Looking through his phone’s camera, the Duke of Sussex declared he and his wife were on a “freedom flight” as they travelled to Los Angeles after stepping down as working members of the Royal Family.
The footage was included in the 2022 Netflix documentary series, Harry & Meghan. But, just two years later, could the couple be about to embark on another “freedom flight,” this time fleeing the United States?
The prospect has emerged in light of Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House, with one royal source suggesting the Sussexes are now making increasingly “desperate” efforts to extend olive branches across the Atlantic.
On the day the Sussexes flew to Los Angeles after stepping down as working royals, Prince Harry celebrated their emigration, calling it his “freedom flight.”
Eric Trump has branded Prince Harry and Meghan ‘bad apples’ and echoed his father’s claims that the couple could be deported
During a visit to Trump International Golf Links in Scotland earlier this week, the former president’s son Eric branded the duke and duchess “bad apples” and echoed his father’s claims that Harry could be deported if the Republicans win. “They can have those two,” Eric added. “We may not want them anymore – they seem to be on an island of their own.”
Donald Trump has previously suggested that Harry, who has lived in the US since 2020, would not get “special privileges” and could in fact be deported if he is found to have falsified information on his visa form.
In the Prince’s memoirs, Spare revealed that he had previously used drugs including cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms, which under US law would normally be grounds for a visa application being refused.
And there is history between the Trumps and Meghan. When she was still an actress, Meghan described Trump Sr. as “divisive” and “misogynistic.” While living in Toronto during the filming of the legal drama Suits in which she starred, she declared that she might stay in Canada rather than return to her American homeland with him as president.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Palace officials are clammed up as soon as the California-based royals are mentioned, but someone who worked for the royal family while the couple were still part of “The Firm” told me: “It seems pretty clear they are desperate to start healing the rift.”
As evidence, the source points to a series of articles that have recently appeared in People magazine, a favorite media outlet of the Sussexes, including an article about Harry’s despair that his father would not accept his phone calls and another claiming that his rift with Prince William was not “irreparable.”
The comments follow an interview Harry gave earlier this year in which he suggested the King’s cancer diagnosis might help them put aside their differences. After flying to London to see his father, Harry told reporters: “In all these families I see day in and day out the strength of the family unit. I think any illness brings families together.”
Prince Harry, who has been living in the United States since 2020, lives in a nine-bedroom mansion in Montecito with his wife Meghan and their two children.
Of course, Harry has claimed that Britain is too dangerous a destination for his family since the government withdrew his automatically taxpayer-funded security after he stepped down as a working royal and moved to the United States. He is reportedly still set to appeal against the High Court’s decision on the matter.
But for all their pleas for free protection, the truth is that the Sussexes have made a fortune in America, almost entirely thanks to their royal pedigree.
Netflix, Spotify and the publisher of Harry’s bestselling memoirs would never have dreamed of shelling out millions had the couple not exploited their connections. But that tap has now been turned off, as illustrated by the king’s refusal to take his son’s calls.
So with their lavish lifestyle and increasingly uncertain income streams, it might come as no surprise that the Sussexes were looking to the future with some trepidation.
Faced with the possibility of a hostile new president in his adopted country, Harry might really need to take that “freedom flight” back home.
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