It's time to take a step back and look at the history and transformation of everyone's
favorite royal red-head. Here are some things you may not know about Prince Harry.
Prince Harry was apparently just like any other kid. So what did the little prince
eat for dinner? According to the royal chef at the time, Darren McGrady, pizza, burgers, and
spaghetti and meatballs could be found on the menu from time to time. McGrady told Hello! magazine,
"They were royal children but they still had children's palates."
And it wasn't just the type of food that made Princes William and Harry
feel like normal children. Princess Diana also made it a family meal. McGrady said,
"The food was actually put on the sideboard and they just go and help themselves,
as opposed to in the palace where they're served each course."
Family drama seemed to take over Prince Harry's life as a kid. In August 1996,
when the prince was 11 years old, his parents divorced.
Then just a year later, the 12-year-old lost his mother, who passed away in a car accident
in Paris. Not only did he and his brother have to deal with the tragedy themselves,
but they were surrounded by the incident via the media.
For many years, the prince never addressed the difficult time in his family's lives.
Then in 2016, Prince Harry reflected on the loss of his mother, telling the BBC,
"I really regret not ever talking about it. [...] For the first 28
years of my life, I never talked about it."
As time went on, Prince Harry continued his life doing what was expected of him — and
this included going to Eton [EE-tuhn]. In September of 1998, the 13-year-old joined his
older brother at the Berkshire school, where he would live during his studies — with a bodyguard
living in the room next door full-time, of course.
But not everyone would have been thrilled about the decision to send Harry to Eton.
According to BBC News, Princess Diana had been, quote,
"concerned that he was perhaps not as academically inclined as Prince William."
Apparently the princess was not the only one who felt that way. Much later, in 2015,
Prince Harry confessed that he didn't enjoy school. The Telegraph reported that,
while speaking to a group of children at a Cape Town youth center, he said,
"I would like to have come to a place like this. When I was at school I wanted to be the bad boy."
The last few years at Eton were not the easiest for Prince Harry. In 2001,
the 16-year-old admitted to drinking underage and smoking marijuana. According to The Guardian,
the prince was running with the wrong crowd when these activities started to happen.
After hearing this, his father asked Prince William to encourage his
brother to visit the Featherstone Lodge Rehabilitation Centre in south London.
The prince went for a day in order to see what addiction could lead to.
In May of 2005, the 20-year-old prince joined the British Army. After working his way up for years,
the prince eventually became an Aircraft Commander. Throughout this time, Prince Harry
served two tours in Afghanistan, and in 2014, he took a staff officer role in London. It was during
this time the partying prince changed his ways, and he began to work more closely with charities.
Once in his staff officer role, the prince was able to focus on organizing the Invictus Games,
an international sports event in which wounded and sick armed service personnel can compete.
According to Today, when the prince made the decision to retire from the military
in June 2015, he wanted "to spend more time helping wounded service members,
battling AIDS and working with other charities."
Since leaving the military in 2015, Prince Harry has constantly been seen out and about
at various charity events. Still with a clear focus on the Invictus Games,
the prince continued to give back to a variety of organizations.
In October of 2016, the 32-year-old attended an event for the WellChild charity, which
recognized the bravery of children with intense illnesses and those who help take care of them.
When he was 32, Harry began dating then-35-year-old American actress Meghan Markle,
who he had met in July 2016. Prince Harry and Markle later told BBC News
the story of how they met through a mutual friend — and the romance
took off quickly. As Prince Harry described during the interview,
"We met once and then twice — back to back — two dates in London,
last July. [...] And then it was I think about three, maybe four weeks later that I managed to
persuade her to come and join me in Botswana. And we camped out with each other under the
stars. She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic."
It became very clear that this relationship was serious for Prince Harry when in November
of 2016 a statement was released from "the Communications Secretary to Prince Harry."
In the statement, Prince Harry addressed the harassment that Markle had been facing.
Part of the statement read,
"Some of this has been very public — the smear on the front page of a national newspaper;
the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of
social media trolls and web article comments. Some of it has been hidden
from the public — the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers;
her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door;
the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home."
"I will not be bullied into playing a game that killed my mum."
Even though this was a formal statement,
the prince's emotions were evident. The statement also said,
"Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed
that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a
relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm."
Just a year after that initial statement to the press, the royal engagement was
officially announced. Prince Harry and Markle got engaged in November 2017
in London, and the wedding was planned for spring 2018.
"It was so sweet and natural and very romantic, he got on one knee… Of course."
