Prince Harry claps back after being called ‘not a working royal’
Once a royal, always a royal.
It’s been six years since Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, took a step back from their royal duties, but the Duke of Sussex is still addressing the matter.
The “Spare” author clapped back at an ITV reporter on Friday, after he was asked whether he agrees with being described as “not a working royal.”
“No,” Prince Harry emphatically replied. “I will always be part of the royal family.”
Harry, who spoke to the press during a trip with HALO Trust, a humanitarian landmine clearing organization, to Ukraine, noted that he was there “working and doing the very thing that I was born to do.”
“I enjoy doing it,” he said of his humanitarian work.
“I enjoy being able to do these trips and come and support the people that I’ve met before, the friends that I’ve made,” he continued, adding that he hopes to bring attention “to issues that, you know, for one reason or another, drop out of the news because something else has popped up.”
The 41-year-old royal’s visit is the latest example of him following in the footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana.
Diana notably opposed landmines, calling for an international ban on the devices, and trekked across an active minefield in Angola in 1997 — a historic moment Harry recreated in 2025.
Speaking on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, and the recent war in Iran, Harry said “the vast majority of the global population want to see an end to these conflicts” and want “less conversations about war and more conversations about peace.”
Harry and Meghan, 44, announced in January 2020 that they wanted “to carve out a progressive new role” and “step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent” while still supporting the monarchy.
They said they planned to “balance” their time between the UK and North America while “continuing to honour our duty” to the Crown, the Commonwealth and their patronages.
Just over a year later, Buckingham Palace announced that “it is not possible” for Harry and Meghan “to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service.”
“While all are saddened by their decision, The Duke and Duchess remain much loved members of the family,” the statement also said.
The couple, who married in 2018 and have two kids — Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4 — relocated to Meghan’s home state of California.
Over the years, the royal rift between Harry and his father, King Charles, and his brother, Prince William, has only widened thanks to his and Meghan’s 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey and other projects, like Harry’s 2023 memoir, “Spare.”
