‘Who is this man?’: Pictures from Prince Harry’s solo Japan trip reveal telling transformation

The Duke of Sussex has touched down in Japan without wife Meghan – and footage of his arrival reveals something very telling.

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Note the time, note the date. Quick, jot down the longitude and latitude.

Maybe one day you will be able to regale your grandchildren of where you were when it happened – the day when Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex smiled.

SMILED.

Overnight on Wednesday, the 38-year-old landed in Tokyo where he is taking part in a summit about sport and how bloody good sport is, alongside his chum and walking Ralph Lauren billboard Nacho Figueras. (Ding dong!)

The two men had not made it even out of the airport before the duke got busy doing something he has not done in public for what feels like years – actually looking happy.

Actually looking relaxed.

Big Harry Energy is back.

Big Harry Energy is back. Picture: ANN

There was, of course, the duke’s smile, a warm baring of teeth in the vicinity of cameras and press that the world has not seen since in what would have to be about half a decade (truly). Gone was his usual glowering disposition, tension seemingly coiling just barely under the skin, as he was forced to make nice (or make not outrageously rude) when faced with a phalanx of TV crews and photographers.

Instead, here was Harry – I know, I’m clutching my smelling salts out of abject shock – answering the waiting media warmly.

When a reporter asked “How do you like to be in Japan for the first time in four years?” he did not ignore them or scowl or, as he did to a Sky reporter in 2018, admonish them, but actually replied amiably with “Good to see you again”.

Who is this man?

Who is this man? Picture: ANN News

All of this matters because the reappearance of Old Harry, with that heart-melting, easy grin and all this happiness, on display even when he’s doing nothing but walking through an airport, throws into stark relief that Thundercloud Harry of recent years.

The sad fact is that we have all gotten so very used to the Duke of Dour.

So used to photos of him looking tense as his burly US security guards, not a single visible neck among them and all arms like Christmas hams, herd he and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex in and out of official stateside engagements.

So used to photos of Harry purposefully striding into UK court buildings with all the twitchy unease of a man about to enter a gladiatorial arena armed with only a spork.

And so used to seeing the duke sit down for TV interviews where he is forced to peel back tender emotional layers and lay bare his hurt feelings for slack-jawed audiences, because that is pretty much what he does for ready dosh these days.

The question that these Tokyo pictures really raises is, if we have not seen this chirpy Harry for so long, just how happy might Harry be with his shiny US career?

Last week, People published a lengthy cover story about the Sussexes’ professional woes, and included a quote from a royal insider saying of the duke and duchess that royal life “wasn’t a world they wanted for their family” and that “everything else flows from that”.

Gone is Harry’s now-trademark scowl. Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images

Harry looked typically glum at his father’s coronation. Picture: Andy Stenning – WPA Pool/Getty Images

But if Harry did not want that life, then that does not mean he is tickety-boo happy with the work life he has ended up with instead. Which is to say, the life Harry has now – of venti oat Starbucks lattes and being papped more in the past month than he was in years in the UK and having to come up with content ideas on the reg – is not necessarily one he might actually ever have wanted.

Fundamentally, Harry is a man who has done two things in life exceptionally well: soldiering and caring. The first he got to do when he was serving in the army and the second was his entire day job once he left the service in 2015.

Back then, the duke had the latitude and freedom to devote his entire working life to coming up with new and interesting ways to help and to make the world a better place, something he did with all the vim and vigour of a bloke on this third Red Bull who genuinely cared.

Just a small selection of his achievements: he created the Invictus Games, a whopper of a success story, was HIV tested for the cameras with Rihanna and in 2017 spoke with incredible frankness and bravery about his mental health.

Yet fast forward only six years, and today Harry’s career looks bleakly and depressingly different. Having upped sticks and moved away from Britain, the duke and duchess now have to earn a crust, which in turn means they can no longer devote their entire 9-to-5 chugging chai lattes and wondering how they can put smiles on the faces of children in refugee camps.

The duke might have chafed against the scrutiny and attention that came with royal life, but does anyone really think that professionally, he is now that much happier having to spend his days working out how to turn weepy novels about lakes or whatnot into Netflix shows?

The father-of-two made the trip to Japan without his wife of five years, a detail that won’t be unnoticed given that recent months have seen a swirl of rumours and speculation about the state of their marriage. Picture: Andrew Milligan – WPA Pool/Getty Images

That he ever really wanted to have to devote hours to brainstorming podcast ideas or having to sit through interminable meetings where peppy sorts named Brad and Sherry bang on about blue sky thinking and thought showers and streaming figures while no one touches the gluten-free muffins on the conference room table?

Does anyone really think that Harry would have chosen to make a six-part TV series and to write a tell-all if money was not a factor? That deep down, Harry’s big dream is to crack Hollywood and to end up with so many Emmys and Golden Globes he has to order a new Pflürgen Ikea bookshelf to hold them all?

Who really thinks he would rather be doing that than, say, helping save elephants on the veldt or making a tiny orphan in Africa giggle?

And there is another aspect to these Tokyo pictures too, one which no one with even the most basic fluency in la vida Sussex could fail to miss – the absence of Meghan.

The father-of-two made the trip to Japan without his wife of five years, a detail that won’t be unnoticed given that recent months have seen a swirl of rumours and speculation about the state of their marriage.

(At the time of writing, no comment had been made about why the 42-year-old had not accompanied her husband).

Look, for all we know, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be so happy their WhatsApp chat is such a nauseating flow of them sending heart emojis to one another that the Meta servers have not been able to cope.

But for now, for whatever reason, I’m glad Harry’s looking chirpy.

After the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Clive James wrote in the New Yorker that she and the then-Prince Charles had been “two people … pursuing happiness, American-style, and it was becoming more obvious all the time that they had known enough unhappiness to justify the pursuit”.

Harry and Meghan, circa 2023, have unequivocally “known enough unhappiness”.

Here’s hoping they have found or can truly find “happiness, American style”.

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 ‘Who is this man?’: Pictures from Prince Harry’s solo Japan trip reveal telling transformation