Why Prince Harry Considered Escaping to an Island a Month Before William’s Wedding
Prince Harry laid bare his challenges in the royal fold in his memoir, Spare. The Duke of Sussex struggled with the pressures of being a royal and often felt alone without his late mother, Princess Diana. In one excerpt, Harry revealed that he considered escaping to an island in the Arctic Ocean a month before Prince William’s 2011 wedding to Kate Middleton. He described the off-grid plan as his true ‘purpose’ but quickly abandoned it because of the wild animals prowling the island.
The Duke shared that when his plane landed on an archipelago called Svalbard in March 2011, he was awestruck by the view. He wrote, "As far as the eye could see, nothing but ivory, snowy whiteness. White mountains, white snowdrifts, white hills, and threaded through it were narrow white roads, and not many of those." He added, "The landscape was so minimalist, so spare, I thought: Maybe I’ll move here. Maybe this is my purpose. Then I found out about the local law forbidding anyone to leave town without a gun, because the hills beyond were patrolled by desperately hungry polar bears, and I thought: Maybe not."
Although Harry temporarily dropped his plans to move to the Arctic, his desire to escape royal life never faded. Before stepping down as a senior royal alongside Meghan Markle in 2020, the couple considered moving permanently to Cape Town, Africa, before settling in Montecito. Interestingly, their plans to move to Africa reportedly even had the blessings of the late Queen Elizabeth. He recalled, "Brief as it was, that taste of freedom had got us thinking. What if life could be like that...all the time? What if we could spend at least part of each year somewhere far away, still doing work for the Queen, but beyond the reach of the press?"
The Duke explained that he and Markle wanted to be free from the 'public interest' that was used to justify unfavorable headlines about them. "The question was...where? We talked about New Zealand. We talked about South Africa. Half the year in Cape Town, maybe? That could work." He added, "Away from the drama, but closer to my conservation work – and to eighteen other Commonwealth countries. I’d run the idea by Granny once before. She’d even signed off on it."
The Sussexes had been to Cape Town during their 10-day royal tour of Africa in September 2019. Ultimately, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Montecito, California, with Prince Archie in 2020. Their official statement following the departure partly read, "After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution." They stressed that they intended to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become ‘financially independent,’ while continuing to fully support the Queen.