The Remembrance Day poppy on his lapel tells us there is still a part of Prince Harry’s heart that is forever England.
That his wife, Meghan, wore a matching one, confirms they are still working as a unit, delivering their ‘message’ to the world.
The Sussexes made their first joint appearance in more than three months on Thursday, in a shared video message played at the inaugural Global Ministerial Conference on Violence Against Children in Colombia.
Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, both wore dark blazers with poppy pins fastened on their lapels, in a video message about online violence against children – a cause that is deeply important to them.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a video message at the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children
Yet there is a more pressing threat, closer to the Prince’s home in California, troubling the Sussexes currently.
For, after years of litigation, countless hours on the clock for lawyers and bundle upon bundle of documents, the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, delivered its brief – and blunt, verdict this week.
‘Markle can stay. He needs to go,’ says Mike Howell, director of the Oversight Project, the foundation’s investigative arm.
Prince Harry has much to fear, it seems, from the election of President Donald Trump. The long-simmering row over the visa by the grace of which he is living in America has been revived by Trump’s election, after a new appeal by the Foundation for the US government to reveal what the Prince wrote on his visa application.
Harry is facing the prospect of some deep embarrassment over the question of what he admitted about his previous drug use – as detailed in his memoir Spare – to the authorities when he moved to America from the UK in 2020.
The consequences could be dire, and it seems his fate lies in the hands of President-elect Trump – who has made his dislike of the couple clear.
Meanwhile they have both taken public potshots at Trump, not least in the run-up to the previous presidential election in 2020 when Harry urged voters to ‘reject hate speech’ and ‘misinformation’.
The drama presents the possibility – albeit a slim one – that he ends up in legal dispute with the Department of Homeland Security in America, in addition to his existing legal fight with the Home Office in the UK over the provision of police security when he visits.
It could even mean he has to leave his £12 million mansion in Montecito, California, with its swimming pool and chicken coop, and his coddled life playing polo at the local club, dining on $50 pizzas alongside other millionaires and walking barefoot on the beach with his security team, who are now his closest pals.
But, I’ve been told by an impeccably placed source that Harry is determined on going . . . absolutely nowhere.
Donald Trump’s election this week is said to have worried Prince Harry and Meghan
‘Harry’s in California. It’s his home and where he expects to live indefinitely – with Meghan,’ says the friend. ‘They are very happy in California. They are both focused on the work which they are doing here.’
The Prince is also tied to the area by their young children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, with Archie attending school locally.
Officially, there is no response from the couple to requests for comment on the visa situation and Harry’s hopes for the future.
But in private – Donald be damned! – I am told that, come what may, Harry means to stay.
For two years the Heritage Foundation has been trying to get the Prince’s visa application unsealed. A judge denied their suit in September and they are now appealing.
Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, thinks the advent of Trump could change everything.
‘I hope a Trump presidency will mean Prince Harry’s immigration records will be released to the American people. Donald Trump has a dim view of drug use and is somebody who believes in the full application of the law, and in immigration law in particular, being strictly enforced.’
We’ll see if the dial really moves on this question – though it’s rather doubtful that it will be a top priority for Trump.
In the meantime, though, Harry is beginning a measured fightback. On Thursday night, only hours after Trump’s re-election, the Sussexes broke their silence with that calculated show of strength, standing shoulder to shoulder in their video message. The video can certainly be interpreted as a rebuttal to the chatter which continues to swirl about their marriage.
Harry looks solemn, and slightly sunburned. His wife of five years calls him: ‘My husband’. Towards the end, he delicately places his hand on the small of her back, while she smiles. They appear as united as ever.
This two-minute video, then, is a calm riposte to assertions that have been made in tabloid magazines that Harry’s marriage to Meghan is all but over. Paris Match has been speculating that their ‘separate professional directions’ indicate a looming split.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended longtime friend Tyler Perry’s star-studded birthday bash in September
On Monday the publication observed: ‘Break-up, separation, divorce . . . These are now the words that stick to the skin of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.’
The magazine’s speculation has been fuelled by Harry and Meghan not undertaking public engagements as a couple for months.
They were last seen together on September 14, the eve of Harry’s birthday, when they were in the back of a car travelling to TV producer Tyler Perry’s birthday party.
The Prince spent his actual birthday on a hiking trip with friends in the nearby mountains – notably not with his wife. He then went on solo philanthropic trips to Europe and Africa.
But an insider told People magazine that this was part of a new strategy. ‘The Duke and Duchess have now hit their stride as individuals – not just as a couple. The Duke appears focused on his patronage work, and the Duchess focused on her entrepreneurial track . . . What we are seeing is a functional and healthy relationship with two working partners, not the contrary.’
A source in California speculates that – with Trump and the separation rumours – ‘crunch time’ has finally arrived for the couple.
The source said: ‘This has turned into an annus horribilis for Harry. There was a huge backlash to [his autobiography] Spare which they were not expecting – as Harry said, he thought they would get an apology from the Royal Family. Instead they were mocked in [the satirical cartoon show] South Park and had to duck for cover.
‘Since the summer they have had months of terrible press – attacks from The Hollywood Reporter and from [former Vanity Fair editor and Royal author] Tina Brown over the marriage, the charity and what Meghan is like as a boss. Nobody can understand why they haven’t done anything together while this has taken hold.
Harry is famously thin-skinned about criticism. And sadly, just as the narrative about his ‘troubled’ marriage has taken off, the Prince has found himself enduring a period of prolonged hostility in some quarters of traditional media and – particularly virulently – from the public on social media.
There is also glee over the unflattering assessments of the pair by Tina Brown, who called Megxit in 2020 ‘a disaster’ and added: ‘The trouble with Meghan is that she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world. She’s flawless about getting it all wrong.’
Friends of the couple say these remarks are simply Ms Brown’s opinion and say there is no evidence to back up her theories.
And I hear that, despite the brickbats and one powerful enemy, Harry and Meghan are resolutely moving forward ‘with hope’ into the future. You can only wish them luck.
- Additional reporting: Barbara McMahon
