Per Page Six, during an interview, the Prince of Wales revealed that he once presented the Princess of Wales with a pair of binoculars, a gift that has since become a running joke between the couple.

“I did get my wife a pair of binoculars once. She’s never let me forget that,” Prince William said, as per Page Six.

“That was early on in the courtship — I think that sealed the deal.” He went on to explain that the gift didn’t go over well, adding, “It didn’t go well. Honestly, I have no idea why I bought her a pair of binoculars, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” as per Page Six.

The humorous confession comes from the early days of their relationship, which began when both William and Kate were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

The couple met in 2001 and, after years of dating, married in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.

While the binoculars might not have been the perfect gift at the time, they have since become a fond memory for Kate, who William joked “has never let me forget” it.

In fact, the royal family has a tradition of exchanging gag gifts during the holidays, as per Page Six.

Prince Harry, for example, revealed in his 2023 memoir, Spare, that he once received a fish-shaped ballpoint pen from Princess Margaret, while it’s also been reported that Harry gifted Queen Elizabeth II a cheeky shower cap with the words “Ain’t life a b–h” on it, as per Page Six.

Meanwhile, Kate herself once reportedly gave Harry a playful “grow-your-own-girlfriend” kit.

This year, Prince William, Kate, and their three children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6 spent the festive season at the royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, following the longstanding royal tradition of gathering there for Christmas.

Ahead of the holiday, Prince William shared that he would be hosting 45 guests at Sandringham and anticipated a “noisy” celebration.

However, one notable absence this year was Prince Harry and his family.

Reports from Page Six suggest that Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, did not receive an invitation to the holiday festivities.
 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Amid reports about the alleged rift between Prince Harry and Harry Meghan, a documentary, based on the couple’s life away from the spotlight of the royal family in the UK, is set to release in Germany next month. Award-winning filmmaker Ulrike Grunewald who travelled to the Californian town of Montecito to record the couple’s experiences, said they had been leading a very ‘isolated’ life in what was a lively setting for socialising and mingling in the who’s who of America.

“Harry and Meghan have set the bar very high. They want to be global benefactors who bring about tangible change. So far, they have not lived up to this image at all,” Ms Grunewald, who has been a royal correspondent since 1987, told The Mail.

“The cultural life here is very lively but often happens in closed circles, and Harry and Meghan rarely participate. They seem to have isolated themselves a lot.”

A similar version was echoed by one of the neighbours named Richard Mineards who said the Sussexes were seldom seen in the town.

“Sometimes you see her at the farmers’ market or walking a dog, but generally, you don’t see much of her or him. It’s a shame. This is a lovely place,” Mr Mineards said.

Also Read | Prince Harry’s Friend Talks About “Dysfunctional” Royal Family

Notably, the film intends to examine whether the couple had achieved “freedom” and financial independence since stepping back from royal duties.

“During the year that we worked on this film, a change of strategy was recognisable in Harry and Meghan. They started out as a power duo in their new life in California,” said Ms Grunewald.

Now they mainly appear separately, as they were unable to create a functioning image together. They have come down to earth. I was interested in whether Harry and Meghan’s strategies for an independent life are working. After four years, the results are very mixed,” she added.

Professional separation?

In the last week, multiple reports have claimed that the couple was exploring separate career paths, in what experts have described as ‘professional separation’. While Ms Markle is reportedly aiming to launch American Riviera Orchard next year, Mr Harry is planning the second iteration of Invictus Games in Canada. The first installment took place in Dusseldorf, Germany in 2023 and invited positive reviews. However, reports suggest that it cost German taxpayers 40 million euros (Rs 357 crore), undermining the goodwill.

Former rugby union player James Haskell, who has been best friends with Prince Harry for a long time, has labelled the British royal family “very dysfunctional”, adding, some of the members “aren’t as great as others.”

Mr Haskell opened up about his bond with Harry and his family in an interview with the London Times and said he has spent a lot of time with them over the past several years.

