WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.080 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It is Saturday, 00:00:02.299 --> 00:00:05.299 January 24th, 2026. And, you know, I was looking 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:07.620 at the calendar this morning and it really it 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:10.660 just struck me how fast the last, say, decade 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:13.320 has flown by. It's unbelievable. It really is. 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:16.440 But if there's been one constant, one headline 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.760 that has just been glued to the front of every 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:22.000 paper, the top of every feed and like right at 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.980 the center of the cultural conversation for that 00:00:23.980 --> 00:00:26.539 entire time, it's the subject of today's deep 00:00:26.539 --> 00:00:28.839 dive. It would be genuinely difficult to find 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:30.780 a single person in the English speaking world 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:33.100 who doesn't have an opinion on it. Oh, impossible, 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:35.780 I'd argue. We are talking, of course, about Prince 00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:38.200 Harry, the Duke of Sussex. And the reason we're 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.159 doing this today. specifically today, here in 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:46.140 early 2026, is because the sheer volume of news 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:48.479 around him, it hasn't slowed down at all. If 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:50.500 anything, it's just become this deafening roar. 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:52.659 Really has. You just look at the last few months 00:00:52.659 --> 00:00:55.159 alone. You've got major legal rulings. You've 00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:57.240 got these charity shakeups, political comments. 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.439 It's a lot. It is a lot. And I think the reason 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.640 it feels so intense right now is that we're seeing 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:06.599 a kind of culmination of choices that were made 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:10.790 five, maybe six years ago. The dust isn't settling. 00:01:10.849 --> 00:01:13.189 It's actually being kicked up into a storm. Exactly. 00:01:13.250 --> 00:01:15.409 And that is the hook for me. That's what I find 00:01:15.409 --> 00:01:17.269 so fascinating. When I was reading through this 00:01:17.269 --> 00:01:21.030 mountain of sources you sent over, which is massive, 00:01:21.109 --> 00:01:23.030 by the way. It's quite a stack. It is. I just 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.329 kept coming back to the contradictions. The guy 00:01:25.329 --> 00:01:28.629 is a figure of such massive contradictions. What 00:01:28.629 --> 00:01:30.069 do you mean? Well, just think about it for a 00:01:30.069 --> 00:01:32.829 second. He's a prince of the blood, right? Born 00:01:32.829 --> 00:01:35.010 into the ultimate goldfish bowl of the British 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:39.079 monarchy. He leaves that entire institution explicitly 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:41.920 to find a privacy and to protect his family. 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.159 It's a stated goal. It's a stated goal. And then 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:47.299 he releases Spare, which becomes the fastest 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:50.319 selling nonfiction book of all time. And it details 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:53.280 the most intimate, sometimes excruciatingly private 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.099 moments of his life and his family's lives. It's 00:01:56.099 --> 00:01:58.680 a fundamental conflict, isn't it? Leave me alone, 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.219 but first buy my book. Exactly. And then you 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:03.200 have the other side of it. He's a decorated soldier. 00:02:03.700 --> 00:02:06.500 Captain Wales, a guy who flew Apache helicopters 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:09.960 in a war zone. But now he's viewed by, well, 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:12.460 half the world as this controversial media figure 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.560 living in California, you know, cutting deals 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:17.379 with Netflix. It's just it's a fascinating disconnect. 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:19.639 It really is. It has the arc of a tragic hero 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.460 in some classical sense. Or, you know, perhaps 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:25.000 it's just the very messy, very public reality 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.719 of a modern celebrity life. You've got the wild 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:30.599 child of the early 2000s, the war hero of the 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:34.280 2010s. And now. What some of the critics are 00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:37.080 calling the Duke of Montecito. OK, so here is 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:38.759 our mission for today. We have a lot to get through. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.919 We have a comprehensive biography that literally 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:44.379 takes us from his birth in 1984 all the way to 00:02:44.379 --> 00:02:47.219 like last week. Yeah, we have court judgments 00:02:47.219 --> 00:02:50.039 from late 2025 Charity Commission reports. It's 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:51.599 all in there. So we're going to try to move past 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:53.479 the tabloid froth. I really don't care about 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:56.120 who wore what to which gala. Agreed. Let's leave 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.280 the fashion critiques to the fashion blog. We 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:01.449 want to understand the arc of this life. How 00:03:01.449 --> 00:03:04.469 did Captain Wales, the war hero, become the Harry 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:07.689 we see today? We need to analyze those key turning 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.430 points, the military, the marriage, the exit, 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:13.449 and of course, the fallout. And to understand 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:16.009 the present, especially this really complicated, 00:03:16.349 --> 00:03:20.409 really litigious present of 2026, you absolutely 00:03:20.409 --> 00:03:22.550 have to go back to the foundation. You have to 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:24.250 understand the architecture of his childhood. 00:03:24.469 --> 00:03:26.250 Okay, let's do it. Let's unpack this. Segment 00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:29.460 one, the making of the spare. And that word, 00:03:29.539 --> 00:03:31.340 I mean, it's not just a book title, is it? It 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:33.740 was his reality from the second he took his first 00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:36.479 breath. It really was. Born September 15th, 1984. 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:40.020 Henry Charles Albert David. He was the second 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:42.639 son of the then Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.520 of Wales. And in the, let's call it the brutal, 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:49.020 cold calculus of a hereditary monarchy, you have 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:51.400 the heir. That's William. And you have the spare. