Prince Harry has shown he is “desperate to return to the royal fold” after his claims during a trip to Ukraine, a royal commentator has said.
“I will always be part of the Royal Family,” the Duke of Sussex told ITV in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, after denying the notion he was “not a working royal”.
The trip had already grabbed the headlines on Thursday, when he spoke at the Kyiv Security Forum unexpectedly.
There, he directly called on Vladimir Putin to end the war, and antagonised Donald Trump by demanding the US show “leadership”.
But Harry’s declaration this afternoon that he will forever be a member of the Royal Family may be true by blood, but is it by definition?
“Prince Harry is clearly desperate to return to the royal fold,” royal commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo told GB News.
Prince Harry has shown he is ‘desperate to return to the royal fold’ after his claims during a trip to Ukraine, a royal commentator has said
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ITV
“The more distant and disconnected he is from the Monarchy, the more his relevance wanes. This is why he is undertaking these faux ‘royal’ engagements.
“It’s the only thing in civilian life he knows how to do; it is the best way of attracting media attention and, ultimately, I suspect he hopes it will somehow open a path for his return to the Royal Family.”
The author stated that “of course” Harry is a member of the family by blood, but maintains he is “not a working royal”.
“Creating his own version of a royal engagement does not make him a working royal – especially not when these trips are also designed alongside commercial operations for private financial gain,” he added.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Australia earlier this month
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“The position of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles is quite clear: if the Sussexes wish to pursue private commercial ventures, they can never be working royals.”
Harry and Meghan stepped away from their royal duties and moved to America in 2020.
And during their recent trip Down Under, the duke revealed that, following the tragic death of his mother when he was 13, he didn’t want to be a royal at all.
“It killed my mum, and I was very much against it, and I stuck my head in the sand for years and years,” he told a packed crowd, including Meghan, in Melbourne.
Prince Harry revealed he did not want a royal role after the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, 28 years ago
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Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told the People’s Channel, in spite of his claims, “He isn’t working royal in the conventional sense.”
“He’s stepped down as senior working royals, because they wanted a half-in, half-out situation, which Queen Elizabeth didn’t feel was feasible,” he explained.
“Of course, he’ll always be part of the Royal Family, but as for doing what he was born to do – well, he was born into the institution, and the Sussexes have created a brand from their activities in stepping down, but the brand was brutally created.”
But it was royal biographer Nigel Cawthorne who put his views in the simplest of terms: “Being royal is his USP. What else has he and Meghan got to sell?”