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Prince Harry will relaunch his career as a global humanitarian with a keynote address to the United Nations in New York next week to mark Nelson Mandela day.
The livestream of the event Monday is likely to attract huge attention, and Harry’s presence will inject a dose of glamor into usually dry U.N. proceedings.
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Appearing with his wife Meghan alongside him, the event will mark a carefully curated return to public life for the couple as they flirt with increasingly political causes.
It will turn a page on the humiliations they suffered during their visit to England for the Platinum Jubilee, where snubs by the royals, which included being seated behind the Duke of Gloucester in a church service and being banned from appearing with the queen, apparently prompted them to fly home hours before the end of the festivities in a private jet.
Harry’s address to the U.N. will recall memories of a bizarre engagement the couple undertook in September 2021. On that occasion the couple, in one of their first post-royal engagements, made a well-publicized appearance in front of the cameras at the rooftop viewing lobby of the U.N. during the organization’s General Assembly, but said nothing to gathered reporters and didn’t make a speech.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the U.N, Amina J Mohammed, later tweeted that she had a “conversation” with the couple about various issues, however many observers were left wondering what the purpose of their appearance was.
It was one of the first incidences when the couple were seen to be being tailed by a Netflix film crew, now a common sight when they make public appearances. The couple are understood to be filming a reality show/documentary with the streaming giant.
Harry’s involvement in next week’s Nelson Mandela Day event was first reported by South African journalist Sherwin Bryce-Pease.
Although it is not clear on what specific topics Harry will speak, a speech on Mandela Day would neatly align with the couple’s positioning as global humanitarians.
On their website, Archewell, the couple describe their modus operandi by saying, “We unleash the power of compassion to drive systemic cultural change. We do this through our non-profit work within Archewell Foundation 501(c)(3), in addition to creative activations through the business verticals of audio and production.”
Harry may well ruminate on his mother’s meeting with Mandela in South Africa in March 1997 during the speech.
Harry and Meghan met Mandela’s widow Graça Machel in 2019 during their tour of Southern Africa. She told Harry and Meghan: “It’s wonderful meeting you. I’m sure we’re going to be working together in the future. I can feel the vibe.”
Harry has been deeply involved with African causes and charities throughout his life, most notably establishing the HIV charity Sentebale in the small land-locked nation of Lesotho.
In 2019, when still a working royal, he teased the possibility that he might live there during a documentary. When asked if the family were considering it, Prince Harry said, “I don’t know where we could live in Africa at the moment. We’ve just come from Cape Town, that would be an amazing place for us to be able to base ourselves—of course it would.”
Harry added: “The rest of our lives, our life’s work will be predominantly focused on Africa, on conservation.”
Increasingly, however, Harry seems focused on the issue of mental health. On Tuesday, a clip of an interview of Harry interviewing Olympian Chloe Kim aired on NBC’s Today. It shows Harry asking: “How would you describe the relationship between the mind and the body when it comes to operating at peak performance?”
