, who was not invited to the wedding, is reportedly writing a book about her relationship with Markle and has granted interviews on various TV shows, despite reports that claim she and Markle were never close.)

Soon after, Thomas Sr. told the media he had recently suffered a heart attack and regretfully would not be going to the wedding. "I hate the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle," he told TMZ .

After communicating with Markle, Thomas Sr. quickly changed his mind but ultimately had to return to the decision of not attending the wedding because he needed to undergo heart surgery.

Markle, through a statement from Kensington Palace, formally acknowledged her father would not be present. “Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding. I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health,” she stated.

Despite all the drama, Markle's mother, Doria Ragland, was reportedly in good spirits and already in London, socializing with the Royal Family and helping her daughter get ready for her big day.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle's Complicated Relationship With Her Father

On October 15, 2018, Markle and Prince Harry announced that they were expecting their first child in spring 2019. "Their Royal Highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public," Kensington Palace said in a statement.

The baby boy, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor , arrived at 5:26 a.m. on May 6, 2019. Seventh in line to the British throne, he was christened two months later in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle.

In November 2020, Markle revealed that she suffered a miscarriage in July of that year.

On Valentine's Day 2021, Markle and Prince Harry announced they're expecting their second child, a daughter. Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on June 4, 2021, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California.

Life as the Duchess of Sussex

Following the wedding, the couple attended a birthday party for Prince Charles before heading off for their honeymoon. It was then on to more formal activities, with Markle making her Buckingham Palace balcony debut at Trooping the Colour, a ceremony to honor the Queen's birthday, on June 10.

Two days later, Kensington Palace announced plans for Markle and Harry's first royal tour: "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will undertake an official visit to Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga, and New Zealand in the Autumn," read the announcement. "Their Royal Highnesses have been invited to visit the Realms of Australia and New Zealand by the countries’ respective governments. The Duke and Duchess will visit the Commonwealth countries of Fiji and Tonga at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office."

In June 2019, Markle appeared at her first public event since giving birth by sharing a carriage with Prince Harry, the duchess of Cambridge and the duchess of Cornwall at Trooping the Color.

In late September 2019, Markle, Harry and son Archie headed to Africa for the baby's first royal tour. In October, ahead of the airing of the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey , the duchess made headlines for a clip in which she revealed her struggles with being a new wife and mother amid intense media scrutiny.

Stepping Back From Royal Duties

On January 8, 2020, after spending the holiday season in Canada, Markle and Harry delivered the stunning announcement that they planned to "step back" from their senior roles in the royal family and work to become "financially independent."

"It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honor our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages," they wrote in a joint statement on Instagram. "This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity."

A few days later, Buckingham Palace released a statement that addressed several details of the new arrangement, including confirmation that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would no longer receive public funds for royal duties or use the honorific His/Her Royal Highness styling. The Queen released an accompanying statement to express her support of the young couple, noting that she was "particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family."

Having set up shop in their new home base of Los Angeles, Markle and Harry closed their @SussexRoyal Instagram account and formally signed off as senior royals on March 31, 2020.

In February 2021, Markle and Harry confirmed that they would not be returning to their royal roles. They will retain their titles, but no longer use them. "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed to Her Majesty The Queen that they will not be returning as working members of The Royal Family," a statement from Buckingham Palace said. "Following conversations with The Duke, The Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of The Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service."

Tabloid Lawsuit

Following their trip to Africa in early fall 2019, the royals announced their intention to sue Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday , for editing and publishing a private letter sent by Markle to her father. According to the lawsuit, the act was "intrusive and unlawful" and part of an overall effort to tarnish her reputation.

The April 2020 pretrial hearing produced a setback to their case, as the overseeing judge agreed to strike Markle's claims that the publisher "acted dishonestly and in bad faith," "deliberately dug up or stirred up conflict between Meghan and her father" and had an "obvious agenda of publishing intrusive or offensive stories about [her] intended to portray her in a false and damaging light."

Oprah Interview

In March 2021, Markle and Harry sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey . In the two-hour special, Markle addressed harsh tabloid rumors, confided that she had suicidal thoughts, discussed issues of race – revealing that a member of the royal family was concerned about the skin tone of Markle and Harry's mixed-race children – and spoke about what finally led to the couple to step down as working members of the royal family.

"My hope for people in the takeaway from this is to know there is another side, to know that life is worth living," Markle said.

