PRINCE Harry told how he “ached to be someone else” four years before officially quitting the royal family.
In a recently resurfaced interview, the Duke of Sussex revealed his inner turmoil and hinted he was already keen to ditch royal life months before announcing his engagement to Meghan Markle.
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Speaking in 2017 to Newsweek, the then 32-year-old said he ached to be “something other than Prince Harry” as he opened up about his troubles following his the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Even then – three years before announcing his and Meghan’s intention to step down as senior royals and four years before Megxit was rubber stamped – Harry said he was “determined” for his future kids to have a “normal life”.
“I do my own shopping,” Harry told the outlet in 2017.
“Sometimes, when I come away from the meat counter in my local supermarket, I worry someone will snap me with their phone.
“But I am determined to have a relatively normal life, and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too.”
His remarks came just months before getting engagement to Meghan, with the official announcement made in November 2017 – after a whirlwind romance saw them date for little more than a year before Harry proposed.
Just shy of six months later, the pair married at Windsor Castle on May 19 before announcing Meghan’s first pregnancy that October, with the couple’s son Archie was born days before their first wedding anniversary.
But less than a year after this birth, Meghan and Harry shocked the nation in January 2020 by announcing their intention to step down as senior royals and become financially independent.
It came after reports of a growing rift between brothers William and Harry and Meghan famously telling reporter Tom Bradby she wasn’t really “OK” during the couple’s tour of Africa.
The family of three upped sticks and moved to America, splashing out more than £11.5million on a mansion in the Montecito neighbourhood in Santa Barbara, California, in June 2020.
In February this year, Buckingham Palace officially confirmed that both Meghan and Harry had officially quit the Royal Family with The Duke, 36, losing his military titles.
The months that have followed have been nothing short of explosive for the Royal Family – with bullying accusations levelled against Meghan in March.
A source told The Times newspaper the Duchess of Sussex drove two personal assistants out of the household and undermined the confidence of a third during her time at Kensington Palace.
The bombshell allegations came just days before Harry and Meghan’s tell-all chat with Oprah, in which the Duke of Sussex said his relationship with his brother was “space” and claimed his family were “trapped” by their royal duties.
During the conversation with Oprah, the couple made a series of shocking allegations – most damaging of all that an unnamed member of the Royal Family had made a racist comment about the colour of son Archie’s skin.
But the Queen hit back at claims, commenting that “some recollections may vary”.
In a statement released almost two days after the interview aired, the monarch said that family was “saddened” but that allegations would be taken “very seriously”.
Meanwhile in May, Harry dropped more “truth bombs” in The Me You Can’t See, where he accused his family of showing “total neglect” for his mental health woes and claimed dad Charles made him “suffer”.
It comes after a friend of Prince Philip claimed he was worried about Meghan and Harry’s “preoccupation with their own problems” as he lay in a hospital bed just weeks before his death.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex pressed on with their bombshell tell-all chat with Oprah in March despite being urged to postpone it as the frail Duke of Edinburgh remained in St Bartholomew’s in London.
Meghan and Harry pre-recorded their interview with the US chat-show host only hours after Philip went into hospital before its scheduled UK release on March 8.
Philip – who stood by the Queen’s side for more than seven decades – was taken to King Edward VII hospital, also in London, on February 16, and after two weeks he was moved to St Bartholomew’s for a heart procedure.
Pressure mounted on the couple, CBS and ITV to delay airing the chat – but advice was dismissed and the broadcast went ahead.
According to Philip’s friend and biographer Gyles Brandreth, the Duke – who was one of the hardest working royals – was “unconcerned” by this, royal historian Robert Lacey claims in The Times.
“What did worry him, said Brandreth, was “the couple’s preoccupation with their own problems”, Mr Lacey said.
