Prince Harry has long been criticised for being out of touch and lacking self-awareness, particularly through making explosive claims about the Royal Family at every opportunity he gets.
He once came under fire for encouraging people to leave their jobs so they could have a ‘mental health awakening’, just as he did when he stepped down from the Royal Family to live in a £10million Montecito mansion with Meghan Markle.
His reasons for leaving the Firm left little room for public sympathy as he claimed to have been financially cut off from them, despite inheriting millions from the late Princess Diana and a family trust fund set up by the Queen Mother.
Surely, decades of media training and hiring an expensive PR team would protect Harry from these royal blunders.
But the prince made headlines once again in April 2022 for a confusing and contradictory claim he made during an interview for the postponed 2020 Invictus Games in The Hague.
The interview came just a year after Harry made his first trip back to Britain since the previous summer. Meghan and Harry stopped by Windsor Castle to visit the Queen on their way to the Netherlands.
Harry reportedly also had a ‘cordial but slightly awkward’ meeting with his father, Prince Charles, which lasted 15 minutes.
Asked by Today host Hoda Kotb how the Queen was doing after the prince’s quick stop-off in the UK, he replied: ‘Being with her, it was great.
‘It was just so nice to see her, you know, she’s on great form, she’s always got a great sense of humour with me and I’m making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.’
The line about Harry making sure the Queen was ‘protected’ struck a nerve with some royal observers.
Apparently this line didn’t go down well with Charles, who was said to be ‘at a loss’ to explain his son’s behaviour.
He was mocked by journalist Giles Coren, who wrote in The Times: ‘If he doesn’t keep his grandmother on the straight and narrow, who knows what could happen?
‘She could, say, marry someone unsuitable, or fall out with her entire family.’
While Harry did not elaborate on what he meant, his comments came just over a year after the Sussexes’ explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
At one point during that interview, Harry alleged that the Queen was badly advised by those around her.
‘When you’re head of the Firm there are people around you that give you advice.
‘And what has also made me really sad is some of that advice has been really bad,’ he said at the time.
After Harry’s interview, a broadcaster called out to William and Kate as they left a building, asking: ‘Sir, does the Queen need protecting?’
William and Kate did not respond.
Royal author Tom Quinn wrote in his book, Gilded Youth: ‘Harry’s lack of self-awareness is matched only by that of his wife; in the now notorious Oprah interview, he lamented the lack of financial support from his father, despite the fact he must have known it was common knowledge that he inherited a fortune from his mother.
‘Other gaffes based on a kind of breathtaking naivety include the couple’s complete failure to realise that you cannot make speeches about the world needing to do something about global warming and then flying by private jet, as Meghan did when she flew from Toronto to Jamaica for the wedding of one of Harry’s Old Etonian chums.’
Between Megxit, Spare, his explosive Oprah interview and lost security appeal, it seems Harry has not only lost the favour of his family, but also the public.
Since stepping down as senior royals, the opinion polls have shown a steep decline in Harry and Meghan’s popularity with members of the public.
A YouGov poll in May 2025 showed only 27 per cent of the public held a positive view of Harry, with just 20 per cent of people having a positive view of Meghan.
This is in comparison to November 2017 when 81 per cent of Britons told the polls they had a positive view of Harry and almost half liked Meghan.
In recent months, Harry has made headlines after the Mail revealed his unsuccessful security appeal over his level of protection when visiting the UK cost British taxpayers £100,000.
Harry’s relationship with the Crown is aptly summarised by royal biographer Ingrid Seward, who has spent the last 40 years following the Firm.
She wrote in her book My Mother And I: ‘He chooses to be the victim and wreak vengeance on the slights he thought he had suffered; on his family, on the press and through the courts.’
Within hours of the Appeal Court judgment, Harry declared in his bombshell interview: ‘This is a good old-fashioned Establishment stitch-up – and that is what it feels like’.
Hopes of a reconciliation between the family are slim with Harry claiming that his father, King Charles, will not speak with him.
In the meantime, some observers fear that Harry’s court battle will spearhead the publication of a sequel to his explosive memoir, Spare, and most suggest this would open fresh tensions between the feuding prince and his family.
Megxit timeline of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Meghan and Prince Harry reveal intentions to ‘step back’ from working royal roles – January 8, 2020
Sandringham Summit – January 13, 2020
Harry and Meghan move to California – March 2020
Sussexes attend Commonwealth Day service – March 9, 2020
Oprah interview – March 8, 2021
Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral – 17 April, 2021
Unveiling of statue of Princess Diana – July 1, 2021
Queen’s Platinum Jubilee service at St Paul’s Cathedral – June 3, 2022
Walkabout following death of Queen – September 10, 2022
Queen’s funeral – September 19, 2022
Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries – 8 December, 2022
Publication of Spare – January 10, 2023
Harry attends Charles’s coronation without Meghan – May 6, 2023