Personal Life and Ex-Husband

Markle dated producer Trevor Engelson for several years before the couple married in 2011. They divorced two years later.

Markle has a number of passions that include yoga (following in the footsteps of her mother), calligraphy and cuisine. She is also an essayist and has written for Elle UK , and ran her own lifestyle blog The Tig from 2014 to 2017. In 2021, she published her own children's book titled The Bench , which was inspired by a poem she wrote to Prince Harry for his first Father's Day. Markle's philanthropic efforts include being appointed a U.N. Women’s Advocate and working with the World Vision Clean Water Campaign, among other activities.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth date: August 4, 1981

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

• I learned the art of saying ‘no.’ Everyone tells you to strike when the iron’s hot, which is hard not to get sucked into. There comes a time when we need to say, ‘I have to take some time for me.’ I came to a point where I didn’t feel like I had a moment to breathe, so I had to learn gradually to give myself some quietude.
• While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.
• Women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available, they need to create their own table. We need a global understanding that we cannot implement change effectively without women's political participation.
• With fame comes opportunity, but it also includes responsibility – to advocate and share, to focus less on glass slippers and more on pushing through glass ceilings. And, if I'm lucky enough, to inspire.
• My mom is a yoga instructor, 100 percent black with dreadlocks. And when people find out ‘that girl’ on 'Suits' is her daughter, there is often this disconnect and sometimes disbelief. It took me a long time to find myself.
• 'What are you?’ A question I get asked every week of my life, often every day. ‘Well,’ I say, as I begin the verbal dance I know all too well. 'I’m an actress, a writer, the Editor-in-Chief of my lifestyle brand The Tig, a pretty good cook and a firm believer in handwritten notes.'
• There are days where I’m stressed out and think: I have to hit my [yoga] mat. I need to work through my stuff and quiet my mind. The health benefits and all that other stuff comes afterward.
• In ['Suits'] ... every script seemed to begin with Rachel enters wearing a towel and I said 'No, I'm not doing it anymore, I'm not doing it.' So I rang the creator and I was like, 'It's just gratuitous, we get it, we've already seen it once.' So I think at a certain point you feel empowered enough to just say no.
• It’s either ironic or apropos that in this world of not fitting in, and of harboring my emotions so tightly under my ethnically nondescript (and not so thick) skin, that I would decide to become an actress. There couldn’t possibly be a more label-driven industry than acting, seeing as every audition comes with a character breakdown. ... But perhaps it is through this craft that I found my voice.

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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Royal Family Website Makes Big Changes to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Bio Pages

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The website for the royal family has now undergone its own editing process, albeit not nearly as controversial . Royal online sleuths noticed that the royals' official website scrapped  Prince Harry  and  Meghan Markle 's individual bios in favor of a joint profile.

A closer look at Royal.UK  shows that  King Charles III ,  Queen Camilla ,  Prince William  and  Kate Middleton  each have their own bios. But anyone looking for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's bios will now have to scroll past seven royal family members before finally landing on Harry and Meghan's joint bio.

When you click on the joint bio, the royal palace has placed a message at the top of the page reminding you that Harry and Meghan took a step back from their royal duties in January 2020. The message also includes when (May 19, 2018) and where (St. George's Chapel, Windsor) they got married as well as the couple's two children -- Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.

But what has really caught people's attention is that the couple's joint bio is placed right next to  Prince Andrew , the disgraced Duke of York who also stepped back from his royal duties in November 2019 amid his controversial connection to disgraced convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in August 2019. In addition to Prince Andrew stepping back from his royal duties, King Charles removed his access from private spaces within Buckingham Palace. Andrew was also stripped of his royal patronages and military affiliations in January 2022.

It's worth noting that Meghan's bio also includes her accolades as an actress.

"Prior to her marriage to The Duke of Sussex in 2018, The Duchess worked as an actress, appearing in film and television. She most notably played the role of Rachel Zane on the series Suits for seven seasons, completing over 100 episodes," the bio reads in part . "Alongside her successful career as an actress, The Duchess also wrote and edited a lifestyle website called  The Tig ."

Below that paragraph features a photo of Meghan as Rachel Zane during season 4 of Suits ,   as Rachel pays Michael Ross (Patrick J. Adams) a visit at his new job as an investment banker.

Meanwhile, Meghan's latest venture includes something to do with American Riviera Orchard. She made a surprise return to Instagram last week when she launched the official IG account for American Riviera Orchard, which already has more than 90,000 followers.

