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Planning a private party at my home in Southern California
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Media speculation on state of mind and possible comeback
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Close sources say her focus is on family and projects
by Michael Holden
LONDON, Sept 12 — Britain’s Prince Harry will turn 40 on Sunday in California, thousands of miles from his royal roots, and there is no sign that the distance is dampening interest in King Charles’s younger son.
Harry has rarely been out of the spotlight, between his Netflix documentaries, his charity work, his legal battles with the British tabloid press and his disagreements with the rest of the royal family.
The prince will celebrate his 40th birthday with a private ceremony at his home in Montecito, Southern California, where he lives with his American wife Meghan, 43, and their two children.
The achievement has sparked a variety of stories and speculation in the British media about what his future holds and whether he will continue to take up active royal duties.
The Sunday Times quoted unnamed friends in a lengthy article saying Harry was at a sad point in his life, with one former adviser saying “all he spends his time doing is looking back.”
But sources close to the prince said Harry was looking enthusiastically to the future and had a number of projects in the works, including another Netflix special about the elite world of professional polo.
Later this month he will be in New York attending events for Travelyst, his initiative to make the travel industry more sustainable, and the Diana Award, a charity founded in honour of his late mother, Princess Diana.
‘It’s still dangerous’
In a recent documentary aired on ITV, Harry said his concerns about his family’s safety – they are involved in legal action against the British Government after their police protection was stripped – meant they would not return home, particularly amid the hostility of the tabloid press.
He added, “It’s still dangerous, and it only takes a single actor, one person, who reads this material and acts on what they read, whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is, and those are things that are of real concern to me.”
Critics blamed him for the negativity, saying he was the one who chose to speak on TV and in his memoir “Spare” about his differences with his father, the king, and older brother Prince William, even though he lived by his royal background.
Supporters say he has come under pressure because of his self-declared mission to hold newspaper owners accountable.
He has already successfully sued the Mirror newspaper group over phone hacking and other allegations, and is still involved in a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group and publisher of the Daily Mail and MailOnline.
Harry has admitted that his battles with the media have contributed to their family rift, and as things stand, there appears to be no sign of the rift being resolved.
“Reports suggest that Charles is open to some sort of return from his son and daughter-in-law, but William is not at all open to that,” said Anna Whitelock, professor of the history of monarchy at City, University of London.
This article is generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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