The fatherly figures in Prince Harry’s life who have filled the ’emotional vacuum’ since his move to America: From music mogul to pub owner

Since stepping down as a working royal four years ago, Prince Harry has been busy building a new life in the US – and has leant on the support of several father figures while doing so.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are raising son Archie, five, and daughter Lilibet, three, in Los Angeles, and despite his seemingly strained relationship with King Charles, Harry has managed to find guidance elsewhere. 

The situation may not be so different to when he was a child. In 1993, royal expert Ingrid Seward wrote in the Daily Mail how Princes William and Harry, then aged 11 and nine, had ‘an emotional vacuum’ which needed to ‘be filled’.

Her comments came a year after their parents’ separation and at a point when the brothers were splitting their time between the home of their father and that of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales. 

Ms Seward claimed: ‘Given the Waleses’ royal position, there is no shortage of people willing to come forward to play the role of surrogate father, if only for the afternoon.’

Back then, Harry enjoyed spending time with David Armstrong-Jones, son of Princess Margaret; his older cousin Peter Phillips and his bodyguard, David Sharp.

He also looked up to his uncle, Earl Spencer – and the pair still share a close bond today. Others who have looked out for Harry since his move to Montecito include Canadian composer David Foster and former royal equerry, Mark Dyer.

Read on as MailOnline takes at look at the men who have offered support to the prince and his young family in America.

Harry attends his grandmother Frances Shand Kydd’s funeral with Earl Spencer in 2004

Music mogul David Foster with Harry at a polo match in California in 2022

Earl Spencer

Harry’s uncle, Earl Spencer, has maintained a strong relationship with the prince despite his move abroad. 

According to the Daily Express, Charles Spencer invited Harry and Meghan to spend Christmas at Althorp this year, though it is not known if the couple accepted the offer.

The earl also supported Harry at a service to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games in St Paul’s Cathedral in May. King Charles was reportedly ‘too busy’ to attend the event. 

And when Harry visited the UK in August to attend his maternal uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’s funeral, he is thought to have stayed at Althorp.

The service took place two days before the 27th anniversary of his mother’s death, and the Spencer family’s ancestral home in Northamptonshire is Diana’s final resting place. 

Earl Spencer walked beside William and Harry as they solemnly followed their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession in 1997. He was reportedly against the two princes walking at all.

He and Harry’s bond is documented in the prince’s memoir, Spare. In the acknowledgements, Harry writes: ‘Stand out thanks to my mother’s siblings for their love, support, time and perspective.’

Charles Spencer walks beside Princes William and Harry at their mother’s funeral in 1997

Harry speaks to his aunt, Lady Jane Fellows, and his uncle, Earl Spencer, as a statue of his mother Diana is unveiled at Kensington Palace in 2021

Mark Dyer 

As King Charles’s equerry during the 1990s, Mark Dyer became a fatherly figure to Prince Harry.

He mentored both Harry and William and his influence on the brothers was great, especially after the death of their mother. 

In 2001, when Harry was a student at Eton College, Mr Dyer paid him a visit and told the prince that he had been sent to ‘find out the truth’ about his drug taking.

Charles’s press office had been informed that a newspaper had evidence that Harry had been taking drugs.

When he did admit to smoking cannabis as a teenager, it was Mr Dyer who escorted him in 2002 to spend a day at a residential centre for drug users in Peckham, South London, at the insistence of his father.

Mr Dyer helped foster Harry’s early romantic relationships and protected the young prince from prying photographers. 

Tina Brown writes in The Palace Papers: ‘Dyer had become almost a second father to Harry and, with his mop of ginger hair, could easily have been mistaken for such’.

He helped plan Harry’s 2003 gap year and during the prince’s stint in Australia, warned off reporters who were swarming him on a ranch where he was working. 

Mark Dyer accompanying William and Harry to Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk back in 1999

Harry talking to Mr Dyer at the prince’s passing out Sovereign’s Parade at Sandhurst Military Academy in 2006

Mr Dyer’s son, Jasper, was a page boy at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018

‘I’ve got a young man in there in pieces. He can’t do his job as a jackaroo, he can’t go out, he can’t even muster cattle in the yards near the road without having his photo taken,’ Mr Dyer told members of the press, according to Tina Brown.  

Their relationship continued as Harry grew older and Mr Dyer’s son, Jasper, is the prince’s godson and served as a page boy at he and Meghan’s wedding in 2018. Harry also served as an usher at his friend’s wedding in 2010.

Mr Dyer is now also the godfather to Harry’s son, Archie, and since his equerry days he has created – and sold – a chain of pubs.

Last year he underwent treatment for stomach cancer, returning home to his family after six weeks in hospital.

David Foster

Film composer David Foster seems to have taken the duke under his wing in recent years, helping the Sussexes to find a home in Canada before they moved to California. 

In 2020, his wife Katharine McPhee told Access Hollywood: ‘My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. They’re like father and son.’

The music mogul, who is just a year younger than the King, reportedly planned a birthday party for the Prince that same year, a source told The Mirror.

‘David wants to make it special for Harry but also keep it casual and low-key with some fine wine, great food and intimate company,’ the source claimed.

David Foster and his wife Katharine McPhee at a birthday celebration in New York in 2022

‘He is setting aside the fire pit at his home plus the whole outdoor area, which security will cordon off.’

Katharine is also friendly with Meghan as the pair knew each other as children.

In 2019 she wrote on Instagram: ‘Meghan and I did musicals together as kids. She grew up to be the Duchess of Sussex and I grew up to star on the West End, so same life if you ask me.’