For the first three decades of his life, Prince Harry was seen as the most fun-loving member of the royal family.
He’s also long been renowned for his ability to work and play hard. Plus, thanks to years on the polo, rugby and soccer pitches – not to mention military boot camp – he’s kept in tip-top physical shape.
WATCH: Trailer for Netflix’s ‘Harry & Meghan’ documentary
So it’s no wonder friends were left stunned when Harry, 38, arrived at London’s High Court last month looking like a shell of his former self. There to battle Associated Newspapers over allegations of phone hacking, the duke also ran into a photographer as he made his way in.
“No-one’s seen Harry in a while, so his appearance came as a shock. He looks closer to 50 than 40!” says a stunned veteran royal insider. “He is clearly worn down, haggard and exhausted.”
Friends don’t have to look far when it comes to untangling how the once-happy Harry’s shock transformation may have come about so suddenly, especially after what can only be described as a week from hell.
Harry has vowed to make taking on the British press his “life’s work”, through several ongoing battles against deep-pocketed media conglomerates. However, his current case against the Daily Mail’s publisher was recently dealt a cruel blow.
Private investigator Gavin Burrows, who signed a lengthy witness statement in 2021 on which Harry’s accusations of illegal news gathering rely, sensationally retracted his story last week.
“Harry went into that courtroom looking fairly relaxed, but he came out a totally different man,” says an onlooker. “You could tell it rocked him.”
Further afield, Harry’s tendency to overshare may have put his new life in the US with wife Meghan, 41, and kids Archie, almost 4, and Lilibet, who turns 2 in June, at serious risk. In his memoir Spare, Harry writes that he used cocaine in the past, and had also done acid, magic mushrooms, marijuana and ayahuasca (a plant-based psychedelic).
All of these are federally banned substances in America and it was revealed last week that US think tank The Oversight Project has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to ascertain how Harry scored a US visa with his self-proclaimed history of drug use.
WATCH: Prince Harry and Prince William arrive at the Sunken Gardens at Kensington Palace
They question whether Harry was “properly vetted” and claims there is a “potential revocation of Prince Harry’s visa for illicit substance abuse”.
A source within the duke’s camp was quick to insist, via UK newspaper The Telegraph, that he told the “truth” in his US visa application.
It comes as Harry’s book drew vehement backlash for revealing private details about the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales, and has left his attendance at his father’s coronation in doubt.
“There’s so much pressure on Harry, mostly self-inflicted, and it’s only a matter of time before he cracks,” says our insider. “His oldest friends fear this is going to end in tears and Harry won’t have anyone left to pick up the pieces.”
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