With Sweden’s Prince Carl-Philip’s plans to marry in June, I think we can officially say that Prince Harry is the hottest royal bachelor in the world at this moment. Right? These are photos of Harry out and about today in London, announcing a new project with Walking with the Wounded (more on that in a second). Harry looks long and lean here, but I’ve always liked him in jeans and casual clothes. While he’ll never have the sparkle and debonair charm of someone like John F. Kennedy Jr., Harry still has something, you know? Hot bachelor is hot.
As for the new Walking with the Wounded Challenge, it sounds like a good one. They’re not going to some far-flung place to freeze their nards off. Harry and five wounded warriors are going to do a 1,000 mile walk/hike around Great Britain, from Balmoral (Scotland) to London. This will be going down August 22 to October 31). At the announcement event today, Harry also spoke about his choice to step down from his military post:
In a speech at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, he said that as he made his own transition to civilian life he was “determined to do all I can to help others”. Harry, 30, said: “The public’s support for our Armed Forces continues to be extraordinary. However, as the memory of our military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan fade, we must encourage people to continue supporting our servicemen and women; particularly those who are seeking to transition into civilian life. This process can be challenging, as it is for anyone seeking a new career. As I make this transition myself, I’m determined to do all I can to help others.”
Harry met the team and asked several questions about their injuries and care, even apologising for bombarding them with so many questions because he’s been “learning about it and how it all works”.
Harry said: “Walk of Britain will cover all parts of the country. Walking through the communities in which our service personnel and veterans grew up and now live. In doing so, Walk of Britain will give everyone the opportunity to meet these remarkable men and women. People up and down the country will get to see first-hand the determination and resolve of those who have served, and in particular those who have been injured or suffer hidden wounds. They will see that whatever their circumstances these men and women are looking to the future. They are looking to employers to give them the chance to keep making a contribution to our communities.”
Wow. God, he’s grown up to be such a lovely man, hasn’t he? And his “gap year” is filling up really, really quickly. Harry has been thinking about leaving his military post for a while, it seems, and has organized a busy schedule for the next few years. He’s going to complete his military service by spending a month with the Australian Defense Force (in April & May), then doing appearances with his dad in Australia and New Zealand. Then Harry is going to sub-Saharan Africa for the summer to volunteer. Then he’s doing the Walk of Britain. Then he’s going back to the Ministry of Defense on a voluntary basis, likely to organize the second Invictus Games. Busy, busy, busy.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
A lovely man? Oh please. It’s all PR and window dressing. Grandma could make more for charity by selling off a few chandeliers.
Is it about making money or creating an experience? The games and hikes are experiences that build bonds with those who need that community. Somethings are more valuable than funds. Also, Harry does well in his fundraising. I not sure how anyone can mock the genuine efforts of another to bring causes into the light or mock the funds raised for good purposes.
As far as PR window dressing Harry follows through. So, that statement hasn’t a leg to stand on.
I followed the coverage of the South Pole walk they did last year, and the people involved in it were pretty inspirational. They had all suffered life altering injuries in combat, but still trained and completed an incredibly difficult thing. I think it has to be incredibly therapeutic to those who participate, and inspirational to others who watch them. The funds raised are great too, but I agree sometimes it’s about more than the money.
Certainly any celebrity being public about charity involves a bit of PR, but it doesn’t mean they don’t genuinely care, or that they shouldn’t do it.
No mocking involved. But this family firm have highly paid marketing people and media manipulation strategies that would put the Kardashians to shame. If they want to contribute to good causes there are plenty less ostentatious ways of doing so, including paying tax on the duchy of Cornwall assets. No nice photo opps there though.
Before everybody gets too gushy and starts trashing William and Kate in comparison – note that Harry is doing things he really enjoys doing. He’s an active social guy. He gets to do something beneficial at the same time and is drawing attention to good stuff, but he’s also having a lot of fun.
He got the long end of the stick in the lottery, that’s for sure. He’s probably relieved every time another kid arrives to bump him further down the chain to the throne. He looks like he enjoys his life. I’d grab my trekking poles and amble over the UK with him in a heartbeat. He’d be great fun and yes Kaiser, he is the hottest Royal.
I would love to do a walking tour of Britain one day. Maybe not as extensive – that’s a lot of time and a LOT of miles! – but maybe on a smaller scale.
I wonder how much press coverage there will be during the tour.
Here, Green Girl. Britain’s best walking trails. I’ve done a few of them – South West Coast Path, Offa’s Dyke, Glyndwr’s Way.
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/
Thank you, Sixer! For now, it’ll just be a daydream. But I hope to do it one day soon!
I think where most people note a difference between Harry and William/Kate is that Harry does these charitable endeavors like the polar trek or this upcoming trek through Britain or the Invictus Games on top of his other royal duties and charities. More often than not, his charitable activities are not counted toward his royal appearances in the court circular whereas something like Kate’s visit to Downton Abby would be counted as at least one appearance. That’s not to trash Kate because she’s really, really stepped up her game over the past few months. She really seems to have taken the guidance of the new PR person to heart.
