Happy Birthday Prince Harry, whose 40th celebrations are very different to the partying time of a decade ago

Prince Harry says he’s excited for the next decade, professing his greatest joy to be his two children, but efforts to rehabilitate his image in Britain are not working.

Prince Harry and Meghan, during a visit to Colombia last month. Picture: Getty

How quick time flies. Cast back 10 years when Prince Harry was celebrating his 30th in 2014.

His sister-in-law Catherine was planning a bash at Kensington Palace inviting all the royal cousins but she became ill in the days beforehand with severe morning sickness, being pregnant with Princess Charlotte.

So Catherine’s sister Pippa Middleton and Harry’s pal Guy Pelly stepped in and moved the festivities down The Mall to Clarence House, the home of Harry’s father and stepmother, where Harry would be serenaded by Ellie Goulding at a black tie “apres-ski themed” soiree, complete with fake snow, for 30 friends.

At the time Harry was still the playboy prince, although his reputation had recovered from a juvenile Nazi salute and strip billiard romps as a result of recent military deployments and a freshly launched Invictus Games for injured military personnel. He was the cheeky one, the loveable larrikin.

Now that Harry turned 40 today on Sunday, it is unclear how many of those 30 are still talking to him after the toxicity of leaving the royal family, inflicting angst on the Queen and Prince Phillip, releasing a tell-all book Spare and accusing some in the royal family of being racist, in an extraordinary interview with Oprah Winfrey. Gone is the public affection, for Harry is now perceived as sour and whinging.

Prince Harry is now perceived as sour and whinging. Picture: AFP

Harry’s standing in British circles has plummeted and despite his recent desire to rehabilitate his poor image in his country of birth, his exile appears immutable.

Those who warned him about marrying Meghan – like his brother William, and his one time close friend Tom Inskip – are cut out of his life and won’t be among the handful on what The Sun newspaper describes as a boys’ day out which Harry has planned for his celebrations.

Meghan, who married Harry in 2018, has planned a low key birthday according to Vanity Fair, and will spend part of the day with him and their children, five year old Archie and three year old Lilibet. People magazine, another of the Sussexes favoured outlets, claims the celebrations will include a family day and then a simple gathering of close friends, “possibly overseas”.

Harry issued a statement via his spokesperson saying he is excited about the future, which unusually, didn’t include a reference to Meghan.

The statement from Harry said: “I was anxious about 30, I’m excited about 40. Whatever the age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”

He added: “Becoming a father of two incredibly kind and funny kids has given me a fresh perspective on life, as well as sharpening my focus in all my work. Being a dad is one of life’s greatest joys and has only made me more driven and more committed to making this world a better place.”

Plenty can be read into that. The recent quasi royal tours of personal promotion to Nigeria and Columbia where Harry sometimes scowls and appears most unhappy at being led around, will continue, perhaps to his much loved African countries Lesotho and Botswana.

Other old friends have told The Times Harry remains an angry, jealous sibling wanting the same public affection afforded to William and Catherine.

Harry’s biggest birthday present is a multimillion pound payout – as much as £9m pounds according to some reports – from a £19m trust fund set up in 1994 by his great grandmother, the Queen Mother. Both William and Harry, along with cousins received several million when they turned 21 with the second tranche available after they turned 40.

Yet clearly as Harry moves into his fifth decade his life is very different from that envisaged not that long ago.

He and Meghan dramatically left the Royal Family in 2020 in what they said was a desire for privacy; he is estranged from his father King Charles; he has trashed his stepmother Queen Camilla and he has broken the brotherly bonds of trust with William and Catherine. He is fifth in line to the throne and has kept his Duke of Sussex title. His children have Prince and Princess titles, but his beloved children have had next to zero connections with their grandfathers, and only Meghan’s mother Doria is a constant family member in their lives.

Harry often says he is happy even though he says the “process” of leaving Britain and moving to the nine bedroom A$20m Montecito mansion has cost him friends.

Two years ago while promoting his book he insisted: “There’s also a lot of people who refuse to accept that I could be happy out here because of what I’ve left behind but the reality is that I’ve never been happier”.

Instead he has a ready made celebrity circle in the Californian sun – including some of Meghan’s actress colleagues, the couple’s neighbours Oprah Orlando Bloom, tennis star Serena Williams, and of course the film maker Tyler Perry, who came to their aid with a Los Angeles abode when the couple were temporarily homeless. Harry has just finished a Netflix series on polo with his Argentinian friend Ignacio “Nacho” Figueras. He rides his bike, takes the kids to school and to the beach, walks the dogs and works side-by-side on huge desk alongside Meghan planning their various projects.

The couple appear to want to be in the public eye and to be known as generous philanthropists, but their privileged lifestyle and desire for celebrity is at odds with their social messaging. They struggle to keep staff and some who have worked with them are not complimentary.

Spotify executive Bill Simmons labelled them grifters, and last week the influential Hollywood Reporter claimed that the couple have high turnover of employees because of their poor decision making. The publication quoted a person close to the couple claiming that Meghan “marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders”, adding: “I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears”. The publication says: “She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person – no airs at all – but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.”

Just how Harry can reinvent himself and his wife over the next ten years after their recent history of selling themselves on the back of a royal family institution they profess to hate will be fascinating. But as he promises, he will continue to show up.