WEDDING COUNTDOWN
Inside Prince Harry and Meghan’s big day
With his wedding to Meghan Markle just days away, the spotlight on Prince Harry is brighter than ever before.
Every aspect of the groom’s life is being analysed, including how he has matured from a playboy prince, known for his wild ways, into a responsible husband-to-be.
Many people who know him well have come forward to talk about the kind of man he really is, including those who have never before spoken publicly about the popular royal.
Sir William Heseltine, a former private secretary to the Queen, is one of those struck by Harry’s transformation, which he puts down to his service in the army.
“Before he began his time in the services, he earned something of a playboy reputation,” says William (87), who is now retired. “So it has been good to see how he has settled down and won for himself a rather better name.”
Other revelations have been made by the likes of General
Sir Richard Dannatt, now Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army. Richard recalls a conversation 10 years ago with Harry in which the prince talked about the pressures of being royal. “The trouble is, I’m not like any other young man,” Harry (33) told Richard. “It’s difficult to be normal.”
“One’s heart really went out to him,” says Richard. “I felt really sympathetic because if you are a young prince, you are not like everybody else. However much you want to be yourself, people don’t allow you to be.”
Richard (67) says Harry’s well documented wild times – such as stripping naked at a raucous party in Las Vegas – were typical of phases many young men go through. Like Sir William Heseltine, though, he believes the military was the making of Harry and “all those incidents of him falling out of nightclubs had pretty much dried up after he joined the army”.
Harry must maintain a degree of formality while carrying out official duties, but he often gives glimpses of his warmth, charm and sense of humour, which have endeared him to people all over the world. Those close to Harry away from the spotlight attest that these are traits he possesses in spades.
South African serviceman Jaco van Gass got to know Harry when he was among a group of disabled veterans who joined the prince on a trek to the North Pole. Jaco recalls how Harry told them during their first meeting, “Hey guys, I’m in the team – no formalities, no ‘Sir’, just call me Harry or Spike [the nickname given to him by his civilian friends] or make up a name for me. We stuck to either H or Spike.”
One night, Harry announced that he was supplying dessert.
“We didn’t know what he was on about, but it turned out he’d brought an ice-cream cake for us,” says Jaco (31). “All the time, he’d been carrying it in his backpack, knowing it would be so cold, it wouldn’t melt.”
Lord Dannatt was disappointed when Harry left the army, but is pleased that its influence has continued and resulted in the prince undertaking initiatives like founding the Invictus Games for wounded veterans. “I think the military has done a lot to help him grow up and that’s made him a more mature person, which actually I think will make him a much rounder partner in the marriage that he’s about to undertake.”