Prince Harry and Meghan Markle step out together after Africa tour documentary
Prince Harry has made a surprise appearance alongside wife Meghan at a gender equality event where he declared there’s “too much testosterone flying around”.
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Prince Harry has been a surprise wingman for his wife Meghan at an event at Windsor Castle after a week of headlines for the royal couple.
The pair attended a forum on gender equality with the One Young World charity.
The new mum, 38, looked stunning a red Hugo Boss red leather pencil skirt as she arrived at the event in Harry’s electric Audi
Meghan had been expected to go on her own, according to official releases from the palace this week.
The visit came as Meghan was named among the most influential black people in Britain, according to a The Powerlist ranking, decided by a panel including retired High Court Judge Dame Linda Dobbs.
Beginning the discussion, Meghan, seated next to Harry, told the group: “I think we’re all aware that One Young World has been very important to me for several years.
“In terms of gender equality, which is something I have championed for a long time, I think that conversation can’t happen without men being a part of it.
“So for this reason it made complete sense to let him (Harry) join today. So thank you for letting him crash the party.”
Harry said women needed to have more power at the event.
“It is so important to have women in decision-making and policy-changing positions, as it really does affect the whole community, the whole country,” he said.
Harry added there was sometimes “too much testosterone flying around”, to laughs from the gathering.
Buckingham Palace said the program included leaders “who are leading projects and ventures that support gender equality and inclusion in countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Iraq, Malawi and Bangladesh.”
“They will share achievements and best practices that have helped empower communities to overcome complex challenges and significant obstacles.”
Meghan has supported One Young World since 2014 when she visited a summit in Dublin.
Harry stepped in after a controversial documentary screened on ITV where Meghan said she was struggling with her royal role and motherhood.
In the same program, Harry confirmed he and his brother Prince William were on separate paths.
MEGHAN AND HARRY’S PRIVATE PAIN
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are not coping with the emotional stress and fallout of their recent tour of Africa and a documentary in which they candidly spoke out about the pressures of royal life.
“I think [Harry] feels and looks incredibly miserable and unhappy,” British reporter Angela Levin said, according to Britain’s Sky News.
“Meghan is unhappy, too, and it seems incredibly sad that they can’t seem to help each other at the moment,” she added, according to Fox News.
Levin is a veteran reporter on royal affairs and published a biography last year, titled Harry: A Biography of a Prince, based on her exclusive conversation with the 35-year-old before he married Meghan May 2018.
Levin claims Harry’s distress stems from retracing his late mother Princess Diana’s steps in Angola earlier this month.
“It seems unfortunate now,” Levin explained. “He is having another wave of agony over his mother, Princess Diana. The trip was going to be very difficult as he was retracing his mother’s steps.”
Levin said the couple appeared unhappy in British TV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, which screened earlier this week, where they opened up about how the negative press attention has hurt their family.
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Meantime, Queen Elizabeth appears to have removed a framed photo of Harry and Meghan amid claims of an escalating feud in the royal household.
Eagle-eyed royal watchers noted that a silver-framed photo of the couple proudly on display in Buckingham Palace in July was noticeably absent from the same room, according to Page Six.
However, none of the other photos around it on a small table in the Queen’s audience room appear to have been moved.
Perhaps tellingly, they included a similar portrait of Prince William and wife Kate Middleton, as well as brothers William and Harry together in military uniforms — meaning Duchess of Sussex Meghan is the only one removed.
The vanishing photo came after Harry admitted to a rift with his brother, telling the Harry & Meghan: An African Journey documentary that they were on “different paths.”
‘TELL THE TRUTH AS YOU SEE IT’
A “bruised and vulnerable” Duke of Sussex was advised to “tell the truth” before he gave his dramatic documentary interview, the program’s presenter has revealed.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s candid on-screen chat with ITV News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby gave a glimpse into the struggles they face as newlyweds and new parents, living in the public eye.
But Bradby, a long-time friend of the duke, said before filming the ITV documentary he knew everything was not entirely “rosy” behind the scenes, and he now hoped everyone would pause for breath.
Speaking on the US breakfast show Good Morning America the presenter said: “We had a couple of private heart-to-hearts before we did the interview and I said, ‘Let’s just go out and tell the truth as you see it.’ “The thing about Harry is, whether in private or in public, if you ask him an honest question he’ll give you an honest answer, for better or worse.”
In the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, filmed during the Sussexes’ recent official visit to southern Africa, the duke said he and his brother William, the Duke of Cambridge, are “on different paths”, with “good days” and “bad days”.
Meghan described the past year as a member of the royal family as “hard” and said her British friends had warned her not to marry Harry.
The duchess told the program she tried to cope with the pressures of her new life by putting on a “stiff upper lip” but she was not prepared for the intensity of the tabloid interest.
Bradby added: “I knew that everything wasn’t entirely rosy behind the scenes. But all the same I had intended to turn up doing a more conventional, journalistic job, maybe beforehand I told them I was going to have to put some pretty pointed questions.