The account links to  americanriviera.com , which takes users to a site whose landing page is the same logo as its IG account, except the word "Montecito" is under it. The site also has a link that allows people to sign up for the mailing list. 

There's currently a pending  trademark application  that has been filed for America Riviera Orchard. Goods and services are listed as cookbooks, homeware, coffee supplies, jellies, jams, marmalades, fruit preserves, and more. 

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Bios Receive Major Update on Official Royal Website

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's individual bios have been pulled from the Royal.UK site in favor of a joint profile

Janine Henni is a Royals Staff Writer for PEOPLE Digital, covering modern monarchies and the world's most famous families. Like Queen Elizabeth, she loves horses and a great tiara moment.

Joshua Sammer/Getty

Courtiers have refreshed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry ’s biographies on the royal family’s official website.

As of Monday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s bios on "The Royal Family" page of Royal.UK have been merged into a single profile. Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, previously had separate bios on the royal family’s website, which serves as a virtual home for information and updates on the modern monarchy.

Fan blog Gert’s Royals quickly caught the change, noting that Prince Harry and Meghan’s respective biographies have been removed altogether in favor of a joint profile. A click into the page, which is at the bottom of The Royal Family tab next to Prince Andrew ’s profile is topped by a statement about the couple’s step back from their royal roles in 2020. 

"As announced in January 2020, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stepped back as working members of The Royal Family. The couple married in St George's Chapel, Windsor on 19 May 2018 and have two children: Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex," the statement says, referring to the couple’s 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

Andrew Chin/Getty 

The page breaks Harry and Meghan's biographies under the headings "About the Duke of Sussex" and "About the Duchess of Sussex," recapping highlights like Prince Harry’s decade of service in the British Army and establishment of the Invictus Games alongside Meghan’s seven seasons on Suits and lifestyle blog The Tig .

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously had longer bios on the Royal.UK site, and Harry’s profile had a heading titled "Supporting the Monarch"

In a clue to the recency of the refresh, Prince Harry and Meghan’s new shared bio says, "Information about the current work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex can be found on their official website: sussex.com ."

Andrew Chin/Getty

On Feb. 12, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quietly launched a new website featuring a log of their latest endeavors, biographies and links to their Archewell Foundation organization and Archewell Productions hub. Around the same time, PEOPLE confirmed that Prince Harry and Meghan were continuing tradition and using Sussex as their children’s surname. It’s tradition for royal parents to use their titles for their children’s last names, and Prince Harry was known as Harry Wales in school and in the Army to reflect King Charles ’ Prince of Wales title at the time. 

The launch of sussex.com did not come without criticism in the U.K., as Prince Harry and Meghan were accused of trying to reclaim royal status through the rebrand. The site prominently features their "Sussex" titles, which they received as a gift from Queen Elizabeth on their royal wedding day, plus Meghan's coat of arms , which incorporates Prince Harry's crest.

In response to the backlash in the British press, which arrived amid their trip to Canada for the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025’s One Year to Go event, a representative for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reportedly told The Mirror : "We’ve heard time and time again that certain opportunities are make or break for the couple. They’re still here."

"They’re still working and pursuing what they believe in, despite constantly being challenged and criticized," the statement continued. "This couple will not be broken."

In another digital update, Meghan unveiled a lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard , on March 14. The Duchess of Sussex dropped a new website and Instagram page for the project last Thursday, and a source exclusively tells PEOPLE that American Riviera Orchard "will reflect everything that she loves — family, cooking, entertaining and home décor."

American Riviera Orchard

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"She is excited about her latest, personal venture," the source says. "This is something she’s been wanting to do for a while. She is excited to share her style and things that she loves."

According to a trademark application , Meghan is pursuing permission to sell tablewares, cookbooks, jarred food products and more — themes reminiscent of the content Meghan spotlighted on her lifestyle blog The Tig , which she shuttered in 2017 while dating Harry.

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Prince Harry's new website bio in full - 'unflinching honesty' remark and royal snub

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry surprised their fans this week by launching a new website - sussex.com. And there are some very telling details included - particularly in Prince Harry's 'biography'

• 15:45, 13 Feb 2024
• Updated 16:00, 13 Feb 2024

Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle are back in the spotlight following the launch of sussex.com. The couple unveiled their new website this week - and it's been scrutinised by fans and royal watchers.

The Prince's biography is certainly telling. One of the main criticisms being aimed at the pair is that some claim the couple have used the rebrand to emphasise their royal status - while also failing to make any mention of the royal family.