“They do amazing work — but they’re also a modern family that’s very dysfunctional,” Mr Haskell said.

He said he was in attendance when Harry got married to Meghan Markle, adding he was even a part of “Mike and Zara’s wedding.”

Despite criticising some of them, the 39-year-old defended the monarchy, saying they “serve an important role”.

“To those who want to get rid of the monarchy — once they’re gone, they’re gone. There’s no way back from that, so remember they serve an important role. I love what they do,” he added.

In the last few years, all has not been well between the royal family and Prince Harry and Meghan, particularly after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved out of the family. It got no better after Harry opened up about his issues with his father and brother in his memoir, Spare.

Earlier, a source close to the family told People magazine that although the rift between Prince Harry and his brother Prince William was “very bad,” it wasn’t “irreparable.”

Harry visited his homeland last month but did not see either his father or brother during the trip.

Meanwhile, Haskell continues to share a special connection with the royal family as he hosts “The Good, the Bad & the Rugby” podcast along with Alex Payne and Mike Tindall, who is married to Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne.

The Tindalls are said to be close to both Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton and Harry’s family.

London:

Prince Harry was once one of the British royal family’s most popular members, but as he celebrates his 40th birthday this weekend he is increasingly distanced from the UK public and his own family.

The younger son of King Charles III, now living in California with his American television actress wife Meghan and their two young children, reaches the landmark on Sunday.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Archie, aged five, and three-year-old Princess Lilibet live in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, near Santa Barbara, on the US West Coast.

But Harry is not only separated by geography.

“He is completely isolated. I don’t see him coming back even with a minor role… there’s no sign of an official role for him,” Pauline Maclaran, from Royal Holloway University of London, told AFP.

“They (the public) don’t trust him,” added royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

Fraught ties with royals 

Harry’s ties with the royal family have been increasingly fraught since the couple quit royal life and moved to North America in early 2020.

First came an explosive television interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which the couple claimed that senior royals speculated about the colour of their unborn son’s skin.

Meghan is of mixed heritage.

Suggestions of racism prompted Harry’s brother William, heir to the throne, to declare when asked that the royals were “very much not a racist family”.

The brothers’ grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, also politely questioned Harry and Meghan’s version of events.

“Recollections may vary,” she said in a statement, promising to look into the matter.

A potentially decisive rupture came early last year with the publication of Harry’s uncompromising and unfiltered autobiography “Spare”.

The book, which is set to be released in paperback in October, was seen as an all-out attack against the centuries-old institution of the royal family, which still plays a central role in British life.

It includes lengthy passages on Harry’s strained relationship with his “beloved brother” William, 42, whom he also describes as his “arch-nemesis”, and their father.

Experts told AFP they did not see any reconciliation on the horizon.

“His differences from other members of the royal family probably would have been settled by now if any agreement had ever been possible,” said Mark Garnett, from the University of Lancaster in northwest England.

“The idea of a divided royal family only increases unwelcome media attention.”

Harry told American TV network ABC in February that he was “sure” his father’s cancer diagnosis could reunite the family, days after a brief visit to the king.

However, on another visit by the prince to London in May, father and son were at separate events nearby but did not meet.

Harry, who has railed against media intrusion, even reportedly declined an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace during his visit and instead stayed at a London hotel.

“He is naive about the damage he has caused”, said Maclaran.

‘Locked horns’ 

Relations between William and Harry, whose once-close bond was forged with the death of their mother Princess Diana in 1997, remain publicly frosty.

They were seen together at the late queen’s funeral in September 2022 but have pointedly kept their distance at subsequent events, including at their father’s coronation in May last year.

Royal author Robert Jobson likened the pair, who are reportedly not on speaking terms, to stags “who have locked horns”. 

“I can’t really see a reconciliation in the near future,” he told reporters in London this week.

While Harry and Meghan have more supporters in the United States, the British public has also apparently taken sides in the family feud.