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:53.500 It sounds so medieval when you put it like that. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:55.000 It is medieval. I mean, that's the whole point. 00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:57.680 The system requires an heir to continue the bloodline, 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:00.500 and it requires a spare just in case, you know, 00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:02.360 something tragic were to happen to the heir. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:06.139 A backup. A constitutional backup. But once the 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:08.719 heir grows up and has children of his own, which 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.719 William did, of course, the spare becomes, in 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:14.840 a way, mathematically redundant. And Harry was 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.420 aware of this from a young age. Oh, painfully 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:20.410 so. He's spoken about it at length. But what 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:22.149 I found really interesting in the research is 00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:24.569 that this wasn't just, you know, an emotional 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:27.230 feeling. It was financially codified. It was 00:04:27.230 --> 00:04:29.329 written into the family's finances. This blew 00:04:29.329 --> 00:04:32.310 my mind. The Queen Mother's trust funds. Right. 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:34.810 So their great grandmother, the queen mother, 00:04:34.990 --> 00:04:37.629 she established these trust funds for both boys. 00:04:37.949 --> 00:04:40.329 And when you look at the details, Harry actually 00:04:40.329 --> 00:04:43.089 received a significantly larger share of that 00:04:43.089 --> 00:04:45.750 specific pot of money than William did. Which 00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:48.129 seems so counterintuitive, doesn't it? I mean, 00:04:48.149 --> 00:04:50.250 usually the older brother gets everything. In 00:04:50.250 --> 00:04:52.610 the aristocracy, yes. But the logic here was 00:04:52.610 --> 00:04:54.589 actually quite clear. William was going to be 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:57.220 king. William would inherit the Duchy of Cornwall, 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.519 which is a billion pound estate that generates 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.339 tens of millions in profit every single year. 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:04.579 So William was set. William gets the throne. 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:07.399 William gets the palaces. William gets the history 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:11.079 books. So the extra cash for Harry was what? 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:13.480 A consolation prize. Sorry, you're not going 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:15.779 to be king. Here's some money. Essentially, yes. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:18.019 It was the family's way of trying to balance 00:05:18.019 --> 00:05:21.519 the scales. It was a recognition that you don't 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.000 get the destiny. So here's a little extra financial 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.540 cushion. It highlights that from day one, everyone 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:29.500 knew Harry's path would be different. He would 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:31.439 need to fend for himself in a way that William 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:34.529 never, ever would. But, you know, no amount of 00:05:34.529 --> 00:05:37.250 trust fund money can insulate a child from real 00:05:37.250 --> 00:05:39.430 trauma. And we absolutely cannot talk about Harry 00:05:39.430 --> 00:05:42.149 without talking about 1997. Diana. He was 12 00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:44.689 years old. He was at Balmoral Castle in Scotland 00:05:44.689 --> 00:05:47.189 when it happened. And his father, Charles, has 00:05:47.189 --> 00:05:49.629 to come into his room and tell him that his mother 00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:51.889 has died in a car crash in Paris. The impact 00:05:51.889 --> 00:05:54.029 of that. I mean, losing a parent is devastating 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:56.850 for any child. But the way it happened and the 00:05:56.850 --> 00:05:59.680 immediate aftermath. It's almost inconceivable. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.139 The public nature of it is what separates it 00:06:02.139 --> 00:06:04.639 from, you know, what we might call normal grief. 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:07.699 And the specific image that I think is burned 00:06:07.699 --> 00:06:09.680 into the collective consciousness of the entire 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:13.800 world is the funeral. The walk behind the cortege. 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.699 I mean, you have a 12 -year -old boy, Harry, 00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:19.339 walking through the streets of London behind 00:06:19.339 --> 00:06:21.579 a gun carriage that is bearing his mother's body. 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.139 And he's flanked by his grandfather, Prince Philip, 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:27.279 his father, Charles, his 15 -year -old brother, 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:30.279 William. And his uncle, Charles Spencer. And 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:32.180 there are millions of people lining the streets, 00:06:32.220 --> 00:06:35.379 just wailing, throwing flowers, and then billions 00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:37.220 more watching on television around the globe. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:40.120 Can you even imagine? No. He has spoken about 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:42.459 this in recent years, specifically describing 00:06:42.459 --> 00:06:44.980 just the sound of the horses' hooves on the pavement 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:48.019 and the constant wailing of the crowd. He called 00:06:48.019 --> 00:06:50.699 it a genetic pain and suffering. And he mentioned 00:06:50.699 --> 00:06:52.660 that for a long, long time, he just blocked it 00:06:52.660 --> 00:06:55.360 out completely. He said he just... didn't think 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:57.420 about her. That's a classic trauma response, 00:06:57.660 --> 00:07:00.439 isn't it? Dissociation. He said he couldn't cry. 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:03.319 He cried once at the burial and then not again 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:06.120 for years and years. But when you bottle that 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.720 kind of thing up, it comes out sideways. And 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:11.160 that brings us directly to the wild child phase. 00:07:11.540 --> 00:07:13.439 Because if you were reading the papers in the 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.560 early 2000s, Harry was a chaotic figure. He was 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:19.420 acting out. He was angry. And he was doing it 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:22.220 all under this incredibly intense microscope. 00:07:22.810 --> 00:07:25.529 So for his education, he went to Eton College. 00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:29.310 Now that was unusual, wasn't it? The Windsor 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:31.509 men, like Philip and Charles, they all went to 00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:34.529 Gordonstown in Scotland. Which is famously tough. 