The biography for Harry, who is fifth in line to the throne, does not make a single reference to the monarchy, nor his connection to it. Instead, it describes him as "a humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate and environmental campaigner". Further down the biography, Harry speaks of his 'unflinching honesty' in reference to his tell-all memoir Spare . He famously levelled a number of accusations and disparaging remarks against his family in the book, further driving a wedge between the couple and the royals.

Harry's biography reads, in full: "Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex is a humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate, and environmental campaigner. He has dedicated his adult life to advancing causes that he is passionate about and that advance permanent change for people and places.

"He served for 10 years in the British Armed Forces, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan as a forward air controller and an Apache helicopter pilot. After completing his military service, The Duke founded the INVICTUS GAMES FOUNDATION, a platform for wounded, injured and sick service personnel to engage in sport to aid their rehabilitation. The international event is a globally celebrated display of resilience, community and athleticism that has won acclaim for its impact in celebrating those that serve.

"Prince Harry is also the founder and/or patron of a number of global charities and organizations including TRAVALYST, SENTEBALE, WELLCHILD, and sits on the board of AFRICAN PARKS. In 2021, he was named Chief Impact Officer at BETTERUP, a world-class coaching platform that helps people everywhere achieve their own peak mental fitness. That same year, he served on the ASPEN INSTITUTE COMMISSION on Information Disorder, which brought together critical voices across the public, private, and civil society landscape to respond to the challenges created by growing disinformation.

"He co-founded THE ARCHEWELL FOUNDATION, alongside his wife, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, to serve communities in need. At The Archewell Foundation, The Duke and Duchess are committed to their mission: Show Up, Do Good. They hold the value that charitable work should not simply be ‘a handout, but rather a hand held’. The couple also created ARCHEWELL PRODUCTIONS to produce content programming that informs, elevates and inspires.

"The Duke is the New York Times Bestselling author of Spare, a memoir of his life told with compassion, vulnerability, and unflinching honesty. Spare was the publishing industry’s fastest selling non-fiction book, selling more than 1.4 million copies on its first day of publication.

"Prince Harry lives in California with his wife Meghan, and their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet."

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Prince Harry, Meghan Markle announce details of 2 new series coming to Netflix

A show featuring Meghan will focus on cooking, entertaining and friendship.

Prince Harry and Meghan , the Duchess of Sussex, will be back on TV screens soon.

The Sussexes on Thursday shared details of their two upcoming projects for Netflix, the streaming giant with whom Harry and Meghan first partnered in 2020 , after stepping away from their senior roles with Britain's royal family .

Meghan, who was an actress before marrying Harry in 2018, is curating a nonfiction series that will "celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining, and friendship," a spokesperson for the Sussexes told ABC news in a statement.

Meghan is an executive producer on the series, which will be directed by Michael Steed, who also directed the "Parts Unknown" series featuring the late Anthony Bourdain .

Meghan's new series is described as being in the "early stages of production," with a title and release date to be announced in the coming months.

The show's announcement comes just weeks after Meghan launched an Instagram account and website for a project known as American Riviera Orchard. While details of the project have yet to be released publicly, Meghan was seen in a video shared on the brand's Instagram account arranging flowers, baking in a rustic kitchen and hanging out in a home while wearing a black gown.

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During her time as a senior royal, one of Meghan's first charitable efforts was working with a group of female survivors of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire on a cookbook whose proceeds benefited a community kitchen in West London.

The second series confirmed by the Sussexes on Wednesday features a passion of Harry's, the sport of polo.

The series, which also does not yet have a title announced, is described as providing viewers "unprecedented access to the world of professional polo."

"Known primarily for its aesthetic and social scene, the series will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level," a Sussex spokesperson said.

The series was shot mostly at the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Florida, according to the spokesperson.

MORE: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle faced 'reckless' behavior in New York City car chase, according to NYPD

Harry, who lives with Meghan and their two young children in California, is a longtime polo player who has been known to compete in charity polo matches both in the U.K. and the U.S.

A release date for the polo series will also be announced "in the coming months," the Sussex spokesperson said.

MORE: Prince Harry loses security court ruling, potentially impacting his visits to UK

Netflix also confirmed to ABC News the details of the two new series.

Since signing a streaming deal with Netflix in 2020, Harry and Meghan have released three series, including their blockbuster " Harry & Meghan" docuseries that detailed their journey from falling in love to stepping away from their senior royal roles.