Harry and Meghan languish at the bottom of royal popularity surveys, alongside his disgraced uncle Prince Andrew, whose links to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have made him persona non grata.

In contrast, William and his wife Catherine, who is recovering from cancer, are hugely popular.

Former British Army captain Harry, meanwhile, is keeping busy with several projects, chief among them the preparation and promotion of the Invictus Games he founded for military veterans with disabilities.

He and Meghan also recently completed a mini-tour in Colombia and Nigeria promoting mental health, equality and inclusion.

If royal tours are a “vehicle for (British) diplomacy”, the Sussexes’ visits are a way of refining their “branding”, said Maclaran, who has written about the royals and consumer culture.

The tours are a way to “stay relevant”, she added. It is only “the (royal) titles that make them different from other celebrities”, she added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Prince Harry has found a new mentor and “father figure” in Canadian music icon David Foster, according to sources close to the pair, The Times reported. The 74-year-old music producer has become a close friend and confidant to the Duke of Sussex during his time in the US, as per the report.

Foster, who lives near Harry and Meghan Markle in Montecito, California, has apparently filled a void left by Prince Harry’s strained relationships with his own family, particularly King Charles. Katharine McPhee, Foster’s wife, described the bond between Harry and her husband as “like father and son”. 

How they became friends

Meghan Markle attended the same Catholic middle school in Los Angeles as Foster’s wife, Katharine McPhee. Although they weren’t close friends at school, they reconnected in London when McPhee was starring in the musical Waitress on the West End. It was then that David Foster and Prince Harry hit it off.

Foster and McPhee helped the Sussexes find a place to stay in Canada after they left the UK in 2020. The 16-time Grammy winner helped the couple find a $14.1 million rental home in Victoria, British Columbia, while they looked for a permanent residence in California.

Foster told the Daily Mail back in 2020 that he was honoured to help the ex-royal couple, citing his Canadian roots and the commonwealth connection. “I was just happy through my friend to facilitate what I could for them, and it looked like they had a great rest,” he said. “They are a young modern family. I’m sure they want to balance their commitment to the crown and be a 2020 family.” 

Since then, Harry and Foster have been close friends. McPhee said, “My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. They’re so cute.”

In October 2020, the Sussexes moved to Santa Barbara, and the two couples have been inseparable ever since. They were spotted enjoying a double date at Lucky’s Steakhouse in Montecito, where Katharine McPhee, then pregnant with her son Rennie, chatted with Meghan Markle about purchasing a home in the area.

Prince Harry is set to receive a huge payout on his 40th birthday later this year, according to a report. The Duke of Sussex will turn 40 on September 15. In striking contrast to his elder brother Prince William, who received a ceremonial bell concert at Westminster Abbey on his 40th birthday, Prince Harry will inherit millions on his milestone birthday, thanks to arrangements made by his late great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. 

According to the Times, the late Queen Mother established a $90 million trust fund for her family, which listed that the Duke of Sussex would receive his share when he turned 40. Prince Harry will reportedly rake in around $8.5 million from his share, which is more than Prince William is slated to get.

However, Prince Harry would still have to pay taxes on his inheritance, while his elder brother would benefit from the tax-exempt Duchy of Cornwall – a private estate that funds his public, charitable and private activities. 

“William will benefit from the vast wealth of the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate that funds the public, charitable, and private activities of the king’s heir,” a source said, per New York Post. “As a result, Harry is likely to receive slightly more than half of the 14 million pounds allocated for the brothers,” they added. 

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With an estimated current net worth of about $60 million, Prince Harry’s upcoming inheritance would be a welcome addition, the outlet noted. 

Following their exit as senior working royals, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle settled in Montecito, California. Their net worth was largely boosted because of the several high-profile projects they’ve taken on since quitting royal life in 2020. These projects include a Netflix original, Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, and Meghan Markle’s 12-episode podcast, Archetypes. 

