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Was that a new spring in the step of Prince Harry as he embarked on his quasi-official tour of Japan and Singapore this week?
Of course, it may have been the exhilaration of the gushing and attentive welcome he received from the moment he arrived in Tokyo, where his status as Princess Diana’s son guaranteed him the kind of reception he once received wherever he went in the world.
Those days, however, are long gone — except in the land of the rising sun. But there was something about Harry’s enthusiasm towards his hosts (it even included a light-hearted riff with the dreaded media) that raises intriguing questions about his post-royal life.
For it was surely no coincidence that the Prince’s arrival in the Far East coincided with the brutal reality check administered by Buckingham Palace about his status — and that of his wife, Meghan — in the new‑look Royal Family.
Three years after stepping down as working royals, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have this week seen their HRH titles quietly erased from the British monarchy’s website.
The late Queen Elizabeth II wanted to ensure that anything her grandson might interpret as a snub or the slamming of a royal door was avoided
For all his anguish about his youngest son, King Charles has been more decisive. He evicted Harry and Meghan from their Windsor property, Frogmore Cottage, and many detect his hand in the adjustments carried out to the royal website
They were also downgraded on the official pecking order so that their online biographies appear below those of Princess Alexandra and the Duke of Kent — even though Harry, as fifth in the line of succession, is significantly closer to the throne than his elderly second cousins.
Predictably, courtiers downplayed the gravity of the move. They insisted it was a mere ‘tidying up’ of a situation that has existed since the couple headed into Californian exile in 2020.
Back then, it was announced that they would be forbidden from using their ‘Royal Highness’ style in future amid their headlong dash for money and commercial deals.
Those close to the royals, however, tell a different story. A visceral bitterness persists at the sustained attacks that Harry and Meghan have waged against family members through his memoir and their various television interviews.
In such a highly charged atmosphere, there was resentment that elements of the Duke and Duchess’s previous lives were allowed to remain unaltered, as though they were still somehow part of ‘the Firm’.
One reason there was no push for a change was because the late Queen Elizabeth wanted to ensure that anything her grandson might interpret as a snub or the slamming of a royal door was avoided.
‘Her Majesty never stopped hoping there would be some kind of reconciliation and that the couple would return to the fold one day,’ says a close figure.
But her death last September predated the trauma of Harry’s book, Spare, and the explosive revelations he made about his father, brother and, in particular, his stepmother, now Queen Camilla, whom he accused of leaking stories about him to improve her own public image. For all his anguish about his youngest son, King Charles has been more decisive. He evicted the couple from their Windsor property, Frogmore Cottage, and many detect his hand in the adjustments carried out to the royal website.
‘Her Majesty never stopped hoping there would be some kind of reconciliation and that the couple would return to the fold one day,’ says a close figure.
Prince Harry, pictured with his polo playing partner Nacho Figueras, took time to do some shopping for their families while visiting Tokyo, as they were pictured posing in aviator sunglasses
‘Even if he didn’t authorise it, he must have been aware that the changes were certain to become a talking point,’ says a long-time adviser. With the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death fast approaching, the moment to make the change was judged to be the right one.
There was certainly an element of ruthlessness for a mere administrative correction. In one section referring to Meghan, the royal website previously described how ‘after university Her Royal Highness worked as an actress’. It now reads: ‘After university she worked as an actress.’ A later passage relating how ‘Her Royal Highness also wrote and edited a lifestyle website’ has been changed to ‘the duchess also wrote and edited a lifestyle website’.
Some, no doubt, will see these amendments as minor details, but to a couple whose brand is inextricably linked to their royal status, it was an unexpected blow, although they have not been stripped of their titles of Duke and Duchess.
All the same it was a brusque confirmation of just how far they have been sidelined and how their star quality has been extinguished.
This was not the only bruising setback Harry experienced over the past week. A poll in the U.S. revealed that the most popular member of the Royal Family was not the California-based Duke of Sussex but his elder brother, Prince William.
When people were asked to rate 15 names on the world stage, William came top, closely followed by Ukraine’s President Zelensky. And although Harry was not in the Gallup survey, the results indicate that despite his wounding attacks on William, his brother’s popularity remains intact.
This represents something of a challenge to Harry. For a long time, he and Meghan could rely on American backing in the face of fast-vanishing support in Britain. So the Duke, travelling without his wife to Japan, put on something of a brave face for his first overseas outing as an ex-royal.
After his flight from Los Angeles, he appeared unusually relaxed and cheerful as he made his way through throngs of well-wishers. Perhaps mindful that he can no longer use the status HRH The Prince Harry, he chose not to take the VIP pathway — which surely would have been available to navigate the crowds.
The smiles, bonhomie and banter were reminiscent of the old pre-Meghan Harry.
When a reporter shouted out to ask how he liked being in Japan, Harry responded: ‘It’s good to see you again.’