00:07:34.949 --> 00:07:37.870 Known for cold showers, brutal morning runs, 00:07:38.009 --> 00:07:40.310 all about character building. I think Charles 00:07:40.310 --> 00:07:43.050 called it coldets and kilts. Right. But Harry 00:07:43.050 --> 00:07:45.310 went to Eton, which is, you know, just down the 00:07:45.310 --> 00:07:46.870 road from Windsor Castle. That was the Spencer 00:07:46.870 --> 00:07:48.910 tradition, right? Diana's family went there. 00:07:49.029 --> 00:07:52.050 Correct. But Harry... Well, let's just say he 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:54.269 wasn't exactly setting the world on fire as an 00:07:54.269 --> 00:07:56.490 academic scholar. I saw his A -level results 00:07:56.490 --> 00:07:59.389 in the notes. He got a B in art and a D in geography. 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:02.050 And even that B in art was surrounded by controversy. 00:08:02.370 --> 00:08:04.730 Ah, the cheating allegations. This was a huge 00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:07.420 story at the time. An art teacher at Eaton, a 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:09.920 woman named Sarah Forsyth, she alleged that she 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:12.360 was essentially bullied by the school administration 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.279 into helping Harry cheat on his A -level art 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:17.519 project. She said he couldn't have done it himself. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.079 She claimed he was a weak student and that she 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:21.779 basically did a lot of the work. Did anything 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.420 ever come of that legally? Well, there was an 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:27.319 employment tribunal. It ultimately cleared Harry 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:30.480 of the cheating allegation itself, meaning he 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:33.990 didn't knowingly cheat. but the tribunal did 00:08:33.990 --> 00:08:36.429 accept that he had received help in preparing 00:08:36.429 --> 00:08:39.850 the project. So it was this very murky gray area. 00:08:40.070 --> 00:08:41.809 But the narrative it solidified was that Harry 00:08:41.809 --> 00:08:44.350 wasn't the smart one. Exactly. You have William 00:08:44.350 --> 00:08:46.769 the golden boy off to St. Andrews University, 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:49.509 and then you have Harry, the one who's just scraping 00:08:49.509 --> 00:08:51.909 by. And then came the partying, the underage 00:08:51.909 --> 00:08:54.049 drinking, the smoking. The Highgrove sessions. 00:08:54.250 --> 00:08:58.029 He was, what, 16, 17? Drinking at the local pubs, 00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:00.309 smoking cannabis at his father's country estate. 00:09:00.950 --> 00:09:02.509 Highgrove. And Charles actually got a lot of 00:09:02.509 --> 00:09:04.190 credit for how he handled that, didn't he? He 00:09:04.190 --> 00:09:06.389 did, yeah. It was seen as very modern parenting 00:09:06.389 --> 00:09:09.090 at the time. Charles sent Harry to Featherstone 00:09:09.090 --> 00:09:11.230 Lodge, which is a drug rehabilitation center, 00:09:11.370 --> 00:09:13.970 just for a day. Right, not as a patient, but 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:16.950 to talk to people. Exactly, to talk to recovering 00:09:16.950 --> 00:09:19.649 heroin and cocaine addicts. He wanted Harry to 00:09:19.649 --> 00:09:22.730 see the real ugly consequences of addiction firsthand. 00:09:23.190 --> 00:09:25.009 It seemed to work for a bit, or at least the 00:09:25.009 --> 00:09:27.309 press kind of laid off him. But then we get to 00:09:27.309 --> 00:09:31.139 2005. The costume party. Oh, the colonial and 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.539 native themed party. Which, I mean, first of 00:09:33.539 --> 00:09:35.860 all, who throws a party with that theme in 2005? 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:37.779 It was a different time, but not that different. 00:09:37.860 --> 00:09:40.679 It was already in incredibly poor taste. But 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:44.940 Harry. Harry shows up wearing a Nazi Afrika Korps 00:09:44.940 --> 00:09:47.659 uniform, complete with a swastika armband. I 00:09:47.659 --> 00:09:50.360 remember that photo so clearly. The sun put it 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.139 right on the front page. Harry the Nazi. It was 00:09:53.139 --> 00:09:55.830 a global scandal. Yeah. I mean, just think about 00:09:55.830 --> 00:09:58.470 it. You have the grandson of the queen who served 00:09:58.470 --> 00:10:01.090 in World War II wearing the uniform of the enemy. 00:10:01.210 --> 00:10:03.450 Jewish rights groups, politicians, veterans, 00:10:03.669 --> 00:10:06.370 everyone was justifiably appalled. He apologized, 00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:08.830 of course. He had to. He issued a statement saying 00:10:08.830 --> 00:10:12.129 it was a very stupid thing to do, but the damage 00:10:12.129 --> 00:10:15.129 was done. It made him look reckless, deeply insensitive, 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:18.330 and just historically illiterate. And sadly, 00:10:18.409 --> 00:10:19.889 that wasn't the only time he was caught using 00:10:19.889 --> 00:10:22.289 really offensive language or imagery. There was 00:10:22.289 --> 00:10:25.399 that video that surfaced in 2009. Right. And 00:10:25.399 --> 00:10:27.360 this was footage that he'd filmed himself back 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:30.179 in 2006 when he was a cadet at Sandhurst. He 00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:32.299 was filming his platoon mates. And he used some 00:10:32.299 --> 00:10:35.340 slurge. He did. He zoomed in on a fellow officer 00:10:35.340 --> 00:10:38.500 cadet of South Asian descent and called him our 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:41.139 little packy friend. Later in the same video, 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:43.480 he saw another soldier who was wearing a scarf 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:46.120 over his head and called him a raghead. Wow. 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:49.440 Hearing those words now is... genuinely shocking. 00:10:49.659 --> 00:10:51.820 It was shocking then, too. I mean, David Cameron, 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:53.639 who was the leader of the opposition at the time, 00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:56.299 called it completely unacceptable. The Ministry 00:10:56.299 --> 00:10:59.039 of Defense had to launch a formal inquiry. Harry 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:00.740 was forced to undergo this intense diversity 00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:03.279 training. So by the time he's in his early 20s, 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:05.659 the public perception is pretty much set, isn't 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:07.840 it? This guy is a liability. He's a party animal. 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:10.220 He's offensive. He's lost. He was spiraling. 00:11:10.220 --> 00:11:12.940 You can see it. He desperately needed structure. 00:11:13.179 --> 00:11:15.460 He needed a purpose that wasn't just being the 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:17.789 spare. And he found it. He found it in the military. 00:11:17.909 --> 00:11:20.210 This brings us to segment two, the transformation. 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:23.090 He has said himself that his 10 years in the 00:11:23.090 --> 00:11:25.830 Army were the happiest times of his life. Absolutely. 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:30.190 For 10 years, from 2005 to 2015, he wasn't His 00:11:30.190 --> 00:11:33.009 Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales. He was 00:11:33.009 --> 00:11:35.490 just Captain Wales. It all started at Sandhurst. 00:11:35.549 --> 00:11:38.149 The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. It's the 00:11:38.149 --> 00:11:40.250 elite training ground for British Army officers. 