The docuseries premiered in 2022 with 81.55 million hours watched in its first week, making it the "highest viewing time of any documentary to debut on the streaming service in its premiere week," according to Netflix.

ABC News' Taylor Rhodes and Angeline Bernabe contributed to this report.

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Prince Harry Biography

Prince Harry, also known as Prince Henry of Wales, is the second and youngest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He attended schools in the UK and graduated from Eton College before embarking on various humanitarian missions in Africa and Argentina. After completing officer training at RMA Sandhurst, he served in the British Army, including tours of duty in Afghanistan. Prince Harry left the army in 2015 but continues to support wounded servicemen and is actively involved in charitable endeavors.

Quick Facts

• Name: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Henry Charles Albert David
• Age: 39 Years, 39 Year Old Males
• Spouse: Meghan Markle (m. 2018)
• Father: Charles, Prince of Wales
• Mother: Princess Diana
• Siblings: Prince William
• Born Country: England
• Height: 1.89 m
• City: London, England
• Notable Alumni: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
• Founder/Co-Founder: Sentebale
• Education: Eton College, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Childhood & Early Life

Prince Harry was born on September 15, 1984, at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London to Prince Charles and Princess Diana. He was baptised at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on December 21, that year. Born to the royal family, Prince Harry has been under media attention since childhood starting from his first day in school in September 1987 at Jane Mynors’ nursery school in London. In 1989, he joined pre-preparatory Wetherby School in London. In 1992, he enrolled at the independent preparatory boarding school ‘Ludgrove School’ in Berkshire. He lived with his family in Kensington Palace and enjoyed the weekends with them in the family estate Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. His mother, Princess Diana, described him as “very artistic and sporty” and preferred to give her children “as normal a life as possible”. She would take them to places like McDonald’s and Disney World and also to shelters for the homeless and AIDS clinics. His parents divorced in 1996 and the following year, on August 31, his mother died in Paris after suffering injuries in a car crash. On September 6, 1997, at age 12, he walked behind his mother’s coffin in her funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey accompanied by his father, brother, and other relatives amidst thousands of people who gathered to bid goodbye to “the people’s princess”. Coping up with such personal loss, Prince Harry returned to Ludgrove to complete his studies. He cleared entrance exams to get admitted to ‘Eton College’ in Berkshire, where he joined in 1998. He graduated from Eton College in 2003 with two A-Levels.

Prince Harry often found himself amidst controversies making it to the tabloid headlines, whether for his underage drinking or attempting to smoke marijuana among other acts. He was highly censured for appearing in a Nazi Uniform with a swastika armband in a costume party that led to a controversy and public outcry in January 2005. He later apologized for such act in a statement that said “I am very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize”. On May 8, 2005, he got enrolled at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to undergo officer’s training. After completion of such training, he was commissioned in the Blues and Royals as a Cornet, which is a second lieutenant, on April 13, 2006. It was declared in 2006 that Prince Harry would be deployed in Iraq in 2007, which gave rise to a public debate whether he should be deployed in a war zone. General Sir Richard Dannatt, the then head of the British army, declared his decision on April 30, 2007, in favor of deploying Prince Harry in Iraq. However, in the following month, Dannatt declared that Prince Harry would not be deployed there due to several concerns, including the probability of him becoming an obvious target as well as dangers that would be inflicted on soldiers around him. He was deployed secretly as a Forward Air Controller for 77 days during 2007-2008 in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province while the British and Canadian forces were taking part in the War in Afghanistan led by NATO. Such tour on duty marked Prince Harry as the first British Royal family member to be deployed in a war zone after helicopters were flown by his uncle Prince Andrew, Duke of York during the Falklands War. However, when news of such duty was flashed in an Australian magazine, Prince Harry was called back. He became a Lieutenant on April 13, 2008. He received an Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan in May 2008 for his military service in Afghanistan that included patrolling in hostile regions and aiding the Brigade of Gurkhas in driving back Taliban insurgents. Prince Harry resolved to become an Apache helicopter pilot. After meeting required standards, he began training in the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury and on April 14, 2011, he earned his Apache Flying Badge. He was promoted as Captain on April 16 that year. Thereafter, he went to a US military base in California in October 2011 to undertake helicopter gunship training and returned to England in November that year to finish his Apache helicopters training course at the Wattisham Flying Station in Suffolk. He was sent with the Army Air Corps on a tour on duty as a co-pilot and gunner for an Apache helicopter at the Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan on September 7, 2012. He received life threats from the Taliban during his 20-week deployment. The Ministry of Defence announced on July 8, 2013, that Prince Harry has qualified as an Apache aircraft commander. He created the international Paralympic-style sports event ‘Invictus Games’ and launched it on March 6, 2014. The participants of the multi-sport event include injured, wounded, and sick army personnel as well as associated veterans. He is a patron of Invictus Games Foundation and several other endeavors that assist wounded servicemen. On June 4, 2015, he became Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) and on June 19 that year, he ended his official duties with the Armed Forces. He has remained a patron to many organizations and charities like HALO Trust, WellChild, Walking With The Wounded, and the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Earlier in September 2009, he along with Prince William established The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry to advance their charitable endeavors.

