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ARTHUR EDWARDS
Prince Harry looked bored to bits on his ‘royal’ tour of Colombia – he misses the fun he had before Meghan came along
Everything changed for Harry from the moment he met Meghan
CHEER up Harry it might never happen . . . or maybe it already has.
I think our once favourite royal is bored to bits, fed up of this endless woke pantomime he now finds himself starring in.
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How else to explain his glum-looking expression during yet another tedious tour with his publicity hungry wife?
Even with the red carpet rolled out for him during his faux-royal tour to South America, the Duke of Sussex often struggled to raise a smile.
While his wife, Meghan, got into the salsa spirit with an almost permanent grin, the exiled Royal stood downcast by her side.
Looking at the photos from the couple’s four-day trip to Colombia, it appears to me that Harry is a very unhappy man.
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They were there at the invitation of the country’s vice president, Francia Marquez.
Colombia is a fabulous country and I have been there with the King when he was Prince of Wales on a real royal tour hosted by the then president, Juan Manuel Santos.
The contrast could not be more obvious.
Charles appeared to me to love every second of his time in this truly exciting country in the autumn of 2014.
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It was a most fantastic visit.
Distinctly fed up
But when I watched Harry on TV playing the drums, he looked like he was only doing it half-heartedly.
Prince Harry is loathed for the very same reason he used to be popular - someone needs to tell him ‘that’s enough’
It seemed to me the Duke would rather have been somewhere else.
As he prepares to turn 40 next month, no wonder many people are now asking: Is Prince Harry suffering a Transatlantic mid-life crisis?
The case for this is strong.
Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate
A friend of Prince Harry's
One close friend, who claims to still receive messages from Harry, has revealed the Prince, who used to be so happy-go-lucky, is missing Britain.
The pal told The Sunday Times: “He has ended up isolated from his family and most of his old mates.
“He’s an angry boy. Things haven’t turned out how he wanted.
“Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.”
Certainly the boy who was the life and soul of the party is now a shadow of his former self.
Naturally gregarious
We are told he rarely speaks to his old friends and even when he returns to the UK his stays are so short he doesn’t have the chance to catch up.
In June, he even missed the wedding of son Archie’s godfather, the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor to avoid upsetting the bride and groom and William, who was there.
I think this must cut Harry deep — he loved his mates and all the hi-jinks.
He’s naturally gregarious.
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He likes to be around people he likes.
That’s why he was such a good soldier — because he was also a brilliant comrade who enjoyed the company of people from the military.
In the UK he had a loyal group of friends who shared his sense of fun and also his escapades, like his ill-fated trip to Las Vegas.
I’m sure he not only misses those mates but I suspect he is bored at home in Montecito without his old pals.
All he does is spend time looking back
A former adviser to Prince Harry
He appeared distinctly fed up in his last TV interview on American station CBS.
The couple only have a small circle of friends in California.
And a former adviser recently confessed: “All he does is spend time looking back.”
I know exactly what he’s looking back on — I was there for a lot of it. They were great days.
I’ve known Harry all his life, I was outside St Mary’s Hospital in London when he was born on September 15, 1984, and travelled the world with him.
I will never forget the fun he had on his royal tour to Jamaica and Brazil in March 2012.
In New Zealand in May 2015 when he left his hand-print on my head in purple paint, after doing art with a group of kids, he was just amazing.
In those days I put my name down first on the list to do any job involving Harry because he always made it so worthwhile.
He’d tell us: “I’m here to make it work for you guys.”
And he did.
But then things changed.
In July 2018, just two months after his wedding, Prince Harry was at Croke Park in Ireland, where the greatest hurlers in the world play.
He was offered a hurling stick to hit a ball with.
He was offered a hurling stick to hit a ball with. Looking at the media, he appeared to think “I’m not going to do anything for them” and he simply refused.
But a year before that I’d been in Kilkenny with Prince Charles and he hit a ball out of the park.