00:11:40.889 --> 00:11:43.820 And the thing about Sandhurst is, you know, The 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:45.720 drill surgeons really don't care who your grandmother 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:48.139 is. If your boots aren't polished, you get screamed 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:50.360 at just like everyone else. And I think he loved 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:53.259 that anonymity. He thrived on it. For the first 00:11:53.259 --> 00:11:55.559 time, he was in a true meritocracy. He could 00:11:55.559 --> 00:11:57.320 physically do the work. He was good with the 00:11:57.320 --> 00:11:59.340 other guys. It was the brotherhood he'd been 00:11:59.340 --> 00:12:01.039 missing his whole life. But the big question 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:04.220 hanging over everything was always, can you actually 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:07.600 send a prince to war? It was a logistical and 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:11.000 security nightmare. In 2007, there was this massive, 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:14.840 very public plan to send him to Iraq. But then 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:16.820 the insurgents publicly stated they would make 00:12:16.820 --> 00:12:19.399 him a primary target. They wanted to kidnap or 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:21.480 kill the third in line to the British throne. 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:23.320 In general, Sir Richard Dannett, who was the 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:25.259 head of the army, he eventually said no, right? 00:12:25.460 --> 00:12:28.740 He did. He made the call and said the risk to 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:30.659 the men serving with Harry was just too high. 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:33.179 Harry was a magnate for bullets and it wasn't 00:12:33.179 --> 00:12:35.679 fair to his unit. And Harry was furious at that. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:37.980 He famously said he wouldn't drag his sorry ass 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:40.120 through Sandhurst just to sit at a desk in London. 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:43.500 He threatened to quit the army entirely. So the 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.440 palace and the Ministry of Defense, they went 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.639 back to the drawing board and they hatched a 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.120 secret plan. The first Afghanistan deployment. 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:53.600 Late 2007, they sent him to Helmand Province 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.820 as a forward air controller. His job was on the 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:59.539 ground, calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions. 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:03.340 But the condition, the absolute non -negotiable 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:06.240 condition, was a total media blackout. This is 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:08.720 what fascinates me about that period. Every single 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:12.000 newspaper editor in London knew. The broadcasters 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.039 at the BBC and ITN knew. And they all agreed 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.179 to say nothing. It just shows you the relationship 00:13:17.179 --> 00:13:19.620 between the palace and the press back then. It 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:21.419 was a different world. They could still make 00:13:21.419 --> 00:13:23.200 a deal like that. They kept the secret for 10 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.279 weeks to keep him safe. Until the blackout broke. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:27.940 An Australian magazine called New Idea and then 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:29.960 a German newspaper. They published the story. 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:33.100 And once it was out, it was out everywhere. And 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:35.559 he had to be pulled out immediately. Literally 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:37.879 within hours. He was on a plane back to the UK. 00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:40.720 He was devastated. He felt like he was abandoning 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:44.559 his team, his brothers. But that taste of combat. 00:13:45.410 --> 00:13:47.669 It changed him. He knew he wanted to go back. 00:13:47.750 --> 00:13:49.289 But he couldn't go back as a ground controller. 00:13:49.490 --> 00:13:51.730 He was too easy a target. Right. So he went up. 00:13:51.750 --> 00:13:55.149 He retrained as an Apache helicopter pilot. The 00:13:55.149 --> 00:13:57.789 front seat. Right. Co -pilot. Exactly. The person 00:13:57.789 --> 00:13:59.629 who controls the weapon systems. And he went 00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:03.809 back in 2012. For a 20 -week tour. And he was 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:06.610 in the thick of it. I mean, the Apache is a fearsome 00:14:06.610 --> 00:14:09.149 attack helicopter. And this leads to another 00:14:09.149 --> 00:14:11.850 one of those slightly controversial, hairy moments. 00:14:12.009 --> 00:14:14.289 In an interview he gave during that tour, he 00:14:14.289 --> 00:14:16.840 compared... firing the weapons to playing video 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:19.840 games. I'm essentially a joypad user, I think 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.899 was the exact quote. It was. And for some, that 00:14:22.899 --> 00:14:25.500 played right into the out -of -touch prince who 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:27.279 doesn't understand the gravity of war narrative. 00:14:27.639 --> 00:14:30.320 But for others, it was just, you know, a soldier 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.340 being brutally honest about the sanitized nature 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:35.899 of modern technology and warfare. But the real 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.799 controversy about his service didn't come until 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:42.240 much, much later. It came in the book, Spare. 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:45.929 The Kill Count. He wrote, plain as day, that 00:14:45.929 --> 00:14:49.470 he had killed 25 Taliban fighters. And he described 00:14:49.470 --> 00:14:53.389 them not as people, but as chess pieces that 00:14:53.389 --> 00:14:55.169 had been removed from the board. He said you 00:14:55.169 --> 00:14:56.649 can't think of them as people if you want to 00:14:56.649 --> 00:14:58.669 pull the trigger and stay sane. The reaction 00:14:58.669 --> 00:15:01.210 to that specific passage was just visceral. It 00:15:01.210 --> 00:15:04.169 was. Senior military figures, retired colonels, 00:15:04.210 --> 00:15:06.289 commanders, guys who had been in charge came 00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:08.809 out and said, we just don't do that. You don't 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:10.850 brag about a kill count. You don't treat it like 00:15:10.850 --> 00:15:13.269 a scorecard. It violates the unwritten professional 00:15:13.269 --> 00:15:15.870 code of a soldier. And worse, it was a massive 00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:19.250 security risk, wasn't it? A huge one. The Taliban 00:15:19.250 --> 00:15:21.529 actually issued a statement condemning him by 00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:24.460 name. It basically put a fresh target on his 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:27.220 back and on the backs of British soldiers years 00:15:27.220 --> 00:15:29.320 after he had left the service. And that soldier 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:31.940 identity, it's still so core to who he is. We 00:15:31.940 --> 00:15:35.399 saw it flare up just this month in January 2026. 