Prince Harry ‘beams in solo spotlight without Meghan Markle’s dictated speeches’

Prince Harry has made several solo appearances in Vancouver on a solo trip to Canada without Meghan Markle – and a royal expert has weighed in on Harry’s surprise outings

A beaming Prince Harry appears to be returning to his old persona on a solo trip to Canada without Meghan Markle, according to a royal expert.

In the last few days, the Duke of Sussex has made several surprise appearances in Vancouver, one of the host cities for the 2025 Invictus Games, which kicks off in just three months. First up, he was at the Grey Cup, where he appeared on TV coverage for the football event to promote his Invictus Games.

And just yesterday, he visited Seaforth Armoury in the Canadian city, where he gave a heartfelt speech about courage as he launched the Invictus Games school programme. There he was seen hugging children who had come out for the event as well as taking part in a game of sitting volleyball.

Royal expert and historian Hugo Vickers believes this showed Harry at his best, combining his love for his Invictus Games and sport. He told The Sun: “He’s much better at that frankly than when he’s sort of talking what I might call California speak, which seems to have been dictated to him by Meghan. So I commend every time he appears, I must say, and I’m sure he’s very popular. It’s a good thing that he does it so whether he’s sort of forging you know some sort of return to the old Harry.”

He continued: “I do think that when they’re together she seems to be the one who’s sort of moving the dialogue on. She seems to be the one with the voice and he seems to be sort of meekly following in her wake.”

Harry’s outings come just days after Meghan was seen letting her hair down and dancing the night away at a party without Harry. She attended the bash with pals to celebrate the launch of her friend and hair colourist Kadi Lee’s new haircare line and was spotted posing for pictures with Kadi and fellow hairstylist pal Serge Normant.

In recent weeks, sources close to the couple have said the solo outings are down to Harry focusing on his charity work, while Meghan pursues business projects. The last time the Sussexes were spotted together was earlier this month where they appeared in a joint video message to talk about prioritising children’s safety online. The rare footage was played at a United Nations conference in Colombia on ending violence against children.

And analysing all of these latest appearances, body language expert Judi James told the Mirror there has been a definite shift between the Sussexes. She explained: “Harry and Meghan’s relationship seems to have evolved from a totally twinned one, where their body language was confined to appearances as a matching, complimentary and very royal-looking double act, to one that resembles the shape of a letter Y; joined and twinned at the base but also separating into two individuals moving into two rather separate professional directions.

“The newly ‘sole trader’ body language performances need to be interspersed with appearances that describe and emphasize the base of the ‘Y’. Theirs has always been laid out as a love story with a romantic core and seeing them alone still tends to create a look of a lost limb, thanks to their previously constant love of touch, tie-signs and other PDAs to provide a touching narrative that the world enjoys watching.

“The recent ‘base of the Y’ appearance was a rather formal and regal video appearance where Meghan threw Harry constant affectionate-looking glances to register besotted encouragement while he spoke, and Harry, more formally, failed to respond in kind apart from one rather rigidly extended arm placed around his wife’s back on the cue of the word ‘together’.

“The message was clearly one of ongoing bonds and togetherness but for fans of the Harry and Meghan passionately romantic body language rituals it was rather thin gruel. It will be sad for their fans if, despite their marriage being enduringly strong and loving, they have made a decision to tone down the PDAs.”