Angela Levin says Duke of Sussex is 'shadow of the prince' she once knew

The Duke of Sussex has ‘discarded life as an action man to become an airy-fairy do-gooder’ with a ‘woke West Coast life’, a royal biographer has claimed.

Prince Harry, 36, and Meghan Markle, 39, are currently residing in their $14million mansion in Santa Barbara with one-year-old son Archie, and have racked up as much as £100m in deals with Spotify and Netflix. 

Royal expert Angela Levin, who wrote Harry: Conversations with the Prince in 2018, has claimed that the Duke has become a ‘shadow of his former self’ since moving to California. 

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, she said while Prince Harry ‘balked at being “the spare” to Prince William, he seems to accept being second to Meghan’. 

The biographer said Prince Harry’s recent appearances were ‘out of character’ from the royal she once knew, who would instantly identify with everyone he spoke to. 

She referenced his previous work with Help for Heroes, those with disabilities and teenagers from dysfunctional homes – but said it feels like a distant memory compared with the version of the prince she sees today.  

The biographer also referenced this year’s Remembrance Day, when Harry and Meghan celebrated by visiting the Los Angeles National cemetery to pay their respects to fallen Commonwealth soldiers.

The couple were slammed for arranging for celebrity fashion photographer Lee Morgan to capture their personal act of Remembrance, with many branding the visit as a ‘publicity stunt’. 

Angela said Harry in particular would have been a great source of comfort to Brits during the Covid pandemic, but felt regret that he’s been hidden away in  Santa Barbara throughout the pandemic. 

Yet she commented that reports the pair want a 12-month extension to the Megxit deal indicate the Duke is missing ‘all the privileges’ of being a royal, including his honorary military titles and charity work.

She said: ‘Perhaps he just realises that royalty is forever, but celebrity is not.’   

Her comments come days after royal expert Hugo Vickers said Prince Harry is ‘isolated from his family, the army, his friends, the Commonwealth’ in the US, telling The Telegraph: ‘It’s a pointless existence in self-exile.’

The royal biographer compared Prince Harry’s actions to those of Prince William, 38, and Kate Middleton, 38, adding: ‘During the NHS clapping, I thought how, after the Cambridges clapped, it would have been great to have heard from him.’

Earlier this week, the Duke and Duchess launched the website for their non-profit organisation Archewell, and set out their goal to ‘build a better world’ in an open letter posted online.

But the site prominently plugs the couple’s commercial ventures – Archewell Audio, the brand they have chosen for their £30m podcasting deal with Spotify, and Archewell Productions, their chosen name for their Netflix production tie-up said to be worth as much as £100m. 

Since stepping down as senior royals in March and moving to the US, Harry and Meghan have been working towards this moment to officially launch, albeit softly, the website and the philosophy behind their organisation Archewell.

Their decision to leave was based as much about financial as personal freedom and the huge sums – thought to be well over £100million – they have earned from deals with Spotify and Netflix, gives them the capital to pursue their new lifestyle and public goals.

The announcement follows their first Spotify podcast on Tuesday which saw their
son Archie make his broadcast debut.

Commentators have already speculated that Harry and Meghan will have to draw in large audiences if they are to justify the lucrative contract their production company Archewell Audio signed.