I agree, but I think that this the best way for him to approach his charity work. Might as well do things that he enjoys and is therefore most passionate about. It wouldn’t seem “more charitable” or “more commendable” to me if he only went to art galleries and conferences because those aren’t things that he would naturally be drawn to.
I’m not here to trash Will and Kate. I think Harry has worked out a great way to marry his work obligations and his personal preferences for travel, an active lifestyle, and working with wounded military men and women.
If you look at entire royal family’s core charity patronages, they all start at personal interests. It’s pointless saying Harry is enjoying himself too much with his charity endeavours when they all do the same thing.
WK tend to fall short because they truly don’t seem to have personal interests that can be turned into charity patronages or they (and advisors) haven’t/can’t figure out how to make the conversion. As a result, the obligation to be charitable forces them to be shoe horned into things that bore them.
However, Kate was very engaged today especially with the mothers that suffered post natal depression. According to the charity she requested a meeting with them ahead of the engagement. It implies that she may have suffered the same, and was thus much more interested and engaged with the group. She did a similar thing last year at an engagement that was about childhood bullying where she stayed an hour longer to listen to different unscheduled presentation on child development for 0-3yr olds.
That’s an example of a royal using a personal interest to do charity.
Right, but what is William passionate about? What does he enjoy? Harry does the things he’s passionate about so of course he enjoys them in the process. I feel like no one knows what, if anything, William is passionate about because he doesn’t just go out and do things voluntarily like Harry.
William has passion for conservation, helicopter piloting, and polo. Anything else is a cause handed down I think. He would do well if he go involved with a charity that did something with helicopter piloting. For fund raisers he could pilot around.
Because Kate hanging out with Ben Ainsley isn’t fun?
As LAK wrote, they all start from points of personal interest. Facing down injured servicemen and women as a physically unscathed helo pilot is probably difficult (feelings of guilt, why them and not me?). Working with Sentebale would be as heart breaking as it is uplifting.
It may be based in his personal interests and things he enjoys, but I wouldn’t call all of Harry’s work “a lot of fun”.
Harry’s charity work doesn’t get the coverage it deserves. He appears engaged and enjoying his time doing it, but that’s likely more because of just that. He’s invested in the causes. You also see him tearing up. Harry finds that balance.
It’s still work and he does much behind the scenes. Even his US trip over a year ago was very low key as far as press.
Exactly. He has found things he enjoys and can fully throw his royal weight behind. Which begs the question – why can’t William and Kate do the same? Work doesn’t have to be drudgery. You can enjoy it and make an impact while still working.
I think Kate isn’t very comfortable with most things she’s been doing, she isn’t a natural with people the way Harry is. He can do a lot of things she can’t just because he has a different personality and a different skill set. He can easily relate to a lot of different people and is brimming over with energy, which is very helpful but that’s just the way he is. It seems unfair to compare them. Someone pointed out that sports events engage Kate, that might be one direction to take in charity work. Now that she has the heir and the spare, issues involving mothers and children and pregnancy might work for her – sounds like it from what someone else observed. Dunno about William. He likes to fly but gets ragged for it…. He might just not be extroverted enough for what folks here seem to expect of him, and he married a woman with a similar difficulty. They can be comfortable with people they know well, but that doesn’t transfer over to an endless parade of other people. One of the problems of a hereditary monarchy Is that kids get assigned at birth to a job that may not really suit them well for many reasons.
I don’t think laziness is really the problem for W&K. Going out frequently to deal with a bunch of strangers actually takes a lot of energy even if it seems easy from the outside. If the tasks aren’t a good fit to the person, it can be overwhelming and exhausting. The Queen is a wonder, does she ever sleep? Harry seems to have her energy. Lucky Harry. But the Queen also raised a rather dysfunctional family, so her hectic royal schedule did interfere with a rather important aspect of her life.
HM is known to be extremely shy. HM became queen at 25, a far more involved position than what W&K have. She is the counselor to the nation’s government AND she does hundreds of royal engagements on top of that.
W&K can’t even handle 100 engagements per year without crumbling. Being a working parent doesn’t make you a bad parent. They could easily do a few hundred engagements per year and not work more than 20 hours per week. Their isolated children will need the opportunity to go to pre-school to get some perspective other than a Middleton one. They can work while the kids are at daycare.
Some people have jobs that require them to talk to a bunch of strangers 50 hours per WEEK.
W&K have all their household, work research, and child care done for them by someone else. If W&K cannot handle talking to the public 300 hours a YEAR with all that help, they need to step aside.
The whole point of monarchy, notasugarhere, and one of the reasons it’s so objectionable, is that no matter how lazy or useless you are, there is nothing that can be done to make you step aside.
Are you familiar with Wallis and Edward?
