Prince Harry and Orlando Bloom: Inside their budding friendship

The senior royal has struck up a close friendship with this high-profile actor and fellow Brit, but that’s not all they have in common.

Prince Harry’s wide-ranging interview with Dax Shepard on Thursday revealed the royal’s bond with neighbour Orlando Bloom.

The Duke of Sussex, who currently lives in a sprawling, $US14 million mansion in Montecito, California, with pregnant wife Meghan Markle and their two-year-old son, Archie, said he and the Lord of the Rings star recently chatted about photographers lingering on their block.

“Two days ago, Orlando Bloom sent me a message, ‘cause he’s down the road and we sort of keep in contact because of the paparazzi,” Harry said on Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.

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“He sent me a photograph, which his security got of this long-haired guy with a beanie on, ear pods on, with his massive camera lying in the back of his 4×4 truck, blacked-out windows, a woman driving, who did the peace sign, sitting there as a distraction, and he is laid down in the back of this truck taking photographs of (Bloom and Katy Perry) out with their kid,” Harry, 36, continued. “How is that normal, how is that acceptable?”

Bloom, 44, shares an eight-month-old daughter, Daisy Dove, with fiancee Perry, 36. The actor and ex-wife Miranda Kerr are also parents to a 10-year-old son, Flynn Christopher.

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Bloom and fiancee Katy Perry are parents to an 8-month-old daughter, Daisy Dove. Picture: Phillip Faraone/ Getty Images.

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As for the inception of Harry’s friendship with Bloom, the two have common connections in designer Misha Nonoo (who allegedly played matchmaker for Harry and Meghan) as well as singer Ellie Goulding.

Bloom, Perry, 36, and the Sussexes attended Nonoo’s 2019 wedding to Michael Hess in Rome.

As for Goulding, 34, she performed at the closing concert for Harry’s Invictus Games in 2014 and hung with the prince backstage.

Perry and Bloom also attended Goulding’s 2019 wedding to Caspar Jopling, as did Harry’s cousins Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

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Harry with Ellie Goulding at the Invictus Games closing concert in 2014. Picture: Chris Jackson/ Getty Images)

Royal expert Dickie Arbiter told the Daily Mail on Friday that it appears Harry was the one who forged the bond with Bloom.

“The question is, why are celebrities friends of the royal family?” Arbiter posed. “Quite simply, they like dining out on the fact they are a friend of the royal family. It’s like, ‘Hey ho, I went to Harry’s wedding. I don’t know him, but I went to Harry’s wedding.’”

Arbiter then claimed, “Harry’s befriended Orlando Bloom. Orlando Bloom thinks, ‘Ooh very nice — a friend of the royal family.’ It works both ways.”

Harry’s ties to Britain’s royal family can be considered strained, however. During Thursday’s exchange with Shepard, 46, Harry blasted the parenting skills of his father, heir to the throne Prince Charles.

“He’s treating me the way he was treated,” Harry said.

The former military pilot and Markle, 39, who are expecting a baby girl this summer, quit their royal duties last year and relocated stateside.

As for Bloom, he’ll be slipping into Harry’s royal shoes, as he is slated to voice the Duke of Sussex in the upcoming HBO Max animated comedy The Prince.

This article originally appeared on Page Six and has been republished with permission