‘HE’S MISERABLE & SCARED… and who can blame him’
Prince Harry struggled with his old life, but his new lifestyle isn’t as rosy as he’d hoped
When Prince Harry’s close friend and confidant, conservationist Dr Jane Goodall said last week that he’s finding life a bit challenging at the moment, it was the understatement of the century.
Crippled by self-doubt over leaving his family in the UK to move to California, the Duke of Sussex has now forced his wife Meghan and son Archie “to go to ground” in Los Angeles amid a growing list of distressing – and downright ludicrous – security breaches.
Last week, after revealing details about their new charity Archewell, cyber-squatters have been buying up online domain names by the dozen, including one chilling anonymous website archewellcharity.com, which demands Harry’s return to the palace. “We will surrender this domain upon the immediate and safe return of Prince Henry Charles Albert David, Duke of Sussex, to Her Majesty’s United Kingdom” it read.
UNDER ATTACK
Similarly, users who search for archewellfoundation.com will find themselves listening to a rendition of Kanye West hit Gold
Digger – about a woman who attaches herself to a rich man, obviously a thinly veiled dig at Meghan, 38.
This follows Harry’s Welsh charity being hacked to link with a Chinese porn site, along with the now infamous “prank” phone call from two Russian hoaxers purporting to be Swedish climate warrior Greta Thunberg and her father, who were successful in getting the 35-year-old to share his private thoughts.
‘Harry is so paranoid... he is full fight-or-flight mode constantly’
“Prince Harry gets a shiver of anxiety every time the phone rings, or an assistant wants to talk about their online work,” says a source. “He is so paranoid... that someone is really out to get him, Meghan and Archie. He knows there is a deep dislike for Meghan from all corners of the world. He is in full fight-or-flight mode constantly. All his military instincts are on red alert – he feels his family is under attack.”
Now, royal watchers and old friends alike fear it’s only a matter of time before he flees the new life he was so desperate to build in Tinseltown.
“He never thought it would end like this,” tells another royal insider. “He’s miserable and scared – no one would blame him if he fled.”
Making matters worse for the young dad is that since moving to LA – where he is bunkered down at a top-secret location – he’s lost his lifelong protection of Scotland Yard police.
“He thought he could get along without them,” says a source. “Now the pressure of protecting his wife and child is all on him.”
Dr Goodall, 86 – a primate expert who works with Harry on conservation endeavours – hinted that all was not well in the Sussexes’ household.
“I don’t know how his career is going to map out,” she says. “I think he’s finding life a bit challenging just now.”
However, those who think Harry will return to the UK appear to be very wrong.
BIZARRE MOVE
Not only has he stepped back from life as a royal but last week he also took the drastic action of dropping the family surname.
When registering his new charity, there was no sign of the name MountbattenWindsor, which descendants of the Queen and Prince Philip take – despite his son being christened Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor.
“It was a bizarre move, but in Harry’s mind, I guess what’s done is done,” says an insider. “It’s a worry though, that he’s clearly struggling with his new life just as much as he was with his old. He really is very troubled right now.”
She’s always been a traditionalist, and a new profile in society bible Vanity Fair shows Princess Anne is sticking to her guns as she turns 70.
Now there’s a certain someone caught in her crosshairs for taking “modernising the monarchy” too far – none other than her nephew Prince Harry’s wife Meghan.
“I’m... at that stage, ‘Please do not reinvent the wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work,’” she said pointedly. “I’m the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, ‘Don’t forget the basics.’”
Royal sources tell Woman’s Day her comments are obviously pointed towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who tried to do it their way and infamously ended up on the highway – out of the monarchy and into Hollywood.
“Harry and Meghan’s behaviour – mainly that they wanted to be celebrities and didn’t seem bothered by the fact they were deliberately eclipsing those higher in the hierarchy – rubbed Anne the wrong way,” explains our source.
“Anne was the one who was happy to let them go when they wanted to quit. She was sick of seeing Meghan swanning around like she owned the place, picking and choosing only the most glamorous public appearances while Anne cut every ribbon at every public hospital in the Midlands in the name of the Queen,” adds the source.
“As far as Anne’s concerned, it’s good riddance and I believe she has said as much when the royal family had crisis talks over Megxit – I bet Meghan was shocked.”