Embarrassing Prince Harry number exposed

New figures out of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s own camp have inadvertently exposed a number that Harry may not like.

COMMENT

As we fast approach that blessed point of the year when our out-of-offices go blissfully on and our only-one-glass-for-me pants come off, spare thought for our poor American brethren.

In a land that does not offer healthcare or the knowledge you won’t be mowed down with an assault rifle while stocking up on Cheez-Whip, comes the fact that employees have no legal entitlement to any paid leave.

What must they all make then of California transplant and royal-gone-rogue, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and his working schedule?

With only a couple of weeks until 2023 is done and dusted, the 39-year-old has undertaken a grand total of 18 days of public charity work.

This week he and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation released its annual financial and impact reports with much gussying of fonts and ballyhooing of helping. Just in case anyone was unsure about how much Caring™️ they had been up to, this was accompanied by a video showing the Sussexes compulsively hugging seemingly every single person who had strayed into their path.

(The Archewell employee of the month award goes to whoever chose the song, whose lyrics include the lines “Over the hills and far away, looking out for a better day, when it seems like there’s no escape, take me to my happy place.” Such nuance! Such subtlety!)

Meghan and Harry have released a video to promote the success of the Archewell Foundation. Picture: Archewell

Meghan and Harry in the promotional video. Picture: Archewell

Except the uplifting riffs of the soundtrack and all that energetic embracing of people they had only just met is but a part of the story.

Remember when Harry, in August told a conference in Tokyo, “My life is charity – always has been, always will be”?

Well, according to the events listed on Archewell’s own website plus other public engagements, the duke has undertaken 13 charitable outings this year. If we factor in the seven days of the Invictus Games that he attended, that comes to a total of Harry undertaking public work on a total number of 18 days.

Que?

This all works out at Harry doing less than one and a half days of public charity work a month.

Even if Harry had achieved double or triple these numbers, we are hardly talking about the sort of figures that would be able to comfortably back up that “life” line.

(Let us also note that also this year Harry has, however, found the time to go to see Beyoncé and Katy Perry concerts, watch Lionel Messi play in a soccer game in Los Angeles, catch a basketball game, fly to Austin for the American Formula One Grand Prix, holiday in Portugal and the Caribbean with Meghan, and drop by for the final episode of James Corden’s Late Late Show.)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry during the Invictus Games. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Yes, there would be the behind-the-scenes work that Harry and Meghan must do as directors of the Archewell Foundation. I’m imagining countless meetings which start with roundtable affirmations and rounds of iced lattes and the Sussexes sending reams of emails from their side-by-side desk (the quiet co-star of Harry & Meghan and the duchess’ 40x40 video).

However, the duke and duchess clearly want to establish themselves as public figures In the US which requires them to, not to get too specific here, actually do things in public. And more than once a month.

The sticking point isn’t what Harry and Meghan have achieved with their Foundation -because lord knows it is far, far more than you and I have done – but that they love a lofty statement selling Archewell as the most exciting thing to happen to charity since the polio vaccine and the fail to come close.

Harry and Meghan in their Netflix docuseries. Picture: Netflix

Aside from the Invictus Games, whose inception and launch happened firmly within the royal tent and years ago, the Sussexes’ impact post-Megxit and since launching their Archewell Foundation, while it is meaningful, is notably limited.

The numbers specified in the newly released Archewell financial report are not exactly horn-tooting stuff, bringing in $3 million in the last year, from only two donors, which represents a $16.7 million drop in donations from their first financial report.

The Foundation gave out $1.9 million in grants for 19 different causes.

The salt-in-the-wound part comes when we consider that back in the UK, William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales are nailing it like two freshly accredited builders with brand-new hammers.

In just over 24-hours, the video they released this week via their social media accounts showing Kate and their three children helping out at a baby bank has been viewed seven million times.

The Princess of Wales launches Christmas Baby Banks initiative with Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte. Picture: Kensington Palace/YouTube

Then on Tuesday, William visited homelessness charity The Passage, helping to serve a Christmas lunch and then laughing and chatting with their clients, not a single hint of pompous assishness or anything like an air or grace.

The narrative they have firmly established is of themselves as being wholly committed to their specific causes and that they are truly in it for the long haul.

So, what exactly has Harry been up to this year? His Spare press tour, various outings of a storm-cloud looking duke propped up on hard chairs being lobbed soft ball questions by an all male clutch of interviewers, was over by mid-January.

How long can one man spend stewing in his at-home steam room over his family’s various indignities and slights?

It’s not as if the Sussexes have been bearing the heavy burden of their content-making work, with Spotify having lost their number and their current Netflix slate reportedly consisting of only two future shows, according to the controversial book Endgame.

What it comes down to is this: I have no doubt that Harry and Meghan’s hearts are truly in the right place but to quote the motto of another person who knew a thing or two about rocking the boat, Emmeline Pankhurst, “deeds not words”.

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.