According to the Post, Prince Harry is even considering publishing a follow-up book. The duo are also in for a big payday with the forthcoming launch of Meghan Markle’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. 

King Charles allegedly held a private meeting with David Beckham after being unable to meet with his son Prince Harry during his visit to the United Kingdom earlier this week. According to The Times, the 49-year-old former England football captain had a “private meeting” with the 75-year-old to discuss King Charles’ charity, the King’s Foundation. on Friday. “Beckham is understood to have visited Charles to learn more about his charity, the King’s Foundation,” the outlet said.

The Duke of Sussex arrived in the UK on May 7 for events marking the anniversary of his Invictus Games. His spokesman had said that he won’t meet his father, who is undergoing cancer treatment. “In response to the many inquiries and continued speculation on whether or not the duke will meet with his father while in the UK this week, it unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full programme,” said the spokesman.

The statement said, “The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”

However, according to news agency AFP, it was expected that the pair would meet at some point during his latest trip.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are on a brief tour of Nigeria to promote the Invictus Games, an international sporting event that the Duke of Sussex started a decade ago for troops injured in action. During their first trip to Nigeria, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited the school as one of their first stops. They were invited to Nigeria by the country’s highest-ranking military official, the Chief of Defence Staff.

Meanwhile, at a reception for military families in Abuja, Prince Harry spoke in Nigeria of the tragic loss of the “brave souls” in the country’s military who had lost their lives in conflicts and said he felt “goosebumps” after seeing plans for a new centre to rehabilitate injured troops.

He said he had on Friday met 50 wounded soldiers during a trip to northern Kaduna and could see that the injuries were defining their lives, but there were some who had smiles on their faces. Nigerian forces are fighting jihadists in the northeast of the country and armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest. “What this proved to me, what this reminds me of, is the power of seeing what is possible post-injury,” said the 39-year-old, adding that “seeing the plans for the new Invictus Centre gives me goosebumps.”

London:

Prince Harry is set to return to the United Kingdom next month to commemorate a significant milestone of the Invictus Games, the sporting event he established a decade ago, CNN reported.

Scheduled for May 8th, Prince Harry will deliver a reading at a ceremony in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, marking ten years since the inception of the Invictus Games. His last visit to the UK was in February, following the announcement of his father King Charles’ cancer diagnosis.

Reflecting on his swift trip, Harry expressed his gratitude for being able to spend time with his family during such a challenging time. However, it remains unclear if he will have the opportunity to meet with his relatives during his upcoming visit.

Since relocating to the United States with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in 2020, Prince Harry has made occasional visits to the UK, including attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and his father’s coronation last year, as reported by CNN.

As for Meghan’s attendance at the Invictus celebration, it remains uncertain, particularly considering the proximity to their son Prince Archie’s fifth birthday on May 6th.

Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles, who is undergoing treatment, will resume public duties soon. While his schedule will be managed carefully in consultation with his medical team, he is expected to welcome Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako for a state visit in June.

The Invictus Games, initiated by Prince Harry after his service in Afghanistan, serve as a platform for supporting the recovery of wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans.

The next edition of the games is scheduled to take place in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada, in February 2025, featuring over 500 competitors from 20 nations participating in adaptive sports. Additionally, winter sports, including Alpine skiing, snowboarding, and Nordic skiing, will be introduced for the first time, in partnership with First Nations communities as part of efforts towards truth and reconciliation, CNN reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid papers bugged Prince Harry’s landline phones and accessed the messages on the pager of his late mother Princess Diana, the British royal’s legal team told London’s High Court on Thursday.

Harry, the younger son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana, and more than 40 others are suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over accusations of unlawful activities by journalists and private investigators on its tabloids, the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s until 2016.

In a ruling last July, Judge Timothy Fancourt said Harry could take his claims of unlawful information gathering to trial, but his allegations of decades-old mobile phone hacking were thrown out for being filed too late.

