Academic success has not been a strong point for Prince Harry, who struggled at Eton College, emerging with a D in A-level geography and a B in art, bypassing university to head straight to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer cadet.
It is a choice he says he has never regretted.
Yet despite his academic shortcomings, the Duke of Sussex is an integral part of a team that is creating its own “life coaching” university, I can confess.
Harry is the third-in-command at US coaching platform BetterUp and was appointed the company’s “chief impact officer” with a reported salary of over $1 million in March 2021 to focus on “preventative mental fitness.”
The Silicon Valley mental health company is offering its mentoring and coaching packages to companies around the world, offering the opportunity to book time with the company’s experts.
Prince Harry helps team create online ‘life coaching’ university
The Duke of Sussex (right) has plans to launch an academic institution called BetterUp University that will offer online degrees in life coaching.
Prince Harry marching during the Sovereigns’ Parade in February 2007
But now I hear the company has plans to launch an academic institution called BetterUp University that will offer life coaching degrees online.
In newly filed documents, the San Francisco-based company has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register its BetterUp University idea.
The application states that the university will “offer online educational forums in the field of life coaching, career coaching, personal development coaching and professional development coaching.”
Despite the prince stating he intended to “help create impact in people’s lives” with his role at the coaching firm, he was criticised for failing to appear at one of its free online livestreams at a San Francisco summit in April.
Prince Harry greets his father, then Prince of Wales, as he leaves the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2007, marking the completion of his training.
Army officer cadets in front of Old College, Sandhurst. The prince left Eton with a D in geography and a B in art, bypassing university and going straight to the Royal Military Academy.
Instead, he appeared at a session called Beyond Burnout: Transforming C-Level Stress into Strength, which cost £1,200 to enter.
It’s apparently a theme the Duke says he can relate to: in a discussion on BetterUp two years ago he admitted to experiencing “burnout” and previously feeling like he was “reaching the end of everything I had.”
Meanwhile, the Duke, 39, has spoken candidly on television and in his 2023 memoir, Spare, about his “deteriorating” mental health, lamenting the lack of “support” he received from the Royal Family and sharing that he has been in therapy for four years “to heal from the past”.
Edited by Stephanie Takyi
