Embarrassing new Harry photo exposes truth about post-Megxit outings

The Duke of Sussex is in New York for a worthy reason – but photos from the trip expose an awkward fact that can’t be ignored.

Time does not move normally when it comes to the royal family.

The scale and the calendar they work to is something else entirely.

Their home base of operations, Buckingham Palace, was built nearly a century before Captain Cook turned up in Botany Bay to filch the continent from First Peoples. The chair King Charles sat on for his coronation was knocked up in the 1300s. Princess Anne’s wardrobe could be carbon-dated.

Prince Harry pictured at the HALO Trust event in New York. Picture: AFP

Fitting, then, that Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and temporary New Yorker this week is following suit. It’s the United Nations annual General Assembly, a real opportunity for the diplomats of the world to park with glorious impunity and for journalists to Google how to spell Djibouti.

And Harry? He’s operating like it’s 2014.

On Monday, he appeared on stage at the Sheraton for a discussion run by The Diana Award, giving us full bore post-truth-telling duke – a man on a mission and with something to say, this time about mental health (or, as he wants it reframed, mental fitness, which is actually a pretty smart idea). He donned a nicely pressed dark navy suit and had in his pocket, ready to go, his best concerned listening face.

But consider this tableau a little more and look closer at this schedule for the week, and one fact is pretty glaring. Nearly the entirety of the duke’s New York program is tied to organisations and causes that date back to when his name was still firmly in the working royal column.

Aside from one outing with the Clinton Global Initiative, everything else he is doing is work that predates not only Megxit but even his meeting Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

Harry at the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Times Square on September 23. Picture: Getty Images

Specifically, he will be or has done events with The Diana Award, which he has supported since 1999, talked about mental health, work he has done since 2016, The Halo Trust, since 2013, and about sustainable travel (since 2019).

There is a certain unavoidable truth here: as an independent operator and charity doer, detached from the bureaucratic and administrative scaffolding of the royal family, the duke has failed to really make substantial new philanthropic inroads of his own accord.

Let us take a quick breather here and do some due noting that the duke is persistently doing battle on behalf of the causes and organisations that have mattered to him for years, if not decades, which reflects a level of commitment that we would be wholly remiss to ignore. Everyone clap here please. Truly.

No, the issue presented today is not that Harry is still working hard for the Halo Trust and others with whom he has longstanding ties, but that he has not managed to launch anything major off of his own bat.

Harry’s charity life circa 2024 looks pretty much the same as Harry’s charity life circa 2016. Back then his tent pole causes were the Invictus Games, the Halo Trust, The Diana Award and mental health. Now, his tent pole causes include the Invictus Games, the Halo Trust, The Diana Award and mental health.

This is despite the fact that in 2020, the Sussexes launched their own Archewell Foundation. Again, they have done a hell of a lot of good and a lot of valuable work including supporting World Central Kitchen, the refugee initiative The Welcome Project and building a playground in Uvalde, Texas, the scene of a horrendous school shooting. Earlier this year, Archewell launched the Parents Network to help mothers and fathers whose children have been bullied online or affected by harmful content.

All of this is to say, Harry and Meghan are living up to their foundation’s motto – they are showing up and doing good.

But “good” is not quite the same as transforming yourself into a statesman in your own right, based on your own independent achievements. “Good” does not earn you a seat at the UN table or put you on the same level as global leaders and change makers who have gotten there through their own hard work and graft.

Harry’s biggest and most shining achievement is the wildly successful Invictus Games, launched in 2014. If you ever happen to watch the Netflix doco tracking the journeys of six participants, there will be tears, so moving and powerful are the athletes’ stories.

Harry chats with GB Armed Forces Team Captain David Wiseman during the Invictus Games Orlando 2016. The Games remains Harry’s most prominent achievement, but it was initially organised with royal support. Picture: Getty Images

Or to put it another way, Harry has done the sort of real, true, lasting, good that changes lives.

However, that first Games, held way back in the dark ages of 2014, was organised and staged by what was then The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. It was borne out of the royal offices using royal convening power and the royal family’s ability to bring large corporations and big names to the table and with the support of the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

Harry has achieved something great – but he did it with palace firepower and heft.

As the five-year anniversary of Megxit fast approaches (which is more than a tad mind-melting), the Sussexes, standing alone, have so far yet to really match magnitude-wise to anything they did before January 8, 2020.

What is the chance of the duke being taken as an equal to those who are gathering in New York this week?

Harry and Meghan in Lagos, Nigeria, earlier this year. The question remains whether Harry will be regarded as an equal to other global leaders based on his independent achievements. Picture: AFP

Of course, when Harry and Meghan do a “royal” tour, like their recent trips to Nigeria and Colombia, they attract shedloads of global attention. However, the level of coverage and interest in them is not equalled by their independent, post-HRH achievements.

Really what this is all about is unfulfilled potential. Harry is a man who cares and cares hard and whose dedication to making the world better is undeniable. It’s just that shorn of his royal identity and amputated from the well-oiled palace machinery and support network, he has yet to really make an impression in his own right.

Yet, though. Yet.

Given how much has happened since 2020, god only knows where things could be five years from now. They’re going to need some NGOs on Mars, right?

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles

Originally published as Embarrassing new Harry photo exposes truth about post-Megxit outings