Personal Life & Legacy

Prince Harry was in an on-and-off relationship with Zimbabwean national Chelsy Davy from 2004 to May 2010. He became romantically associated with British actress Cressida Bonas in May 2012; however, the two parted ways amicably on April 30, 2014. Prince Harry started dating American actress Meghan Markle in 2016, which was confirmed by the Kensington Palace on November 8, 2016. Their relationship grew stronger over the months and the couple soon became engaged. On May 19, 2018, Prince Harry and Markle got married in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Archbishop of Canterbury officiated at the wedding. It was an extravagant affair and celebrities from all over the world were invited. Actors George Clooney, Idris Elba, and Oprah Winfrey, tennis player Serena Williams, former footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham were among the elite guests.

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Prince Harry Reveals Which Royal Family Member First Called Him a ‘Spare’

S ome people thought the title of Prince Harry ’s memoir, Spare , was a tad harsh. But as it turns out, the Duke of Sussex , 39, has been called “spare” since the day he was born. 

In a newly resurfaced excerpt from the book, Prince Harry discussed his relationship with his father, King Charles , and how his dad was the first person to call him a spare. The Duke of Sussex revealed the monarch’s reaction to Princess Diana giving birth to a second boy after Prince William . 

Samir Hussein/WireImage

According to Prince Harry, King Charles told Princess Diana, “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare—my work is done.”

The Guardian noted that Prince Harry has always resented this nickname, and his frustration is evident throughout the memoir. “Harry’s resentment of being the ‘spare’ is the unifying theme of his book, through chapters on his childhood, his schooling, his career as a royal and in the British army, his relationship with his parents and brother and his life with Meghan through courtship, wedding and marriage to their own experience of parenthood,” the outlet reported.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

This isn’t the only revelation we’ve learned from Prince Harry’s memoir. In the book, the duke also revealed that King Charles , 75, and Queen Camilla , 76, tried to get Kate Middleton , 42, to change the spelling of her name because there are too many royal names that start with the letter “C,” including their own.

According to Prince Harry, King Charles and Queen Camilla suggested that she could change the spelling of her first name to “Katherine.” That way, her royal cypher would have a “K,” versus a “C.” 

Oh, to be royal. 

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Harry: A Biography of a Prince Kindle Edition

• Print length 294 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Pegasus Books
• Publication date May 3, 2018
• File size 48184 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

If you're looking for the truth about Prince Harry's private life, this is probably as close as you can get. Levin has painstakingly constructed the book from interviews she conducted, including sit-downs with Harry at Kensington Palace she did for a Newsweek profile where he spoke openly about the burden of being royal and his desire to modernize the monarchy. If you want the inside scoop, look no further than this princely biography.

Levin reveals the candid, wide-ranging conversations she has had with an extraordinary interview subject: Prince Harry himself. Not only does the royal, thirty-three, share details about his relationship with his soon-to-be-wife Meghan Markle, thirty-sx, he also explains how important it is that he remain connected to his memories of his mother Princess Diana...Beyond delving into the impact of his mother's death, the biography also reveals the reasons behind Harry's rebellion as a teen, his struggle to balance his personal issues with his public image and his desire to forge a new path.

This is a sympathetic glimpse of the personality and personal demons of the vulnerable man behind the handsome smile and royal title.

The story of Prince Harry...is meticulously and knowledgeably recorded in this substantial biography as a story of redemption.