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:38.120 The comments about NATO. Right. So Donald Trump 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:40.559 made some comments questioning the value of NATO 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:43.019 allies, which is pretty standard rhetoric for 00:15:43.019 --> 00:15:45.960 him by now. But Harry responded. Which is very, 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:48.570 very rare. Royals, even former senior royals, 00:15:48.590 --> 00:15:51.230 they usually stay completely out of geopolitics. 00:15:51.429 --> 00:15:54.350 But Harry released a statement, a personal statement, 00:15:54.549 --> 00:15:57.250 saying that the sacrifices of NATO troops must 00:15:57.250 --> 00:15:59.570 be spoken about truthfully and with respect. 00:15:59.830 --> 00:16:01.889 It was a direct rebuttal, no question. It absolutely 00:16:01.889 --> 00:16:04.190 was. And it shows that he still considers himself 00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:06.690 part of that military brotherhood. He feels a 00:16:06.690 --> 00:16:09.230 profound duty to defend the soldier, even if 00:16:09.230 --> 00:16:10.970 he can no longer officially wear the uniform. 00:16:11.389 --> 00:16:13.529 And the ultimate expression of that duty, of 00:16:13.529 --> 00:16:15.990 course, is the Invictus Games. Without a doubt. 00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:19.509 Launched in 2014, he was inspired by the Warrior 00:16:19.509 --> 00:16:21.970 Games in the U .S., and he brought the concept 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:24.990 to the U .K. and then made it global. It's an 00:16:24.990 --> 00:16:27.450 international sporting event for wounded, injured, 00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:30.350 and sick servicemen and women, both serving and 00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:32.570 veterans. It was a masterstroke, wasn't it? It 00:16:32.570 --> 00:16:35.350 was his redemption. In one move, it completely 00:16:35.350 --> 00:16:38.509 changed the narrative from party prince to humanitarian 00:16:38.509 --> 00:16:41.500 leader. It gave him a legacy that was entirely 00:16:41.500 --> 00:16:44.159 his own, separate from the monarchy. And it was 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:46.320 during this high point, this period where he 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.399 was arguably the most popular royal in the entire 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:50.799 country, that his personal life took the turn 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:53.480 that would change history. Segment three, love, 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.919 marriage, and Megxit. Before we get to Meghan, 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:58.860 we should probably briefly mention the serious 00:16:58.860 --> 00:17:01.500 relationships before her. Chelsea Davy and Cressida 00:17:01.500 --> 00:17:03.240 Bonas. Right, they were long -term girlfriends. 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.359 Years. Chelsea Davy for about six years, Cressida 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.599 for about two. But both relationships ultimately 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.099 ended for pretty much the same reason. The goldfish 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:16.480 bowl. The goldfish bowl. The story goes that 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:18.259 Chelsea Davey attended the wedding of William 00:17:18.259 --> 00:17:21.920 and Kate in 2011, saw the absolute insanity of 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:24.160 the press coverage and the lack of freedom, and 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:26.559 basically said, this is not the life for me. 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:29.460 She wanted a career. She wanted privacy. So Harry 00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:31.640 was looking for someone who could handle it, 00:17:31.700 --> 00:17:34.240 or maybe someone who didn't fully know what they 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.440 were getting into. Enter Meghan Markle, summer 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.450 of 2016. They met on a blind date in London? 00:17:40.269 --> 00:17:42.150 Or was it through Instagram? The story seems 00:17:42.150 --> 00:17:44.109 to change. It's a bit of both, from their telling. 00:17:44.289 --> 00:17:46.250 A mutual friend set them up, but they had sort 00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:48.670 of seen each other via social media. Meghan was, 00:17:48.769 --> 00:17:50.430 of course, an American actress starring in the 00:17:50.430 --> 00:17:53.470 TV show Suits. She was divorced. She was mixed 00:17:53.470 --> 00:17:55.710 race. She was an outspoken feminist. She was, 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:57.670 in many ways, everything the British monarchy 00:17:57.670 --> 00:18:00.089 usually wasn't. And initially, that was seen 00:18:00.089 --> 00:18:02.750 as really exciting. A breath of fresh air. But 00:18:02.750 --> 00:18:04.549 the press coverage turned toxic almost immediately. 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.109 And this is a pivotal moment in the entire Harry 00:18:07.109 --> 00:18:10.230 timeline, November 2016. The statement. Yes. 00:18:10.609 --> 00:18:13.130 Usually, the palace just ignores gossip. Their 00:18:13.130 --> 00:18:15.549 mantra for a century has been, never complain, 00:18:15.730 --> 00:18:18.410 never explain. But Harry instructed his communications 00:18:18.410 --> 00:18:21.250 secretary to release this blistering statement. 00:18:21.490 --> 00:18:23.829 He attacked the racial undertones of the comment 00:18:23.829 --> 00:18:27.029 pieces. He attacked the outright sexism and racism 00:18:27.029 --> 00:18:30.130 of social media trolls. He attacked the photographers 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:33.130 who were literally besieging her mother's house. 00:18:33.369 --> 00:18:35.789 It was a declaration of war on the press. He 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:38.470 was drawing a very clear line in the sand. He 00:18:38.470 --> 00:18:41.089 was saying, I failed to protect my mother from 00:18:41.089 --> 00:18:43.430 this. I will not fail to protect this woman. 00:18:43.569 --> 00:18:47.579 Exactly. That core trauma from 1997 was driving 00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:50.200 the bus. No question about it. They get married 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.160 in May 2018. It was a spectacular, beautiful 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:56.019 event at Windsor. They become the Duke and Duchess 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:58.380 of Sussex. And for a moment, it really felt like 00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:00.799 a genuine modernization of the monarchy. It did. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:03.859 But we now know that behind the scenes, the structure 00:19:03.859 --> 00:19:06.170 was already rotting. They were living at Kensington 00:19:06.170 --> 00:19:08.210 Palace. Then they moved to Frogmore Cottage. 00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:11.089 There were endless reports of rifts with William 00:19:11.089 --> 00:19:13.349 and Kate, the so -called dueling households. 00:19:13.750 --> 00:19:16.089 Stories about Meghan making Kate cry or Kate 00:19:16.089 --> 00:19:19.049 making Meghan cry. It was nonstop. And the staff 00:19:19.049 --> 00:19:21.990 turnover, the bullying allegations. That was 00:19:21.990 --> 00:19:25.509 huge. Senior staff were quitting in droves. There 00:19:25.509 --> 00:19:28.529 was talk of a Sussex Survivors Club. The atmosphere, 00:19:28.569 --> 00:19:31.670 by all accounts, was poisonous. And then the 00:19:31.670 --> 00:19:35.380 break. January 8th, 2020. The Instagram post 00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:38.359 that shocked the world. They announced, without 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:40.319 consulting the queen, that they were stepping 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:42.940 back as senior members of the royal family. They 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:45.000 wanted a kind of hybrid model, right? A half 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:46.819 -in, half -out role. That's what they proposed. 