Prince Harry is feeling “rudderless” as he struggles to adapt to life under lockdown in a new country where he has few friends, it has been claimed today.
With just over a month having passed since Harry and Meghan fled the wilds of rural Canada for Los Angeles, where they are believed to be locked down in a luxury villa owned by their friend Tyler Perry, Harry in particular is struggling, a source has told Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl.
After recent reports that he was missing his army friends and felt homesick in L.A., a source told Vanity Fair, “He has a lot of friends in the military community in the UK and of course he misses them. This is a very strange time for us all, but I think Harry is missing having a structure to his life right now. He doesn’t have friends in L.A. like Meghan and he doesn’t have a job. So at the moment he’s a bit rudderless, but it won’t always be like this, and he knows that.”
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The comments broadly echo comments made by a source to The Daily Beast who admitted that Harry’s life, like many other people’s, had been “shaken up” by the lockdown.
As a part of his exit deal from the British monarchy, Harry agreed to drop his HRH titles and give up all his military roles. The couple were also asked not to use the word “royal” in their international branding and reluctantly agreed, which meant they have been forced to mothball their Sussex Royal Instagram account.
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It was reported by the Daily Telegraph, one of the few British newspapers not to have been cut off by the Sussexes, that Harry was yearning for at least some parts of his old life, with what was described as a well-placed source saying, “Harry has told friends he is really missing the army as well his military appointments. He misses the camaraderie of being in the forces.
“He has been telling friends that he still can’t believe this has happened. He can’t believe his life has been turned upside down.
“He was in a happy place when he was serving in the army, then he met Meghan and since then life has been great. But I don’t think he foresaw things turning out quite as they did.”
The Telegraph added that Harry, 35, does not “blame Meghan,” but can’t shake a “sense that he might have been better protected if he was still in the army.”
Harry’s team would not comment on the Telegraph’s story to The Daily Beast. However, a friend told The Daily Beast that “any implications that these feelings have anything to do with the duchess are completely untrue.”
The friend told The Daily Beast that Harry’s “military titles will always be important to him, as will the friends that he made while he served,” but noted but “he left service a few years ago.”
Harry himself recently told a military podcast of the “gaping hole” that “hanging up” the military uniform leaves in former squaddies such as himself.
It is noticeable that the charities that Harry has tried to stay involved with are the military ones. As well as recording that interview, he has recorded messages for the Invictus Games and fronted the launch of a website, HeadFIT, designed primarily with the mental health needs of the defense community in mind.
Speaking on Entertainment Tonight, Katie Nicholl elaborated on her VF story, and said Prince Harry and Prince William are “back in touch” and had been chatting online.
“They have done video calls together, they have done a lot of family birthdays, and I think with Prince Charles not being well, that really forced the brothers to pick up the phone and get back in touch.
“I think Kate and William miss Harry and Meghan to a degree, but certainly they miss Harry [being] around and part of their lives.”
