Hopefully Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and baby Archie are settling into their new North American life nicely after stepping down as senior members of the royal family. While we still don’t know exactly what their post-palace life will look like—Markle is reportedly looking for a new agent or manager—we are getting new insight into all that led to their big decision.
The prince’s longtime friend, polo star Nacho Figueras, spoke out about Harry in a new ABC special, Royal Divide: Harry, Meghan and The Crown. He offered more insight as to why the duke and duchess stepped down as senior royals. “I spoke to Harry a few days ago,” he said. “He has suffered a lot from all of the things that have happened to him. He wants to live a normal life, as normal as his life is going to be, right? Because when you have a thousand paparazzi outside your house in Canada waiting to get a picture of your son that’s not very normal.”
Nacho Figueras and Prince Harry at a 2009 polo match in New York City.
Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesFigueras hinted at the struggles Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, had with the press—including their possible culpability in the Paris car accident that took her life. “He’s protecting his family, he’s protecting his wife and his child,” he said. “He was a son of someone that has suffered the attack from the press firsthand, and it’s undeniable, and he doesn’t want for that to happen to his family.”
That certainly tracks with what we heard from Prince Harry himself in a speech he gave before leaving England to reunite with Markle and Archie in Canada. “The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges,” he said. “I’ve accepted this knowing it doesn’t change who I am or how committed I am, but I hope it helps you understand what it had come to, that I would step my family back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life.”
.jpg)