00:19:47.079 --> 00:19:49.299 They wanted to be financially independent, but 00:19:49.299 --> 00:19:51.759 still support the queen by carrying out some 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.960 royal duties. They wanted to keep their titles 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.839 and their security, but also be free to earn 00:19:56.839 --> 00:19:59.140 money commercially. And the institution, the 00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:01.980 firm, said absolutely not. The Sandringham Summit. 00:20:02.490 --> 00:20:04.869 The Queen, Charles and William sat Harry down 00:20:04.869 --> 00:20:07.869 and they laid down the law. You cannot monetize 00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:10.329 the monarchy. You are either in serving the public 00:20:10.329 --> 00:20:13.329 100 percent or you are out. There is no middle 00:20:13.329 --> 00:20:15.509 ground. So they chose out. They chose freedom. 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:17.869 Yeah. But the price of that freedom was immense. 00:20:18.069 --> 00:20:20.130 OK, let's talk about that price, because it really 00:20:20.130 --> 00:20:21.750 does set up everything that happens over the 00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:24.509 next five years. First, they lost the use of 00:20:24.509 --> 00:20:26.950 their HRH titles, his or her royal highness. 00:20:27.470 --> 00:20:30.839 Second, and this one. devastated Harry. He lost 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:33.519 his honorary military appointments. Captain General 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.279 of the Royal Marines was a huge one. And the 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:37.960 money? This is the absolute key to understanding 00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.039 everything that followed. 95 % of their income 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.480 had come from the Duchy of Cornwall, which is 00:20:43.480 --> 00:20:46.220 Charles' private estate. That was cut off. Cold. 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:49.299 Just gone. Gone overnight. So suddenly they're 00:20:49.299 --> 00:20:51.579 living in Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles, 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:55.359 then buying a massive $14 million estate in Montecito. 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:57.599 They have a security bill that runs into the 00:20:57.599 --> 00:20:59.900 millions of dollars per year, and they have zero 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.420 income. That pressure cooker explains what happens 00:21:02.420 --> 00:21:07.180 next. Segment four, the commercial era, or as 00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:09.740 some of the tabloids called it, the media wars. 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:11.960 And they had to make money. And they had to make 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:14.420 a lot of it fast. So they went straight to the 00:21:14.420 --> 00:21:16.819 streamers. Netflix. The rumored $100 million 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:19.819 deal. And, of course, Spotify. So let's look 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.140 at the output from those deals. The Harry and 00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:24.200 Meghan docuseries on Netflix that came out in 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:27.140 late 2022. That was a massive hit for Netflix. 00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:29.920 Record -breaking viewing numbers. It was sleek. 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:31.839 It was emotional. It was their side of the story. 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:34.079 It did exactly what Netflix paid all that money 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:37.319 for. But the rest of the output has been... What? 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.579 Mixed? Mixed at best. The Spotify deal completely 00:21:40.579 --> 00:21:43.799 collapsed in 2023 after just one season of Megan's 00:21:43.799 --> 00:21:47.059 podcast, Archetypes. A senior Spotify executive, 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.279 Bill Simmons, went on his own podcast and publicly 00:21:50.279 --> 00:21:52.960 called them heffing grifters. That was a really 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:55.220 low point for them, wasn't it? It was a PR disaster. 00:21:55.660 --> 00:21:58.160 And even more recently, in December of 2024, 00:21:58.619 --> 00:22:01.579 Harry produced a documentary about polo for Netflix. 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.630 And how did that do? It flopped. It didn't chart 00:22:04.630 --> 00:22:07.589 well. The critics called it tone deaf and elitist. 00:22:07.690 --> 00:22:10.049 Yeah. A show about rich people riding horses 00:22:10.049 --> 00:22:11.769 while the rest of the world is dealing with inflation 00:22:11.769 --> 00:22:14.309 and global crises. It just didn't resonate. But 00:22:14.309 --> 00:22:16.430 the biggest commercial product and the one that 00:22:16.430 --> 00:22:18.190 did the most damage to his family relationships 00:22:18.190 --> 00:22:23.609 was the book, Spare. January 2023. Ghost written 00:22:23.609 --> 00:22:26.369 by J .R. Mullringer, who is a Pulitzer Prize 00:22:26.369 --> 00:22:28.509 winner. And you can tell it's a beautifully written 00:22:28.509 --> 00:22:31.710 book. Yeah. But the content, my goodness. It 00:22:31.710 --> 00:22:34.460 was scorched earth. He went after everyone. He 00:22:34.460 --> 00:22:36.940 detailed a physical fight he had with William 00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:39.380 where he claims William knocked him to the floor 00:22:39.380 --> 00:22:42.680 breaking a dog bowl under his back. He accused 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:45.579 his stepmother Camilla of leaking stories to 00:22:45.579 --> 00:22:48.619 the press for years to rehabilitate her own image. 00:22:48.740 --> 00:22:51.319 And the really personal stuff. The frostbitten 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:53.829 penis anecdote at his brother's wedding. The 00:22:53.829 --> 00:22:57.230 extensive drug use. Cocaine, magic mushrooms 00:22:57.230 --> 00:23:00.210 at Courtney Cox's house, ayahuasca. He stripped 00:23:00.210 --> 00:23:02.750 away every last shred of royal mystery. Why do 00:23:02.750 --> 00:23:05.059 you think he did that? What was the goal? I think 00:23:05.059 --> 00:23:07.539 he genuinely felt that he had been silenced and 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:09.680 his story had been twisted by the press for 35 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:12.440 years. He wanted to correct the record. He wanted 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.619 to own his story. But in doing so, he pretty 00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:16.619 much burned the bridge back to his family to 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:18.680 the ground. And those admissions, specifically 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.579 about the drugs, they created a brand new legal 00:23:21.579 --> 00:23:23.720 nightmare for him in the U .S. The Heritage Foundation 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:26.259 lawsuit. OK, explain this one, because it's a 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:28.339 little bit technical, but it is so important 00:23:28.339 --> 00:23:30.480 to his current situation. The Heritage Foundation 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:32.839 is a conservative think tank based in Washington, 00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:35.650 D .C. They filed a freedom of information lawsuit 00:23:35.650 --> 00:23:37.289 against the Department of Homeland Security. 