Prince Harry's 'Royal' Declaration Has Everyone Questioning His Future With Meghan Markle

You can take the prince out of the palace, but you can't take the palace away from the prince. Such was the message Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, recently made clear. ITV News caught up with the scandal-plagued Harry on April 24 in Ukraine, where he was meeting with a landmine-clearing organization. The interviewer asked him, "Do you recognize that phrase, 'Not a working royal'?" The prince immediately responded, "No. I'm still a part of the royal family, and I'm here working and doing the very thing that I was born to do. And, you know, I enjoy it, and I enjoy doing it." Harry went on to explain that he appreciates being able to bring public attention to causes that might otherwise be forgotten.

The prince's declaration was (pardon the expression) royally mocked online. Social media users roasted him on X, formerly Twitter. "Prince Harry is not a working royal," went one clapback. "Reality isn't whatever he says it is." Other commenters threw back in Harry's face a statement he made during his recent trip to Australia, in which he recalled his mentality following the tragic death of his mother, Princess Diana. "I was like, 'I don't want this job. I don't want this role — wherever this is headed, I don't like it,'" he said (via Town & Country). 

There was also some suspicion that the black-sheep prince might be looking to return to the fold. "Hey look: Harry wants a return ticket from his 'freedom flight,'" snarked one royal observer. "I guess Harry wasn't so 'trapped' after all." Similarly, another critic suggested, "Hollywood wasn't so fun, I guess. Seems that hedging all bets on Meghan Markle wasn't the best idea." 

In all fairness, netizens were a bit confused about Prince Harry's statement to ITV in which he said he was still a member of the royal family, not a "working royal." When Harry and Meghan Markle made their infamous "Megxit" from the palace, his grandmum, Queen Elizabeth II, determined they would no longer be working royals. In other words, they could make appearances and support causes as much as they like, but they can't do it in the name of the crown. 

The comment also revealed that Harry still feels a connection to his heritage, and some wonder whether he might be looking to take up his birthright duties again. If so, that could spell trouble for his marriage. Royal biographer Tom Bower recently told The Daily Beast, "I think Harry would like that solution [returning to the palace as a working royal], but Meghan definitely would not want to live in London ... She wants to be a star in California, so I think that as long as they're married, that is a completely untenable solution." Meghan's feelings about London go both ways, with Bower adding that the British public would never fully accept the former "Suits" star as a royal in-law. "Even if she groveled, they'd feel, 'Well, you're not groveling enough.' They're really angry with her," he said.

Ultimately, Harry's confession about not wanting a royal life after Princess Diana's death seemed more about wanting to avoid the constant media scrutiny than about carrying out official tasks. For that reason, it's not likely he's planning to come back to the Firm. He and Meghan get enough flak from the press now; he wouldn't dare bring her back to the U.K. to be eviscerated in the tabs again.