In one section referring to Meghan, the royal website previously described how ‘after university Her Royal Highness worked as an actress’. It now reads: ‘After university she worked as an actress.’
Netflix reportedly paid £88 million ($100million) for Harry and Meghan’s bombshell docuseries as part of a multi-year deal with the streaming giant
Compare this with the last time he and Meghan appeared at a public event together, in New York in May. On that occasion, aides claimed the pair had been subjected to a ‘near-catastrophic car chase’ — a description that later unravelled as police reported ‘no collisions, summonses, injuries or arrests’.
In Tokyo, the difference was striking. Here was a happy-go-lucky Harry who, after attending a summit on sport and philanthropy, where he bowed respectfully to his audience as is Japanese tradition, was moved to suggest that he would be happy to live in Japan ‘if you’d have me’.
He even found time to be effusive about the food, praising ‘the most incredible Kobe steak’.
So what is going on? Months of bad headlines and poor approval ratings are certainly part of the reason for this change in Harry’s demeanour.
The couple’s endless complaints about slights, perceived or otherwise, from the Royal Family and the media — as well as their sense of entitlement — have not just induced a fatigue among previous supporters. Critically, they also represent a potential threat to the one thing the Duke and Duchess cannot afford to lose: their earning potential.
Brand experts say the reason Meghan has largely been absent from her husband’s side as he promoted his autobiography was because the negative publicity that was attached to him represented a risk of contagion to her own future plans.
But her absence has also inevitably led to speculation about the state of their marriage. A recent string of joint appearances, including a restaurant visit earlier this month for Meghan’s 42nd birthday, may have extinguished some of those rumours for now.
Next month, the couple are due to travel to Germany together to attend the Invictus Games, the sports event for wounded and injured ex-service personnel that was set up by Harry in 2014.
As he reminded everyone in Tokyo, charity is important to him. ‘My life is charity — always has been, always will be,’ he declared.
Many are wondering whether the same Harry who has been on view in Japan will appear at his wife’s side for the Invictus opening ceremony in Dusseldorf.
Being free from the usual anxieties about Meghan, so often visible when they are together, may be one reason for the generally contented air he has displayed this week.
Another is his travelling companion, Argentinian Nacho Figueras. The handsome polo player, 46, has been the perfect foil for the Prince. Before they flew on to Singapore on Thursday, he posted pictures to Instagram of the two of them trying on women’s sunglasses, with the caption ‘Shopping for our wives’.
You have to go back many years to see Harry quite so relaxed.
Prince William is taking over as Colonel-in-Chief of The Army Air Corps, which would give him command over Harry’s former unit, 662 Squadron. Pictured: Prince Harry at the Founder’s Day Parade at Royal Hospital Chelsea in 2019
The Prince and Princess of Wales have both been given three new military appointments each by King Charles. Pictured: William and Kate on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the RAF centenary
The Prince and Princess of Wales are set to lead the tributes to Queen Elizabeth on the first anniversary of her death, according to reports. Pictured: William and Kate with Her Majesty at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019
Another reason may be the presence of the man hosting him in Japan, wealthy philanthropist Haruhisa Handa, an eccentric New Age guru and head of the Shinto-based religion World Mate.
Handa, the colourful heir to a sake-brewing fortune, enjoys publicity. He once issued a picture of himself at the centre of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper.
He boasts that beyond his calling as a priest, he is an operatic baritone, a ballet dancer and an artist in calligraphy, as well as an actor, golfer and poet who has had works of art displayed in the British Museum and even conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Guardian’s critic described an appearance Handa made at a concert at St John’s church, in Smith Square, Westminster, as ‘the worst musical performance I have ever heard in public’.
More controversially still, the portly Handa has also been embroiled in several scandals. In 1994, he settled out of court two sexual harassment claims brought by female followers and had a tax evasion allegation dismissed in the 1990s.
Intriguingly, Harry is not the only royal that Handa, who has written more than 200 self-help books preaching happiness through spirituality and material prosperity, has cultivated. He has twice been received at Buckingham Palace by — who else? — Prince Andrew.
True, it was not money that contributed to Harry’s apparent well-being — he received no fee for his appearance and travelled at his own expense. But it may take more than a charm offensive to restore the Sussexes’ tarnished reputation.
Little by little, their downgrading is beginning to resemble death by a thousand cuts.
From the refusal to allow Harry to wear military uniform at Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021 and the couple’s distant placement at last year’s Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service, to the Duke’s seat with the royal also-rans at the Queen’s funeral service and his non-role at his father’s Coronation most recently in May, the Sussexes have been increasingly pushed to the margins of royal life.
Then last week came senior members of the Royal Family’s pointed failure to publicly wish Meghan a happy 42nd birthday, followed swiftly by the humiliating rewriting of the couple’s official biographies underlining their position as minor royals.
The question is whether Harry’s smiling appearance in Japan this week is an acceptance of this new reality and the first sign of a much-needed dose of humility.
Only time will tell.
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