Meghan, I’m a bit engaged right now!
ACCORDING to Royal protocol, you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure.
So Prince Harry may have questions to answer after an extraordinary dash from his girlfriend’s home in Canada to a royal engagement in London yesterday morning.
Arriving at a colourful charity trading event, the smiling prince joked: ‘I’m not entirely sure what country I’m in.’
After an official tour of the Caribbean and a whirlwind visit to see his girlfriend, Meghan Markle, Harry, 32, flew in from Toronto overnight on a British Airways flight that landed in London at 6.25am.
There was just enough time for the royal to shower and change at his Kensington Palace home before heading out again to the City, where he was due to attend the annual ICAP Charity Day at 10am.
Harry made a dramatic detour to see Miss Markle, a 35-year-old star of hit US TV show Suits, on the way back from a visit to the Caribbean on behalf of the Queen.
According to Palace protocol, members of the Royal Family are ‘actively discouraged’ from combining official and personal trips.
The prince, tanned after two and a half weeks in the sun, met brokers and ‘closed’
‘Not entirely sure what country I’m in’
deals worth £50million and upwards, standing among groups of staff dressed as everything from Star Wars characters to cowboys and hippies.
Each year the firm, which matches buyers and sellers who want to trade products ranging from interest rates to commodities, donates a day’s profits to charity.
This year Harry’s charity Sentebale, which works with African Aids orphans, was one of the recipients set to benefit from millions of pounds worth of donated revenue.
The royal was full of jokes as he made his way to eight trading desks closing deals.
Trying to secure as much money for charity as possible, he told one caller: ‘We’d like a bit more than that please.’
At one point Harry met a project manager, Parry Vaughan, 55, who was dressed as a female pirate. Harry asked him, in a moment reminiscent of his blunt grandfather: ‘Is that your real accent?’ to which Mr Vaughan replied that he was Welsh.
The prince went on: ‘What are you?’ The manager said: ‘I’m a bit of a sexy pirate.’ Harry then quipped: ‘No need to show me leg.’
Cathy Ferrier, chief executive of Sentebale, which Harry set up ten years ago in memory of his mother Princess Diana, joined him on the floor. She said: ‘We did a number of trades on a number of floors.
‘I have no idea what we actually bought but apparently we made a profit, so we’re good. When we ask Harry to do things like this we’re very fortunate that he’s prepared to get it into his schedule, even though his schedule is fairly crazy at the moment.’
Harry has no engagements in his diary now until December 19 and it is anticipated that he will enjoy a holiday with divorcee Miss Markle, who was seen earlier this week wearing a necklace with the letter ‘H’. The pair have been dating for five months.