Prince Harry has had a busy week from presiding over the Invictus Games to allegedly preparing for a legal challenge over his US visa.
But while Princess Anne clocks up over 200 engagements a year, the Duke of Sussex has rarely been accused of keeping an over-busy diary since moving Stateside in 2020.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle pitched up in Montecito, California, during the pandemic - citing a desire to seek fresh challenges and to get away from the press intrusion of the UK.
A statement at the time read: "We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages.”
Having relinquished his royal duties, now only appearing to occasionally visit his father, the King, and for state functions, he initially hit the ground running with Netflix airing a documentary Harry & Meghan. He also published his memoir Spare in January 2023.
But, having recently turned 40, some have begun to question what kind of life Harry is leading and what he is achieving.
Royal writer Tom Quinn told The Sun: “He just doesn’t have anything to do. From childhood, he has been trained to be a royal, attending charitable events and meeting the public and he has thrown all that away.”
By all accounts, the prince has not been spending much time on our shores, nor with his brother William, but how is he spending his days at the moment?
While he has yet to release a morning routine video of his own, we have looked into what we do know about how he is spending his time.
What does Prince Harry do all day?
Philanthropy
Charitable work has always been a focus of post-royal life for Harry, the prince having stated his intentions from the outset.
"This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity,” a 2020 statement read.
The prince has indeed set up a nonprofit called Archwell Foundation to “identify immediate needs, build meaningful initiatives, and drive long-term change”.
The project has so far seen the Sussexes hold forums to promote online safety, hold workshops to empower women, and work with trauma-hit families.
Writing
Harry’s memoir Spare, published at the beginning of 2023, became the fastest-selling nonfiction book in British history. But it also demonstrated a crossroads at which the prince now finds himself.
“Prince Harry is a man in search of a purpose,” wrote Robbie Smith for the Standard. “A search for meaning dominates the book.”
Harry did say he had enough material for further books and a sequel to Spare is not out of the question, should he fancy going back into writing.
Spending time looking back
A Times article, written last year at the point the prince was turning 40, suggested that he is “torn between old demons and getting on with his life”.
“All he does is spend time looking back,” one former adviser to Harry is quoted as saying. “If only he could wrench his neck around and look forwards.”
Moving into his fifth decade, Harry was portrayed as having something of an identity crisis.
Supporting Meghan with her projects
The prince has said he intends to stay in the US “for good” with his wife and this is good news for the sake of her projects.
This week, the duchess has announced that her own lifestyle brand has been renamed As Ever and that she will have a Netflix series called With Love, Meghan, where she invites guests to her home for cooking and gardening.
So far, Markle’s personal endeavours have been hit and miss with Harry & Meghan being well seen on Netflix but her podcast Archetypes being canned after one season.
As Ever will replace her brand’s previous incarnation American Riviera Orchard - which has now been scrapped, not having yielded a single product to the market.
Walking his dog and looking after his children
In his cutting takedown of the prince’s lifestyle, the Sun’s Tom Quinn said walking his dog is now one of the few daily activities that Harry partakes in.
He wrote: “Friends say he’s made a decent stab at helping around the Montecito mansion, walking the dog and looking after the children.
“But the truth is he is bored. He can’t leave the mansion without a security detail and the couple’s neighbours – many of whom are far more famous than the royal couple – take little notice when they spot Harry out and about.”
Planning Invictus Games
Even before he left the UK, the Invictus Games has been a big deal for Harry. He founded the sports event for wounded veterans and held the first edition in 2014. The seventh edition in Vancouver-Whistler has just finished and it is now being held biannually.
Netflix projects
As well as Harry & Meghan, the prince has been behind a documentary about the Invictus Games for Netflix and also a film about polo.
Polo, as the film was called, was described by the Guardian as “an unintentionally hilarious profile of the world’s stupidest sport” among several bad reviews.
But with Meghan getting another show commissioned, it would not be out of the question for her husband to get another show as well.
