As Prince Harry celebrates his 40th birthday today, his life has transformed significantly over the past decade.
No longer a working royal, Harry now resides in the United States with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
He is reportedly planning a birthday celebration that includes a weekend with close friends and quality time with his family in Montecito, California.
Despite his strained relationship with his extended family in recent years, Harry was once a regular at the royal Christmas gatherings. The royals, accustomed to their privileged lives, have a tradition of exchanging small, inexpensive, humorous gifts during the festive season.
One year, however, Harry was perplexed by a gift from an unexpected royal relative, describing it as ‘cold-blooded.’
In his memoir Spare, Harry recalls receiving a peculiar present from his great-aunt, Princess Margaret, the late Queen’s sister. Although he shared ‘12.5 percent’ of her DNA, he admits he didn’t know her very well. On Christmas Eve at Sandringham Estate, as everyone prepared to open their gifts, Margaret gave him a tiny biro adorned with a rubber fish.
He recalls: “Standing before my pile, I chose to open the smallest present first. The tag said: ‘From Aunt Margo’. I looked over, called out: ‘Thank you, Aunt Margo!'” After opening the gift, Harry claims he was surprised and thanked Margaret, who he says pointed out that it was not just any biro, but a special one.
Harry adds: “It wasn’t just any biro, she pointed out. It had a tiny rubber fish wrapped around it. I said: ‘Oh. A fish biro! OK.’ I told myself: That is cold-blooded.” In his book, Harry also adds that growing up he thought he and Margaret should have been friends as they were “Two Spares” and had a lot in common.
The memoir says: “Her relationship with Granny wasn’t an exact analogue of mine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry, the intense competition (driven largely by the older sibling), it all looked familiar. Aunt Margo also wasn’t that dissimilar from Mummy. Both rebels, both labelled as sirens.”
The relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry has been fraught with tension, despite their close bond in their younger years. The discord reportedly started before Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle, formerly of Suits, when Harry accused William of being dismissive towards his future wife.
The situation deteriorated further following Harry’s public criticisms of William in his memoir, Spare, and his Netflix documentary. In his autobiography, released shortly after Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, Harry alleged that William physically assaulted him, pushing him into a dog bowl during a dispute over Meghan.
Additionally, Harry described a poignant moment when King Charles, after Prince Philip’s funeral, earnestly appealed to his sons during a fraught meeting at Windsor, the late Duke of Edinburgh, saying: “Please, boys. Don’t make my final years a misery.”