Yes I am familiar with Edward and Mrs Simpson’s case, and it in no way invalidates my argument notasugarhere. Edward abdicated because he wanted to marry a divorced woman. He resigned of his own accord, he wasn’t fired. He was in fact very sympathetic to the nazis, and would have been a disaster as head of state in WW2. But there would have been no way of removing him. There still isn’t.
Does the value of his charity work lessen because Harry enjoys doing it?
Does the value of W&K’s charity work increase because they seem not to like doing it?
He’s having fun because he’s found a cause in which he’s very interested. W&K are allowed to do the same too if they wanted to.
Ok, I have to ask. In the UK do people in the military have a certain amount of time to make the next rank or be asked to retire? Or does that only happen in some US cases? Because I’ve heard/read that despite being a good soldier and nice enough fellow, he’s not the brightest bulb on the string.
I guess it’s a cosmic joke that William will one day King. Or Harry might not have been like this had he been first in line? Who knows but he’s always been quite likeable. Even as a child. Remember those homemovie/ speech classes Diana did? And Harry’s causing trouble and you hear William in the background telling him to stop?
Prince or not, I’d hit that.
Prince Harry stories two days in a row? Yes, please.
And while we are at it, can we replace the daily Cumberbatch posts with daily Prince Harry posts? No question who is hotter and comes across as more fun.
I’m not a huge fan of the royal family but Harry is a very likeable fellow.
Harry seems to be the classic extrovert. He is energized when surrounded by other people even when they are strangers. This helps him deal with heavy situations while still maintaining joy in his work. I suspect William and Kate tend more toward the introvert side, and introverts are easily drained by the same things that energize the extroverts. Public life can be very hard on introverts. But that’s pretty much the job for a ceremonial royal, so they’re stuck with it as long as the monarchy stands.
@jwoolman
Being an introvert, i have always wondered the same about William. It can be exhausting to meet strangers…but living an aimless existence doesn’t seem to be the best solution…maybe he can try to find a way to do charity, his own way.
Harry has expressed a big fear of public speaking, though, which is often an introvert trait. He may be like many introverts, who put on the exhausting act of being an extrovert when required.
Introverts will vouch that it is exhausting to chat up strangers. I’m not even a polar introvert and just an hour of that will leave me drained. But i can go for hours with friends and meaningful conversation before I hit the end of my limit. No wonder W and K keep to themselves and live a low key life. If they’re BOTH introverted, it makes sense to me.
It IS exhausting, but it is what is required for the job. 50% of the population are introverts and many of them are required to get out there and chat up strangers for work.
As I wrote above, they would only need to do this 300 hours per year (roughly 7.5 weeks of work for the rest of us). That isn’t asking too much for the amount of perks and privileges they receive in return.
Notasugarhere- i’m not sure if that’s how the math works because of the way the events are spread out. Anticipatory and post-event stress, for one thing…. And also each day counts separately no matter how long you have to be “on”. But being born royal is so different from just being born rich, it just seems like such a weird burden no matter how many perks they seem to have from our peasant view. Ordinary trust fund babies (which is what they would be if the monarchy were abolished tomorrow) have far more choices. They could keep just as busy out of public view. Poor George. So many things were shut off to him at conception. Money and perks do not define happiness. Chucking it all to become a private citizen isn’t easy either because of the family and other pressures. A non-royal rich person can go private with no real consequences. All this seems to be more of a modern difficulty, though, since in earlier times just travel difficulties alone must have limited what was expected and media was one guy with a quill pen or a snarky entertainer with a lute. Maybe the problem will be moot by the time George grows up, the whole concept of royalty is so strange today that maybe the British version won’t survive much past Elizabeth II.
I suspect Harry’s fear of public speaking is a different issue, he may lack confidence for such formal speaking for a variety of reasons but not for the face to face speaking that he does far more frequently. He wasn’t a good student. Public speaking is a whole different animal and requires a good memory and the ability to easily read your notes…. If he has dyslexia, for example, that could be a big problem in the kind of speaking required for him. But I doubt that it’s an introvert/extrovert thing here. I fall pretty far over on the introvert end of the scale and have a job that actually requires being a happy hermit, but never had a problem speaking to large groups.
I was trying to give some perspective. Kate M has recently started doing what other BRF members do – more than one event per day. So you’re out, you do three events, and go home. 3 events in one day, one day a week, 52 weeks a year makes 156 engagements a year. It really isn’t that hard to up the numbers.
“The Windsors are very good at working three days a week, five months of the year and making it look as though they work hard.” Mark Bolland, former Windsor family advisor
I don’t count behind the scenes prep time as an introvert being required an extrovert. Most of the research is done by their staff. All they have to do is study the research and memorize the prepared small talk points.
I hope Harry pulls a crown prince Fredrick and meets a cool aussie on his travels to bring home to dad. That would make for a perfect gap year.
he needs new pants! Think about the sexy ginger bum in fitting jeans 😉