Their royal wedding on May 19, 2018 was a ceremony for the ages,
with horses and carriages and tiaras all around. According to CNN, the wedding was
a mix of "British pageantry" with a bit of a modern flare, perhaps a subtle nod
to the progressive nature of Harry and Meghan's marriage. Meghan is American, a woman of color,
and had previously been married — so she was breaking barriers in the royal family.
The wedding took place at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle,
and it was attended by royals and public figures. After the ceremony, Harry and
Meghan rode in a horse-drawn carriage throughout the streets of Windsor, greeting the crowds.
Bad blood between brothers is never good,
and a public feud reportedly pitted Prince Harry and Prince William against each other.
The two brothers had transformed from young children into senior royals,
but it was Markle's presence in Harry's life that reportedly sparked tensions between them.
Robert Lacey, the historian who wrote the book Battle of Brothers, told Elle Magazine that
things got so bad between the two that they couldn't even be in the same room together.
Friends of William's suggested to Lacey that he was, quote,
"so furious with Harry that he couldn't trust himself to sit at [the] same table [as him]."
It was a new type of "depth" to anger that neither brother had experienced before.
"As brothers, you know, you have good days you have bad days."
So what was the problem? According to Lacey, William may have thought that Harry was moving too
fast with Meghan, that she was too much of an outsider to ever fit in the royal family,
and that a self-made woman would not conform to the royal lifestyle.
Harry, on the other hand, was ready to do anything for love. Lacey went on to say,
"His parents were locked into an arranged, loveless marriage, and he's not going to make that
mistake. He's going to go for love, and that's what he's done with Meghan, unapologetically."
Royal babies are a big deal. There's press attention and official announcements and a
whole slew of celebrations to welcome the newest member of the royals,
and it seemed like everyone was holding their breath when Prince Harry became a dad.
After all, he had been known as the fun uncle for years, and it was a surprise to just about
everyone that he was finally settling down as a family man.
Harry and Meghan welcomed their son, Archie, on May 6th,
2019, after Meghan's due date. But despite their sweet baby refusing to come out on time,
the birth was safe and successful, and Archie arrived into the world at 5:26 in the morning.
Harry and Meghan opted for London's Portland Hospital,
which just so happens to be American-owned — a nod to Meghan's home country, perhaps.
They later introduced their baby boy to the public on May 8th.
In a statement that shocked just about everyone, Harry announced that he would be stepping back
from his duties as a senior royal, along with Markle. The statement from the couple,
released in January 2020, was a huge blow to the royal family and, as noted by BBC News,
neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince William were notified before the announcement was made.
The statement revealed that Harry and Meghan had been discussing stepping
away from their roles as senior royals for a long time and had come to their decision,
quote, "after many months of reflection and internal discussions." They went on to say,
"We intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become
financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."
William was reportedly "disappointed" that he had not been alerted to the statement before
it was released, and other senior royals were described as "hurt" by the decision.
In another transformative act, Prince Harry redefined his
relationship with the royal family when he moved from the United Kingdom
to California — quite the monumental decision for a country's royal. According to Vogue,
Harry and Meghan had moved from Britain to Canada and then ventured from Canada to Los Angeles.
The pair didn't plan on staying in LA, though,
and, after a few months, moved to the quiet town of Montecito [mawn-tuh-SEE-toh], about
100 miles north of the bustling city. A source with knowledge of Harry and Meghan told Vogue,
"Harry loves California, but they were both drawn to the smaller town of Santa Barbara,
where they can integrate into the community while having some distance and privacy that is hard to
come by in the Los Angeles area. For that reason, they had never intended to stay in Los Angeles."
A spokesperson for the pair confirmed the move,
saying that their hope was to live a quiet, private life.
Prince Harry and Markle sadly had to overcome another hurdle during an already difficult year,
the loss of their baby. In an opinion column for The New York Times released in November 2020,
Meghan revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage.
But in February 2021, they announced that they would
be welcoming their second child into the world.
According to BBC News, Harry and Meghan were "overjoyed" to share their news,
and despite any tension, the palace released a statement showing their support. According to the
statement, the senior royals were "delighted" about the news and sent their best wishes.
Regardless of Harry and Meghan's departure from royal life,
their second baby will be an heir to the British throne,
just like their first child is. As noted by BBC News, Harry's second baby will be eighth in line.
It's been quite the transformation for Harry — from bachelor and fun uncle to father of two.
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