Prince Harry is ‘desperate clinging to major aspect of royal life like comfort blanket’ – expert

Prince Harry is almost ‘clinging’ to one aspect of royal life like a comfort blanket despite ‘railing’ against the Firm, an expert has claimed.

Both Harry and wife Meghan Markle dramatically quit their royal roles more than four years ago to start a new life in California. Since then, the pair have laid heavy criticism against the Firm in both a Netflix series and in Harry’s memoir, Spare.

In recent weeks, the Sussexes have completed a four-day ‘royal-style’ trip to Colombia, which was dubbed a DIY royal tour after it had all the hallmarks of an official royal visit. It saw them visiting schools, enjoying musical performances, speaking at forums, meeting Invictus Games competitors and even learning how to play the drums.

And now royal correspondent Rebecca English has questioned what Harry and Meghan wanted to achieve on the trip, which appeared to be carried out in a way the Duke of Sussex has “ever known”. She told the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential show: “I was speaking to somebody very senior in royal circles in recent days and they said to me, genuine question, what did they hope to achieve by this? They weren’t saying this with any sarcasm, people are trying to work that out. And I said personally, I think it is about relevancy, it’s about desperately trying to establish the fact that they are still relevant people on the world stage.

“As much as Harry has railed against the whole way in which the institution works, doing these kind of royal-style tours, it is pretty much the only thing he has ever known. He’s almost clinging on to it like a comfort blanket. I think what they forget is when members of the Royal Family are sent to these countries, it is at the request of the government with a really clear purpose. Their diaries are very strictly controlled to actually achieve that purpose, which is to benefit Britain plc politically economically and culturally.

“And I think this was the problem with this trip, what was the objective apart from just getting lots of nice pictures of Harry and Meghan smiling with people looking admiringly at them?”

When the tour to Colombia was announced several weeks ago, many questioned why the couple would visit the country, which has travel advisory warnings from the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office about safety there. It comes after Harry said it was ‘dangerous’ for Meghan to return to the UK and is currently embroiled in a legal challenge to have police protection restored for him and his family while in his homeland.

However, the office of the country’s vice president Francia Marquez, who invited the Sussexes to her country claimed that Harry and Meghan’s trip to Colombia was designed to encourage tourism and investment. In a statement, her office said: “The visit of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, helped to further demonstrate that Colombia is a country where global causes converge, a country capable of hosting diverse interests, as well as an attractive destination for investment, tourism and business.

“This is reflected in the growing number of international visitors we are receiving, almost six million in 2023. A progressive trend that has positive impacts on the international image of our country.