00:23:37.930 --> 00:23:41.069 Their argument was pretty simple. Every U .S. 00:23:41.089 --> 00:23:43.890 visa application asks, have you ever violated 00:23:43.890 --> 00:23:47.230 any law relating to controlled substances? And 00:23:47.230 --> 00:23:50.049 if you say yes to that? You are usually deemed 00:23:50.049 --> 00:23:52.569 inadmissible. You would need a special waiver 00:23:52.569 --> 00:23:56.349 to get in. If you say no, but you've just published 00:23:56.349 --> 00:23:58.750 a global bestseller saying you did lots of drugs, 00:23:58.890 --> 00:24:01.730 then you've potentially lied to the federal government, 00:24:01.829 --> 00:24:04.170 which is a deportable offense. So they wanted 00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:06.150 to see his application. Exactly. They wanted 00:24:06.150 --> 00:24:08.349 to know what he wrote and if he got special treatment 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:10.650 because he's a prince. And this got very political, 00:24:10.650 --> 00:24:13.329 very fast. Oh, yeah. Donald Trump weighed in 00:24:13.329 --> 00:24:16.509 back in February 2025. He did an interview and 00:24:16.509 --> 00:24:18.970 said, I wouldn't protect him. I'd leave him alone. 00:24:19.569 --> 00:24:21.970 The implication being that if he were to become 00:24:21.970 --> 00:24:25.210 president again, Harry could be deported. The 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.549 documents were eventually unsealed in March of 00:24:27.549 --> 00:24:31.450 2025, right? They were, but they were so heavily 00:24:31.450 --> 00:24:34.789 redacted that it was almost pointless. We still 00:24:34.789 --> 00:24:37.130 don't know for sure what he checked on that box, 00:24:37.289 --> 00:24:39.789 but the fact that a British prince's immigration 00:24:39.789 --> 00:24:42.809 status became a political football in the U .S. 00:24:42.809 --> 00:24:45.970 election cycle just shows you how far he's traveled 00:24:45.970 --> 00:24:48.289 from Buckingham Palace. And at the same time 00:24:48.289 --> 00:24:50.390 he was fighting to stay in the U .S., he was 00:24:50.390 --> 00:24:52.970 suing half of Fleet Street back in London. The 00:24:52.970 --> 00:24:55.190 privacy crusades. She launched a whole series 00:24:55.190 --> 00:24:57.680 of lawsuits against the British tabloids. He 00:24:57.680 --> 00:24:59.980 sued Mirror Group newspapers for extensive phone 00:24:59.980 --> 00:25:03.259 hacking. And he won. That was a huge moment for 00:25:03.259 --> 00:25:06.180 him. A massive vindication. In December 2023, 00:25:06.619 --> 00:25:08.960 a high court judge ruled that he had been hacked. 00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:11.799 And crucially, that senior editors, including 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:14.500 Piers Morgan, knew all about it. It proved he 00:25:14.500 --> 00:25:16.480 wasn't just being paranoid. It did. It proved 00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:18.859 that the paranoia he felt for years was justified. 00:25:19.220 --> 00:25:21.140 They really were listening to his voicemails. 00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:23.940 And he settled with The Sun's publisher in January 00:25:23.940 --> 00:25:27.220 2025. For a huge payout. We don't know the exact 00:25:27.220 --> 00:25:29.579 figure, but the reports suggest millions. But 00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:32.140 the one big legal battle he lost was the one 00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:36.099 over his police protection. The RAVXC case. And 00:25:36.099 --> 00:25:37.339 I think this is the one that really hurts him 00:25:37.339 --> 00:25:39.380 the most. He sued the home office because the 00:25:39.380 --> 00:25:43.200 committee known as RAVs. removed his automatic 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:46.240 taxpayer -funded police security when he stepped 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:48.420 back from royal duties. And he offered to pay 00:25:48.420 --> 00:25:50.539 for it himself, which to a lot of people sounds 00:25:50.539 --> 00:25:53.099 reasonable. I'll pay for the police. It does 00:25:53.099 --> 00:25:55.460 on the surface. Yeah. But the high court said 00:25:55.460 --> 00:25:58.950 no. They ruled that you cannot privately fund 00:25:58.950 --> 00:26:01.970 public police officers. It creates a dangerous 00:26:01.970 --> 00:26:04.950 two -tier system where the rich can essentially 00:26:04.950 --> 00:26:07.710 buy their own private police force. And that's 00:26:07.710 --> 00:26:10.049 not how British justice works. So he lost that 00:26:10.049 --> 00:26:12.589 case. He lost. And his appeal was rejected in 00:26:12.589 --> 00:26:15.710 May 2025. And I read somewhere that the legal 00:26:15.710 --> 00:26:18.289 costs for the taxpayer just to defend that one 00:26:18.289 --> 00:26:20.910 case were over half a million pounds. Over 500 00:26:20.910 --> 00:26:23.509 ,000 pounds. Which, as you can imagine, did not 00:26:23.509 --> 00:26:25.309 endear him to the British public who were dealing 00:26:25.309 --> 00:26:27.829 with a massive cost of living crisis at the time. 00:26:27.890 --> 00:26:30.589 Wow. So that brings us right up to the present 00:26:30.589 --> 00:26:33.329 day, segment five, the state of affairs in late 00:26:33.329 --> 00:26:37.069 2025 and January 2026. Because recently, even 00:26:37.069 --> 00:26:38.990 the charity work, which was always the one thing 00:26:38.990 --> 00:26:40.990 that was sort of bulletproof for him, has started 00:26:40.990 --> 00:26:43.380 to look pretty shaky. It's been a very rough 00:26:43.380 --> 00:26:45.720 six months for Brand Sussex. OK, let's start 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:48.420 with Centibell. This is the charity he co -founded 00:26:48.420 --> 00:26:51.019 in Lesotho to help children with HIV. I mean, 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.440 this is his baby. It's his heart and soul. It 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:56.759 is. But in March 2025, he resigned as patron. 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:01.460 And it was not a happy, amicable handover. There 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:04.380 was a dispute. A massive governance dispute with 00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:07.319 the charity's chair, a woman named Sophie Chandalka. 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:10.819 She publicly accused Harry of, and I'm quoting 00:27:10.819 --> 00:27:13.720 from the reports here, harassment and bullying 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:17.259 at scale. That word again, bullying. We heard 00:27:17.259 --> 00:27:19.119 it from the palace staff and now here it is again. 00:27:19.220 --> 00:27:22.099 Exactly. She claimed he used imperious language. 00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:25.299 She said he sent nasty, demanding notes to staff. 00:27:25.579 --> 00:27:27.339 Did the charity commission get involved in the 00:27:27.339 --> 00:27:29.319 UK? They did. They launched an investigation 00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:33.099 and they reported back in August 2025. Now, to 00:27:33.099 --> 00:27:35.740 be fair to Harry, their report found no evidence 00:27:35.740 --> 00:27:38.799 of systemic bullying, but they did note there 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:41.319 had been poor governance and they acknowledged 00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:44.059 that some people felt ill -treated. It was very 00:27:44.059 --> 00:27:46.640 messy, very public falling out. And then there's 00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:48.859 African Parks. This one is even more serious, 00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:52.119 isn't it? Much more serious. So Harry was on 00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:54.079 the board of African Parks, which is a major 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:56.720 conservation group, and reports started coming 00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.849 out. that rangers who were funded by the charity 00:27:59.849 --> 00:28:03.150 were abusing the Baka indigenous people in the 00:28:03.150 --> 00:28:05.130 Congo Basin. And we're talking about serious 00:28:05.130 --> 00:28:07.710 abuse. We're talking about horrific allegations. 