On Thursday, Prince Harry made his first public appearance since the announcement that he and his wife Meghan Markle would “step back” from their duties as senior royals. In the week since, Meghan made a quick trip back to Canada, where she has been spotted visiting a community soup kitchen and boarding a seaplane. Harry, on the other hand, stuck around England for a crisis summit with Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and Prince William. Besides, he had an engagement with the Rugby League World Cup on the calendar.
When he showed up at a makeshift rugby pitch in Buckingham Palace, he watched a group of kids play, gave remarks in support of the league’s new focus, and participated in the draw for next year’s tournament. But according to the reporters on the ground, Harry tried to laugh off all questions about his royal future. “Prince Harry ignored questions from the media about how discussions are progressing on his and Meghan’s future,” the Daily Express’s Richard Palmer wrote on Twitter. “He had his back to us by then but I am told by a colleague on the other side that Harry laughed out loud when the first question was asked.”
At a moment when Harry’s relationship with the press is a bit rocky, perhaps it wasn’t wise to laugh at the reporters. But to be fair to the prince, no person in their right mind wants to answer questions about the “future” and few people are interested in talking about their relationships with their grandmothers in public. Later, footage from the event was uploaded to the @SussexRoyal Instagram, soundtracked by the Stone Roses’ song “This Is the One.” The Daily Mail points out that the song contains the lyrics “I’d like to leave the country.”
So while it’s unclear exactly how much inspiration Harry is drawing from the tune, based on the royal diary, the rugby engagement was Harry’s last official appearance as a senior royal. Last week the Daily Mail reported that he is eager to get back to Canada to be with Meghan and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, but according to Hello! Harry will be staying in the U.K. until next week to attend a few meetings.
Though it’s the end of an era for Harry, he has already voiced a desire to continue working with the charities he aligned himself with during his years as a full-time royal. On Wednesday, he announced that the 2022 Invictus Games—the Olympics-style competition for wounded service members that he founded in 2014—would take place in Düsseldorf, Germany.
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