In a hearing at the High Court on Thursday, Harry’s lawyers sought to amend his lawsuit in light of that ruling, and to add other, new allegations.

These include further claims that the Sun ordered private investigators to target his then girlfriend and now wife Meghan in 2016, and accusations of widespread bugging of his calls.

“The claimant also brings a claim and seeks relief in relation to the interception of landline calls, the interception of calls from cordless phones and analogue mobile calls, and the interception of landline voicemails, as distinct from phone hacking,” his lawyers’ said in court documents.

The claim also includes allegations relating to Diana who “was under close surveillance and her calls were being unlawfully intercepted by (NGN), which was known about by its editors and senior executives”.

NGN is objecting to the addition of what it called a “huge number of new allegations” for numerous reasons including that they were made too late, lacked evidence, and related to phone-hacking claims which had already been dismissed.

“They cover time periods falling outside the scope of the current pleading and the generic statements of case, and in many cases relate to allegations which have been well-publicised for as long as 30 years,” NGN’s lawyers said in court filings.

In 2011, NGN apologised for widespread phone-hacking by journalists at the News of the World, which Murdoch shut down following a public backlash. NGN has since settled more than 1,300 claims but the group has always rejected allegations of any wrongdoing by Sun staff.

On Wednesday, lawyers for Harry and the other claimants told the court that Murdoch and other senior executives were involved in the cover-up of widespread wrongdoing, and they had given false evidence to courts, parliament and a public inquiry.

NGN says some claimants are simply using the lawsuits, expected to go to trial in January next year, as a means to attack the tabloid press, and that allegations against its current and former staff were “a scurrilous and cynical attack on their integrity”.

Since stepping down from royal duties in 2020 to move to California, Harry has turned his focus onto battling the British press which he says has intruded into his private life since he was a child, spreading lies about him and those close to him.

In December he won a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspaper over allegations of phone-hacking and unlawful activities, with the judge agreeing senior figures had been aware of what had been going on.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle’s biographies on the Royal Family’s official website have been updated. The couple’s biographies have been removed and merged into a single joint profile, as per a report in People Magazine.

Before this, both had individual biographies on the royal family website, which acts as a digital hub for news and updates on the monarchy. Their statement on the page says, “As announced in January 2020, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stepped back as working members of The Royal Family. The couple married in St George’s Chapel, Windsor on 19 May 2018 and have two children: Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.”

Under the headings “About the Duke of Sussex” and “About the Duchess of Sussex,” the page breaks down Harry and Meghan’s biographies, recapping notable moments like Prince Harry’s ten years in the British Army and the founding of the Invictus Games alongside Meghan Markle’s seven seasons on ‘Suits’ and lifestyle blog The Tig. Earlier, both had longer biographies including Prince Harry’s page mentioning his role of “supporting the Monarch.”

The Royal family’s website also mentions a link to their new website which was launched in February by the couple. In a new rebranding move, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s website has the latest news about the couple as well as links to their Archewell Foundation organization and Archewell Productions hub.

Their website which was earlier called Archwell will now be referred to as, sussex.com. The homepage features a photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Germany at the 2023 Invictus Games closing ceremony in September. According to the statements issued by The Office of Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex, the couple aims to showcase their passions and endeavours, asserting their identities beyond traditional royal responsibilities.

“The reality behind the new site is very simple – it’s a hub for the work the Sussexes do and it reflects the fact the family have, since the King’s coronation, the same surname for the first time. That’s a big deal for any family. It represents their unification and it’s a proud moment,” an insider said.

However, the couple was slammed for using their royal titles and the Royal Coat of Arms on their new Sussex.com website. “Prince Harry and Meghan’s Biographies are immaculate! Come on”. said a reader. “This signifies their Hollywood failure and inability to succeed in their numerous business ventures. So they are falling back on the only thing they know to do and what can make them any money, trading off their royal titles. This is pathetic and demonstrates, yet again, why the titles must be removed,” an X user wrote.