That’s the difference.
One embraces the job of being a member of the Royal Family and the other one reluctantly did it.
The last royal engagement I did with Harry before he decided to quit was at Lealands High School, in Luton.
The girls couldn’t get enough of him, they were all hugging him.
It was just an amazing day.
He was cheerful and even got a ball out and played rugby with the kids.
It was so exciting, and the pictures were so good, that I won an award for one of them.
Those joyful images were a million miles from the photos we saw over the past few days in Colombia.
I have been thinking about why these two sets of pictures are so different.
Destroying all he had
On that last engagement, in September 2019, Meghan was not with him.
He probably thinks he has met the love of his life, but everything changed for Harry from the moment he met her.
Relations with his brother and his wife Catherine are so bad that William is reported to have said he does not want Harry at his own Coronation.
Even I was surprised by that news.
We could be talking about something a decade or more away, but here he is factoring in that he will still be upset with his brother.
These boys used to be inseparable.
I watched them ski together, play together, learn to fly together in the Royal Air Force.
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No one knows him like his family but, sadly, Harry seems to be destroying everything he had.
He and Meghan know too well that the family really doesn’t want to speak to them.
His father couldn’t even find time to see him on a visit in May — not even ten minutes — because The King was too busy.
I know that’s a sign.
When the Royals do that, they don’t want to speak to you.
That doesn’t say happy families, to me, that says miserable families.
And it’s not the King who’s miserable, because I’ve worked with him a lot recently.
Despite his packed diary and his on-going cancer treatment, he can create time in his diary.
Sat around stewing
Just yesterday, Charles broke his rest and recuperation holiday in the Highlands to travel to Southport to see the families of the children who were stabbed and to thank the emergency services.
I don’t know what Harry does all day, once he has taken his kids to the park and fed his chickens.
I suppose he’s got very little else to do except write books and sit around stewing.
It’s such a shame, a bright spark snubbed out.
I wonder if it’s this peculiar halfway house he finds himself in that is exacerbating his misery.
He isn’t a working royal but keeps undertaking the kind of things that royals would naturally do, the things he apparently turned his back on.
Maybe he’s wondering what it’s all for?
How has he found himself in this predicament?
I sense real regret over his actions.
What I do know is that Prince Harry should no longer call himself the Duke of Sussex.
If he is not going to work for the royal family any more, he should call himself plain Harry Wales, and take the titles away from his wife and children.
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And why not take out American citizenship while he is at it and start a life as an ordinary person?
That way, he won’t have to make himself unhappy trying to pretend he is still something he no longer wants to be.
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Meghan & Harry shielded by 'ballistic briefcase' on trip to Colombia school
By Alex Diaz and Ethan Singh
PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle were guarded by an "immense" army of security in Colombia with one officer appearing to hold up a ballistic Kevlar shield during their visit to a school.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a full security detail, alongside vice-president Francia Marquez, who invited them on the tour.
Harry and Meghan's cavalcade included at least 14 vehicles and the school's perimeter had soldiers, police and suited private security stationed around it.
Their "immense security presence" in Colombia is thought to include an officer armed with a Kevlar shield - known as a ballistic briefcase - to stop any potential shooter taking aim at the couple.
Pictures from their visit to the school's garden appeared to show a security guard brandishing the shield in the crowd.
At each event the couple have attended, the man has been seen jumping out of a vehicle ahead of the couple while holding the folding shield.
The item - known as a ballistic briefcase - is also being used to protect the country's vice president Francia Marquez who is hosting the visit and has been the target of several assassination attempts.
During their visit to Colegio La Giralda in the capital, Bogot, the Duke and Duchess took part in an art session and planted trees.
Harry and Meghan's arrival was celebrated with performances from students who wore traditional Colombian dress and played cumbia songs with live percussion.
Pupils also presented presents for their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, including Colombian style ponchos, as well as personal letters and drawings.
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