Prince Harry has made his first public appearance since his shock return to Britain from the United States with his family three weeks ago.
Harry, who quit Britain for California six years ago with his wife Meghan amid tensions with his family, attended a fundraising evening for his Invictus Games for wounded veterans in London.
Dressed in a smoking jacket adorned with his military decorations, the 42-year-old prince took selfies with injured former soldiers at the event. Meghan did not accompany him.
Along with their two children, Harry and Meghan landed back in the UK on August 26 and have kept a relatively low profile since.
Speculation abounds over the reasons for their return, given that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left in the middle of a falling-out with his family, which only worsened after Harry published his tell-all memoir Spare.
He is also caught up in a controversy involving his mother’s brother, Earl Spencer, and his father King Charles III. Earl Spencer has made a raft of explosive claims regarding Charles’ behaviour in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
Harry and Earl Spencer maintain a close relationship, with the Sussexes recently visiting the Earl at his home at Althorp House – where Diana is buried.
In a memoir being serialised in the Daily Mail newspaper, the then Prince Charles is accused of sounding “giddily elated” the night Diana died in a car crash in 1997.
The memoir’s more serious claims have prompted Buckingham Palace to issue an unusual rebuttal, insisting that Charles “is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory”.
- AFP