About the Author

Angela Levin is an award-winning journalist and author. She writes for the Mail on Sunday , the Daily Telegraph , Newsweek , and others. She also broadcasts on radio and television. Levin was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board of Her Majesty's Prison Wormwood Scrubs for almost ten years. She lives in London.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07B42KZMM
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books (May 3, 2018)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 3, 2018
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 48184 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 294 pages
• #475 in Biographies of Royalty (Kindle Store)
• #805 in Biographies of the Rich & Famous
• #1,104 in Royalty Biographies

About the author

Angela levin.

Angela Levin writes regularly for national newspapers in the UK. She specialises in in-depth interviews and has been commended several times in the British Press Awards. She is also the author of six non-fiction books, including a biography of the late Princess of Wales’s father and stepmother. She broadcasts regularly on radio and Sky News. Diana's Baby: Kate, William and the Repair of a Broken Family is her newest book, published by emBooks, a division of Melanie Phillips Electric Media.

Angela started her journalistic career as a researcher on the Observer magazine and went on to write a weekly interview column. She moved to You, the Mail on Sunday magazine, where she continued with her weekly interview slot, talking to a wide range of celebrities and others in the news. Her subjects included Paloma Picasso, Gordon Brown MP, Trevor

Eve, Diana Ross, JK Rowling, Kylie Minogue, Kenneth Clarke MP, PD James and Muhammad Ali. She left to join the Daily Mail as a senior interviewer, where she also wrote an agony-aunt column and commentaries on issues of morality and current affairs.

Angela moved from the Daily Mail in 2005 to concentrate on writing books. Her previous titles include Loving Peter – My Life with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore; Max Clifford: Read All About It; Raine and Johnnie: The Spencers and the Scandal of Althorp; Secret Places: a guide to sites in the UK; A Chance to Live; how the Marchioness of Tavistock fought for her husband’s life and recovery following a severe stroke; Margaret Thatcher: a biography for children.

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Prince Harry shows off lean physique as he's pictured with Mindy Kaling in San Francisco

The duke of sussex spoke at the betterup uplift summit.

The Duke of Sussex was joined by one of wife Meghan Markle 's friends as he appeared at a summit in San Francisco, California on Wednesday.

Prince Harry's gym regime appears to be paying off as he showed off a lean physique in a white open-collared suit and grey blazer in a snap with Office star, Mindy Kaling .

The father-of-two, who had a ten-year military career, has often been pictured at a gym in Santa Barbara, close to the Sussexes' Montecito home. 

Harry spoke on a Beyond Burnout panel session in his role as Chief Impact Officer of BetterUp during the coaching company's two-day Uplift event.

The Duke was joined by  organizational psychologist and BetterUp’s Chairman of the Center for Purpose & Performance, Dr. Adam Grant and Cisco’s Chief People Officer, Kelly Jones. The trio discussed how C-Level leaders (such as CEOs) can "manage the unique pressure of their roles, build resilience, and foster a culture that supports sustainable performance".

At an Inner Work Day for the mental health and coaching company in 2022, Harry spoke about how he takes care of his physical as well as mental health, revealing he now takes around 45 minutes each morning "either for workouts, take the dog for a walk, get out in nature, maybe meditate".

Harry landed the role at BetterUp in March 2021 with the firm's chief executive Alexi Robichau saying of his royal recruit: "He's got an incredible attitude and he is filled with energy and enthusiasm."

He added that the Duke "likes to be called Harry in the workplace, so we just address him as Harry".

Harry crossed paths with actress Mindy at the summit in San Francisco, who gave a fireside chat about how to integrate humour and creativity into a leadership role. The comedian, screenwriter and producer appeared on the first series of the Duchess of Sussex's Archetypes podcast.

The episode, titled The Stigma of the Singleton, saw the pair discuss the pressure that women feel to find the perfect partner and have children. Mindy opened up to Meghan about her decision to raise two children as a single mother.

The Duchess ended her deal with Spotify last summer, but in February, it was announced that she is working on a new audio series with Lemonada Media . It is also distributing the first 12 episodes of Archetypes.

Speaking about the new deal, Meghan said:  "I'm proud to now be able to share that I am joining the brilliant team at Lemonada to continue my love of podcasting.

"Being able to support a female founded company with a roster of thought provoking and highly entertaining podcasts is a fantastic way to kick off 2024. Our plan to re-release Archetypes so that more people can now have access to it, as well as launching a dynamic new podcast are well in the works. I'm so eager to be able to share it soon, and am overjoyed to be joining the Lemonada family."

LISTEN: Inside King Charles' private lunch with Princess Kate

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