Prince Harry’s message to Meghan Markle, Prince William in emotional essay about Britain
Communications experts say Prince Harry’s emotional essay about Britain reveals deep yearning for his homeland and contains hidden messages for both his wife and estranged brother.
Prince Harry has written an essay about his love of Britain despite living thousands of kilometres away in California as experts suggest there’s a hidden meaning aimed at wife, Meghan Markle, in the piece.
The Duke of Sussex’s emotional essay, in which he expresses deep pride in serving in Britain’s armed forces, comes just before Remembrance Day on November 11 – a key event in the royal calendar where senior members will be out in full force to commemorate the dead.
Harry’s love letter to the UK also comes just hours after announcing his own “faux-royal” tour in Canada – awkwardly clashing with Prince William’s biggest royal event to date in Brazil.
The former soldier served two frontline tours to Afghanistan and describes the privilege of serving alongside troops from all over Britain. He calls on people to remember “not only the fallen, but the living” who carry the “weight of war” and urges them to knock on veterans’ doors and “join them for a cuppa … or a pint” to hear their stories and “remind them their service still matters”.
In the 647-word piece, titled “The Bond, The Banter, The Bravery: What it means to be British – By Prince Harry”, he also discusses what it’s really like to live in Britain, and gushes over the charms, quirks and characteristics of his home country.
“Though currently, I may live in the United States, Britain is, and always will be, the country I proudly served and fought for. The banter of the mess, the clubhouse, the pub, the stands ridiculous as it sounds, these are the things that make us British,” he writes.
“I make no apology for it. I love it.”
And according to one expert, the strident address contains a hidden message for Meghan about where he would rather live.
“Ex-pat Harry writes in a style of deep nostalgia for the country he left. He sounds like so many ex-pats that retain an unrealistic, idealised memory of the country they left too, as though it has been pickled and preserved in another era that might not reflect the modern reality,” communications specialist Judi James told The Mirror in the UK.
“Despite his normally constant adherence to his love of his life in the US, Harry sounds like a man still yearning for what he calls the ‘Banter of the mess, clubhouse, pubs, the stands.’
Despite this “yearning”, James told the outlet that Prince Harry appears to feel apologetic about his declaration of love for his country.
“He sounds embarrassed by this ‘reveal’. By adding ‘ridiculous as it sounds’ he seems to be apologising to his US audience, perhaps even to his own family for this admission of nostalgia and what sounds like a sense of longing. This is an important-sounding admission too,” she said.
“Most ex-pats yearn for jars of Marmite or English tea bags, but Harry is letting everyone know, including Meghan here, that he’s missing a kind of shared, intense, complex humour that he might not be able to get in the US.”
Meanwhile, in what could be perceived as an olive branch to estranged brother Prince William, it is understood that the duke released the essay on Wednesday morning local time, to avoid overshadowing his older sibling’s landmark speech at the COP30 summit in Brazil on Thursday local time.
James noted that there also appears to be a pang of longing for his estranged brother in the essay.
“Harry was a man who grew up and cut his teeth on banter, especially with his brother William,” James said. “
Interviews back in the day show their banter together was relentless and there is a suggestion that in promoting the word so strongly and emphatically here Harry is implying (perhaps subconsciously) how much he misses his older brother.
“Montecito always looks like a banter-free zone, which is why we tend to see Harry so much in his element during Invictus when he has an endless supply of ex-military heroes to exchange banter with.”
Prince Harry’s message came as he gears up to begin a two-day visit to Toronto where he will meet Canadian veterans, members of the armed forces community and military charities to mark the ‘Remembrancetide’ period which spans the two-week period leading up to Remembrance Sunday.
More Coverage
Originally published as Prince Harry’s message to Meghan Markle, Prince William in emotional essay about Britain
‘Shouldn’t have come to this’: Stars praise ban
