Happy 35th Birthday, Harry – you’ve moved a demographic box!
The worst thing about turning 35 is getting bolted on to a new age bracket. Suddenly, whenever there is a form to fill, you find yourself scrolling wistfully past 18-35 and instead ticking 35-44. It’s like gaining another decade all at once. Still, presumably the Duke of Sussex – who turns 35 today – has other people to perform such onerous tasks. And aside from finding oneself hitched to the caravan of a demographic you really rather would steer clear from, otherwise it is proving a splendid age. We millennials (yes, 35 still constitutes a millennial, thank you very much) age slowly. Just last week a report claimed young people are not fully becoming “grown up” until the age of 26. But by the time you hit 35 you are, unarguably, now a proper adult. Unlike Harry I am, as yet, unencumbered by child but still there are other joyous things to tether me down. Getting married chief among them (Monday is three years to the day) and owning a proper house, albeit not quite on the scale of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor where the Duke and Duchess moved earlier this year. Domesticity aside, at 35 one can still run on the fumes of the folly of youth. You can just about stay up drinking, although the hangovers are now vicious. Not everyone our age has found their purpose yet. But if you have, as it happily seems is the case with Prince Harry, then 35 is also when you begin to hit your stride and make sense of yourself. I spent my 35th birthday in July in a helicopter thundering over the Amazon reporting on the scale of deforestation there. Next week, Harry Harr is on a royal tour to southern Africa A with his family to raise awareness of the causes that matter ma the most to him: among amon them honouring the work on landmine eradication started by his mother. mother Oh, there is one more thing about hitting hittin 35 to mention. men Time to start bidding farewell fare to those famous fam ginger locks, lock Harry, at least leas you held on longer lon than me. me