Just In: Prince Harry’s decision to quit UK just blew up in his face – this will break his heart

Just In: Prince Harry’s decision to quit UK just blew up in his face – this will break his heart

When Prince Harry was a squaddie he relished the brotherhood he had sought growing up – so his decision to quit Britain and the Armed Forces must have broken his heart. Nothing compares the world he once enjoyed to his life in the US now more than last weekend’s Trooping the Colour, where he was notably absent.

Last Saturday King Charles, Queen Camilla, William, Catherine and the rest of the Royal Family were dressed in their best while inspecting regiments of the Household Division. Meanwhile Harry was watching game five of the NBA basketball finals series between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks.

To add salt to the wound Harry wasn’t even in the front row with top celebrities like actors Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet – he wasn’t even in the second, third, or fourth … he had a seat in the eighth row.

You can tell he was aching to be involved in Trooping the Colour, as his speech to the Invictus Germany Sports Festival 2026 on a giant screen went out around the same time the Royal Family were heading down The Mall.

Harry described his 10 years in the military as a life-changing experience that provided “normalcy” and “burst the bubble” of royal life – and described his military brothers as his “second family”.

Harry had a distinguished military career – both in service and later with honorary roles as a working royal.

He entered Sandhurst in May 2005 and joined The Blues & Royals. In 2007 he was deployed to Afghanistan for 10 weeks, working as a forward air controller, coordinating airstrikes on Taliban positions. He also served in Helmand Province.

The Duke of Sussex then retrained as an Apache pilot in the Army Air Corps and returned to Afghanistan in 2012 as a helicopter co-pilot and gunner but left the Army in March 2015.

General Sir Nicholas Carter, the then-Chief of the General Staff, said Prince Harry had “achieved much in his 10 years as a soldier”.

In 2014 he founded the Invictus Games, an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans.

He was also appointed three honorary military roles: Captain General Royal Marines, Honorary Air Commandant, RAF Honington and Commodore-in-Chief, Small Ships and Diving, Royal Naval Command.

Harry at this stage must have been in his zenith. He was in love with Meghan and getting married, he was starting a family with Prince Archie on the way, the British public adored him but crucially he was supporting the Armed Forces.

But when he and Meghan quit the UK in a row with Queen Elizabeth over their desire to commercialise their royal titles and make serious money as ‘half-in-half-out’ royals he had to hand those honorary roles back.

Yes, he still has the Invictus Games, but you cannot help but think he must still be heartbroken over that lost military life.

The basketball game is a microcosm of his new life in the US. He is now deemed surplus to Hollywood’s requirements. The US public have become bored by the Sussexes.

Big money TV deals like their Netflix one have dried up – you imagine he will soon have to write another book and make the contents even more bitter than ‘Spare’ to sell.

It’s been years since he attended the splendour and pageantry that is Trooping the Colour. It was once a fixture of his life – how he revelled in the cheers from the crowd, the banter with the soldiers.

Now he can only watch it on TV. It’s actually quite sad.