“The reality I found was just a couple that seemed a bit bruised and vulnerable — with mental health and all the rest of it you have to be careful what words you use — that was the story I found and it seemed the right journalistic thing to do, to try and tell that story as empathetically as I could.”
Meanwhile, Meghan has been revealed as society bible Tatler’s cover star for its 310th edition. But the magazine wasn’t shy in making an edit to the photo.
Tatler used an old image from 2015 of the Duchess, who was posing for a Canadian business website. However, her chunky gold earrings she was wearing at the time didn’t make the grade, with the magazine apparently airbrushing them out.
The edition goes on sale next week and will feature four comments pieces discussing whether Meghan ‘divides or conquers’.
‘ON DIFFERENT PATHS’: HARRY ON WILLIAM
Harry was asked about rumours of a rift between he and his brother, in a year where he and Meghan had split from a previously joint charity they shared with the Cambridges.
He said that “inevitably stuff happens”, particularly with such a high-profile role and a family that lives under the spotlight.
“We are brothers. We will always be brothers,” Harry said on Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.
“We are certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him as I know he will always be there for me.”
“We don’t see each other as much as we used to because we are so busy but I love him dearly,” Harry added.
“The majority of the stuff is created out of nothing but as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days.” The two couples have gone from being the “Fab Four” royal charity power team to dividing their focus into two separate foundations.
After the split was announced earlier this year sources denied any feud, saying the move was “largely about preparing both couples for their future roles, which are obviously on divergent tracks”.
'I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip'
— ITV News (@itvnews) October 20, 2019
The Duchess of Sussex admits she's tried a coping mechanism to manage the pressures that come with marrying Prince Harry #HarryAndMeghan https://t.co/GWs5KfuovM pic.twitter.com/XctGTpk94l
William and Kate will remain with the original charity while Harry and Meghan establish their own new charitable foundation. The foundation said the couples will continue to work together, including on the Heads Together mental health campaign.
The Royal Foundation venture lasted 16 months after being set up by William and Harry in 2009 to run all their charity campaigns.
The airing of Harry & Meghan: An African Journey prompted an outpouring of support from the public for Harry and Meghan, particularly after the former Suits’ actor’s candid confession that she has struggled with constant scrutiny and negativity.
Is there a P.O. Box where women can just send notes to Meghan Markle? Being like “Have a really nice day, Meghan!†and “WHO DO I NEED TO FIGHT TODAY, MEGHAN?†Like, just so she knows? She lives in THE tightest bubble and I just want her to know we’re out here!!!
— Jordan Crucchiola (@JorCru) October 18, 2019
Harry talking about William.... he is really the sweetest and William doesn’t deserve him but yeah he hurts him a lot you can tell pic.twitter.com/qKoxQVZTHs
— âï¸ Just Juliette âï¸ ðŸ‡«ðŸ‡·ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡©ðŸ’ƒðŸ½ðŸ¼ (@RoyalDetective8) October 20, 2019
Hearing those words from Harry and seeing his smile when he talked about William made me cry â™¥ï¸ pic.twitter.com/tbF6dl8oii
— Luu297 (@luu297) October 20, 2019
HARRY AND MEGHAN PLANNING TIME OFF
Fresh from a tour of Africa, Prince Harry and wife Meghan will take time off from royal duties as they struggle with the spotlight.
Harry And Meghan: An African Journey, which has screened in the UK and is due to air in Australia at 11am on Ten, was filmed while the Sussexes were on their first tour with baby Archie Harrison around Africa.
The couple will start their six-week break next month, according to The Sunday Times, and have expressed a desire to live in Africa permanently.
According to the report, the couple will take young son Archie to the US to visit the Duchess’s mother Doria Ragland for Thanksgiving celebrations around November 28.
The six-week break will start around mid-November, The Sunday Times reported.
“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,” Harry said in the documentary.
In a clip from the program released ahead of the premiere, Mr Bradby asks the Duchess of Sussex how she has coped with the negative attention she received during and soon after her pregnancy.
“I would say … any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, and so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn, you know. And especially as a woman, it’s a lot,” she tells Bradby.
“So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mum or trying to be a newlywed. It’s um … yeah. I guess, also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m okay, but it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”
“And the answer is — would it be fair to say ‘Not really OK’? It’s really been a struggle?” Bradby asks.
“Yes,” Meghan responds.
The couple received largely positive press during the tour, but on its tail end Harry released a statement which announced they were suing the Daily Mail.
In the statement, he compared the treatment of his wife Meghan to that of this mother whose death he believes was caused by paparazzi.
“I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person,” Harry said.
“I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
Harry and Meghan are suing the Daily Mail for allegedly unlawfully publishing one of her private letters to her father, Thomas Markle.
— additional reporting Chloe Lyons, Nadia Salemme and AAP
Originally published as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle step out together after Africa tour documentary