A ROYAL expert has claimed she saw how happy and free Prince Harry once was but things have changed now.
Broadcaster and royal correspondent Sarah Hewson said that the Duke of Sussex was once “one of the most popular members” of the Royal Family.
The royal expert made the comments while appearing on The Sun’s popular Royal Exclusive show.
But over the years Prince Harry has seen his relationship with his family sour after the release of his memoir Spare and Netflix docuseries.
The Duke of Sussex stepped down from the Royal Family four years ago and has since made a number of shocking allegations about brother William and his wider family.
Speaking to the Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, Sarah said: “Prince Harry was one of the most, if not the most popular member of the Royal Family because of his ability to relate to people.
“He was seen as relateable. Yes there were the headlines about the ‘Party Prince’ and whatever… it was part of his charm, his ability to communicate with people.
“He was an extremely powerful force within the Royal Family becayse that knack of reaching people that others couldn’t and he had his mother’s touch in that way.”
She said she went to Lesotho with him in 2008 where he was “free of all of the constraints of Palace life”.
Sarah continued: “He was honouring his mother’s legacy. He was surrounded by Army colleagues as they were building a centre for disabled children in this tiny African kingdom.
“He was working with children – everything that brought him joy. He was free. He was alive.”
She added that he did not “show” his “problem with the media” there and appeared to be “happy” to have the press there.
The expert said that Harry and Meghan could have played “such a key role”, especially with several senior Royals now taking a step back from public life amid serious illness.
“I think it’s really really sad to see just how things have changed,” she added.
It comes after The Sun reported how royal correspondent Ms Hewson said the current state of family affairs is “a mess, and it’s a very sorry mess”.
Speaking about the upcoming royal summer break at Balmoral, The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson asked whether Harry and Meghan would be receiving an invite.
“We’re always told the King’s door is always open, but would they be invited?,” responded the royal expert.
“I don’t see an actual physical invitation being issued but were they to ask, it would be very difficult for the King to say no.
“He doesn’t want this distance with his son, and he certainly doesn’t want this barrier between him and his grandchildren.
“He’s met Lilibet once, Archie just a handful of times. That’s really, really sad. Obviously geography pays a part in that, we aren’t going to see the King jumping on a plane to California to see them.”
Then there were the well-known tensions between Prince William and Princess Kate and the Sussexes which Sarah thinks will only contribute to rising stress levels.
And the situation was complicated due to Kate undergoing cancer treatment.
She added: “We know things with the Waleses and the Sussexes are extremely tense.
“I don’t see any signs of any thawing there – and it’s really not a priority.
“One of the things the Waleses really want to focus on now is keeping things calm, stress levels down, during the Princess‘ recuperation.
“I really don’t think a reunion with Harry and Meghan is going to do anything for stress levels, and it’s just not their focus.”
In 2018, the Sun told how “simmering tension” began when William questioned the speed of Harry and Meghan’s engagement.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry, 39, also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
It came after Prince Philip called Meghan the “D.O.W” after the Duchess of Windsor — the American divorcee who led Edward VIII to abdicate.
And he warned the late Queen to be “cautious” of Harry’s then bride-to-be, a royal author claims.
Ingrid Seward revealed in new book My Mother And I that Prince Philip felt it was “uncanny…how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor“.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Last year Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan.
In his book Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