00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:11.680 beatings, torture, sexual assault. That is just 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:15.079 awful. It is. And Harry faced immense pressure 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:17.299 from human rights groups like Survival International, 00:28:17.660 --> 00:28:19.900 who were calling on him to step down from the 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:23.200 board. It completely undercuts his image as a 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:25.779 global humanitarian when the organization he 00:28:25.779 --> 00:28:28.160 helps lead is being accused of these kinds of 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:30.700 human rights abuses. And meanwhile, his family 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:32.900 relations are, well, what are they? Are there 00:28:32.900 --> 00:28:35.539 any relations left? From all public reporting, 00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:38.450 they're non -existent. There were reports in 00:28:38.450 --> 00:28:41.210 late 2025 that Charles had stopped taking his 00:28:41.210 --> 00:28:44.029 calls altogether. The bank of dad is well and 00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:46.190 truly closed. And by all accounts, William and 00:28:46.190 --> 00:28:48.329 Harry are effectively strangers. But he's still 00:28:48.329 --> 00:28:50.210 trying to do some good. He's still trying to 00:28:50.210 --> 00:28:54.309 do the work. He is. In September 2025, he and 00:28:54.309 --> 00:28:57.549 Meghan made a donation of $1 .1 million to the 00:28:57.549 --> 00:29:00.839 UK charity Children in Need. A huge sum of money. 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:02.819 And he's trying to find new causes, right? In 00:29:02.819 --> 00:29:05.640 October 2025, he signed that open letter about 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:08.359 the dangers of AI. Right, calling for a ban on 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:11.299 artificial superintelligence. He's clearly trying 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:13.779 to pivot and position himself as a global thought 00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:16.000 leader, a kind of statesman without a state. 00:29:16.220 --> 00:29:18.619 But is the public, particularly the American 00:29:18.619 --> 00:29:20.940 public, buying it anymore? Well, the data says 00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:24.039 no. There was a ranker poll in October 2025, 00:29:24.299 --> 00:29:26.519 which is based on millions of votes from the 00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:29.490 public. Harry was listed as the third most disliked 00:29:29.490 --> 00:29:31.890 celebrity in the entire U .S. In the U .S., wow. 00:29:32.069 --> 00:29:33.829 That was supposed to be his safe haven, the place 00:29:33.829 --> 00:29:36.009 that embraced him. That's the danger. He's not 00:29:36.009 --> 00:29:37.710 just unpopular in Britain anymore, which you 00:29:37.710 --> 00:29:40.109 might expect. He's becoming a punchline in America. 00:29:40.349 --> 00:29:42.829 He's been lampooned by South Park, by late -night 00:29:42.829 --> 00:29:45.529 hosts. The initial shine has definitely worn 00:29:45.529 --> 00:29:47.650 off. And that leads us directly to that headline 00:29:47.650 --> 00:29:50.710 from just a few weeks ago, January 2026, the 00:29:50.710 --> 00:29:53.670 accusation of disaster tourism. Yeah, this was 00:29:53.670 --> 00:29:57.180 painful to watch. The wildfires in Los Angeles 00:29:57.180 --> 00:29:59.960 were raging. Parts of Pacific Palisades were 00:29:59.960 --> 00:30:03.099 being evacuated. It was a genuine community tragedy. 00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:05.619 And Harry and Meghan showed up. They went to 00:30:05.619 --> 00:30:08.500 a local food bank to help pack boxes for displaced 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:11.240 families. Which, on the face of it, is a good 00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:13.839 thing to do. In isolation, yes, it's a good thing. 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:16.839 But they brought a camera crew with them. Or 00:30:16.839 --> 00:30:18.579 at the very least, they allowed a photographer 00:30:18.579 --> 00:30:22.339 to take perfectly lit professional photos, which 00:30:22.339 --> 00:30:24.500 were then immediately distributed to the media. 00:30:24.619 --> 00:30:27.759 And the reaction online was brutal. Disaster 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:29.640 tourism. That was the phrase that was trending 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:31.920 all day. People felt they were using a community 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:35.539 tragedy as a PR opportunity to try and rehabilitate 00:30:35.539 --> 00:30:37.519 their image after all those charity scandals. 00:30:37.619 --> 00:30:39.819 It's the ultimate damned if you do, damned if 00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:42.240 you don't trap, isn't it? If they sit in their 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:44.380 mansion in Montecito, people say, I don't care. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:46.240 If they go to the food bank, people say they're 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:48.319 just doing it for the cameras. That is true. 00:30:49.220 --> 00:30:51.400 But you could argue they built that trap themselves. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:54.680 When you monetize every aspect of your life, 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:56.859 when you sell your family's secrets, when you 00:30:56.859 --> 00:30:59.500 film your most private moments for Netflix, the 00:30:59.500 --> 00:31:01.759 public eventually stops giving you the benefit 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:03.359 of the doubt. Everything starts to look like 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:05.859 a transaction. So after all of this, what does 00:31:05.859 --> 00:31:08.420 it all mean? We've looked at this entire trajectory. 00:31:09.230 --> 00:31:11.430 from the grieving little boy walking behind the 00:31:11.430 --> 00:31:14.849 coffin to the hero pilot in the Apache to the 00:31:14.849 --> 00:31:17.869 fairy tale groom at Windsor to the litigant in 00:31:17.869 --> 00:31:19.849 the courtroom. I think what we were witnessing 00:31:19.849 --> 00:31:23.190 is a man who desperately wanted to escape the 00:31:23.190 --> 00:31:26.150 goldfish bowl. He hated the fishbowl. He hated 00:31:26.150 --> 00:31:28.910 being watched, so he smashed the glass. But he 00:31:28.910 --> 00:31:30.710 didn't realize that without the glass, he's just 00:31:30.710 --> 00:31:32.269 flopping around on the floor for everyone to 00:31:32.269 --> 00:31:34.549 see. He wanted to control the narrative, but 00:31:34.549 --> 00:31:36.890 to do that, he had to sell the narrative. And 00:31:36.890 --> 00:31:39.410 once you sell your story, You don't really own 00:31:39.410 --> 00:31:41.650 it anymore. The public does. He has his freedom. 00:31:41.750 --> 00:31:44.029 He got what he said he wanted. He has his financial 00:31:44.029 --> 00:31:47.869 independence. He does. But the cost was the very 00:31:47.869 --> 00:31:51.069 institution that gave him his platform, his purpose, 00:31:51.210 --> 00:31:53.869 and his name in the first place. He is a prince 00:31:53.869 --> 00:31:56.200 without a kingdom. It really is the ultimate 00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:58.359 irony when you think about it. He is the Duke 00:31:58.359 --> 00:32:00.900 of Sussex, a title given to him by the monarchy, 00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:03.819 living in a gated American celebrity enclave, 00:32:03.819 --> 00:32:06.980 fighting battles about U .S. visas and Spotify 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:09.859 podcasts, completely estranged from the very 00:32:09.859 --> 00:32:12.420 thing that makes him Prince Harry. So the question 00:32:12.420 --> 00:32:14.779 for the next decade, as he moves from his early 00:32:14.779 --> 00:32:18.160 40s towards his late 40s, is a simple one. Can 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:21.619 he ever be just Harry? Or is the title, the connection 00:32:21.619 --> 00:32:24.059 to the thing he left behind, the only thing that 00:32:24.059 --> 00:32:26.359 keeps the whole show on the road? And that is 00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:27.619 the provocative thought we're going to leave 00:32:27.619 --> 00:32:29.740 you with today. We often talk about the cost 00:32:29.740 --> 00:32:32.200 of fame, but it's rare that we get to see someone