Regardless of how you feel about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, you can’t deny she keeps busy. Weeks after the launch of her series, With Love, Meghan, as well as her sell-out collection of luxury jams and fashion channel, she has released a new podcast, all the while sending edible flowers to every celeb with a California postcode. But the other half of Team Sussex has been more conspicuous in his absence.
Behind the camera or appearing fleetingly in her shows, Prince Harry has been called everything from an “influencer husband” to “a spare to his wife”. While this week he is undoubtedly occupied with an explosive row at his charity, Sentebale, and a secret visit to Lviv in Ukraine to meet war victims, what does a regular week look like for the Duke of Sussex? How is he spending his time?
No longer falling out of nightclubs in the early hours, Harry’s day is now far more likely to start with a 6.30am alarm. The 40-year-old isn’t getting up with the sunrise just because of his young children, Archie and Lili. This routine began shortly after meeting his wife, it was reported in 2019, as she preferred a workout and green juice to lying in bed.
Prince Harry meets emergency workers at a charity event at The Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, California, last month (Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty)
Once up, “H”, or “Papa” as he’s known around the Montecito mansion, might make scrambled eggs for the family – “he makes a great breakfast”, Meghan reminded us in a rare reference to Harry in her Netflix show. (Although he also has a propensity for over-salting food before tasting it, she says).
Haz – another nickname used by his wife – then fits in a 40-minute meditation and workout. Katie Nicholl, author of Harry: Life, Loss and Love, says he “makes a point of exercising every day”. He no longer goes to Barry’s bootcamp in LA, preferring a personal trainer. There are the two dogs that need walking – Pula and Mia – and rescue chickens to feed. He also enjoys birdwatching, filling up the feeder in the garden for the local hummingbirds.
Neighbours have said that they see him hiking or on nearby beaches – like Butterfly Beach, three miles from their house, where Meghan filmed her New Year’s Day beach running video. He also does the school run (Archie turns six in May, and Lili is three). “Harry is a pretty hands-on dad,” says Nicholl. “He loves taking the dogs and children to the beach after [pick-up]”.
Keeping a lower profile than his wife, he fills his days with outdoorsy pastimes, such as surfing or cycling. “Normally when you see him, he’s walking his Labrador or on his bicycle followed by his security in a Range Rover,” one neighbour told The Telegraph. In 2022, he was pictured cruising around Montecito on an electric bike. In October, he was a student at the Kelly Slater Surf Ranch.
On Instagram, coach Raimana Van Bastolaer shared a video of Harry (taking on waves very convincingly): “In Tahiti, we call you Prince Harry, but at surf ranch, it’s my brother.”
Harry and Meghan with their friends, polo player Nacho Figueras and his photographer wife Delfina Blaquier, at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale. last year (Reuters/Marco Bello)
Making money
But, cut off from the purse strings of the British royals, Harry also needs to spend his time making money to fund the family’s security and lifestyle. This is no doubt an adjustment. “He looks like the kind of guy who would, frankly, happily work for charities for the rest of his life and would be very happy if Meghan made all the money and he didn’t need to,” a source “from inside the couple’s circle” told Vanity Fair.
So far there have been some successful revenue streams: Spare, Harry’s book which sold 1.4 million copies on the first day of publication, and their five-year Netflix deal, reported to be worth $100m (although that deal comes to an end this year and questions have been raised over its renewal). But a second series of With Love, Meghan has already been filmed, and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has publicly only got praise for the couple. “We are a massive partner in Meghan’s company” (Netflix has a stake in her jam business, As Ever), saying that the couple are “underestimated” and “overly dismissed”.
Harry visits the Superhumans Centre in Lviv, Ukraine (Photo: Superhumans Centre via Reuters)
Other ventures have been less of a triumph: the untimely termination of the couple’s Spotify deal – both parties said it was a “mutual decision” to part ways – the Wall Street Journal reported that Harry and Meghan probably did not receive their full $20m payout because they failed to meet “productivity benchmarks”. And Bill Simmons, a Spotify exec overseeing innovation and monetisation who worked with them, branded them “grifters”.
Charity work clearly comes much more naturally to Harry. Along with the Invictus Games, which he founded in 2014 (the next Games are in 2027), and the Archewell Foundation, which funds projects on issues such as online harm and women’s rights, he is also involved in Travalyst, a charity to make travel more climate-friendly (this got him on Time’s 100 Climate list); WellChild, which gives children with complex needs the ability to be cared for at home; and African Parks, a conservation effort.
Meghan’s new lifestyle series With Love, Meghan (Photo: Jenna Peffley/Netflix)
What this actually translates as day to day is creating promotional videos and content (he filmed one in his garden for Travalyst at the start of April), delivering keynote speeches and making appearances to shake hands. In 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he spoke to the staff of The Halo Trust in the Donbas region. “This wasn’t a quick ‘how are you doing?,’ It was a long conversation and it meant a lot,” Louise Vaughan said the trust’s Louise Vaughan.
He is also “chief impact officer” at BetterUp, which matches customers with career coaches (though disgruntled employees there have complained his day-to-day responsibilities “included ‘zero things’”).
A lot of Harry’s time is no doubt being taken up by his legal challenges: in the UK, he is involved in a battle with the Home Office over state funding for security. This week, as his wife launched her new podcast, he arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice to oversee the latest stage. “He’s very busy at the moment travelling between the US and the UK for his court cases,” says Nicholl.
In August, it was reported that a former Archewell employee suggested his wife wished he did not have to deal with these legal headaches: “[Meghan] supports Harry 100 per cent but she wishes he could let go of these lawsuits, be happy and live in the moment.”
Prince Harry arriving at the High Court this week for a hearing about his security (Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP)
Back across the Atlantic, things aren’t any easier, as an American conservative think tank is making trouble for him over his visa, and questioning whether the Prince lied on his immigration forms about past drug use. The case has led to the unsealing of his visa application in court.
When they are not working, or juggling legal fights, Meghan says the pair have “day dates” where they share lunch. In the school holidays, she told People magazine that they “hosted camp” at their house where different families brought their children over: Harry set up obstacle courses and face-painting.
Nicholl says Harry’s life is “a lot more normal than most people realise. He is quite a homey person”.
From left, Heather Dorak, Prince Harry, Genevieve Hillis, Julian Zafjen, Kelly Zafjen, and Meghan in an episode of With Love, Meghan (Photo: Jake Rosenberg/Netflix)
In the evenings, they wind down with TV shows like White Lotus, Black Doves and Harrison Ford’s comedy-drama, Shrinking. They are also partial to a “nightcap recap” – a drink and a debrief about their respective days while packing the children’s lunches. If they’re getting a takeaway, it is Chinese. Sometimes they eat out (Lucky’s steak restaurant or upmarket Italian at Tre Lune). “He and Meghan enjoy date nights, but they’re also happy staying at home. Harry particularly likes things to be low key,” says Nicholl.
On rare occasions they do also go out to promotional events near home: in September they went to the opening of the bookshop Godmothers at 2280 Lille Avenue, along with celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Netflix CEO Sarandos, which presumably made for interesting small talk.
So what do the next five years hold for Harry’s daily life? More hobbies? A new home office? “The focus has to be on their commercial work; their deal with Netflix, creating new content and also their charity work,” says Nicholl. She adds that there isn’t any chance of them moving from the US – it is their long-term home – and Harry loves his Montecito lifestyle.