‘He’s an angry boy’: As Prince Harry’s faux-royal tour ends, why despite his jollity and cheeky dancing, one pal claims the Duke’s American dream ‘hasn’t turned out the way he wanted’… and shouldn’t expect an invitation when Wills takes the throne

Prince Harry seemed full of joy this week as he salsa danced and enjoyed the spotlight during his quasi-royal tour of Colombia with wife Meghan Markle.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex‘s exciting trip drew to a close in Cali yesterday with Meghan delivering a speech in Spanish during her talk on ‘Afro women and power’.

But, according to one of Harry’s oldest pals, the Duke is hiding anger and frustration beneath the surface as he would rather be in Britain with his friends and family.

Speaking to The Times, the friend claimed they are among the few who get ‘the odd WhatsApp from him’, adding: ‘He’s an angry boy. Things haven’t turned out how he wanted.

‘I think he misses being over here [in Britain] desperately and wants to be admired more. Anyone who knows him feels he’d rather be top of the pops here with everyone loving him, as they do with William and Kate.’

Meanwhile, a source known to Harry since his teenage years claimed the Duke is no doubt missing his former life of pubbing and enjoying the English countryside with friends.

‘He has ended up isolated from his family and most of his old mates, in an environment where your friendships are not like the ones you forged as a young man,’ they said. ‘He used to love a night out in the pub and hanging out in the country with friends.

Prince Harry looks back while in the audience to watch his wife Meghan speak at a talk on ‘Afro women and power’

Meghan speaks during her talk on Afro women and power in Cali, Colombia

Harry and Meghan salsa dancing during their tour of Colombia this week

Colombia’s Vice President Francia Marquez greets Colombia’s former Education Minister Aurora Vergara next to Harry and Meghan

Harry was full of smiles during his exciting tour of Colombia this week

 As the ongoing rift between Harry and the royal family continues, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams suggested that Meghan’s speech in Cali on Sunday was ‘extremely selective’.

‘Her hosts will have been delighted that she spoke in Spanish. However, when she talks of ”you see something wrong, you want to fix it” and ‘love, kindness and generosity”, she is, given the public rift with the royal family […] being extremely selective,’ he told MailOnline.

Speaking of the success of the tour, Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘It’s certainly been a success as they see it. It has highlighted the Sussexes’s profile, which was pivotal for them.’

However, the royal commentator highlighted the contradiction between saying Britain is ‘too dangerous’ to visit before taking a trip to Colombia.

Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘The problem is the disastrous optics of saying Britain is ”too dangerous” to visit and going to Colombia, which is notorious for its high levels of crime.

‘This is absurd, the fact that Harry is involved in a battle with the Home Office over levels of security which he may win, does not alter the fact that he reportedly preferred a hotel to Buckingham Palace when he was last in Britain. It doesn’t make any sense.’

During their trip, Harry and Meghan recreated a memorable image from William and Kate’s tour of the Caribbean – with the Sussexes pictured practising their drumming skills at a music school in the port city Cartagena.

In happier times, the shared experience might have prompted the Prince of Wales and his brother to swap notes on their percussion skills.

Harry and Meghan participate in a drum lesson led by Colombian students during their tour

Harry and Meghan sit together at Escuela de Tambores de Cabildo

Harry and Meghan clapping during a performance at La Boquilla drum school in Cartagena

But in the two years that have passed since the pictures were taken, the gulf between them has only grown.

So much so, reports yesterday said the Prince of Wales would not want his brother at his coronation, whenever that time comes. ‘They are estranged, which is dreadfully sad,’ one of the brothers’ closest friends told The Sunday Times.

Speaking at the ‘Afro women and power’ forum at the Enrique Buenaventura Municipal Theatre in city of Cali, Meghan referred to Colombia’s vice president Francia Marquez – the first black woman to hold the position – as ‘mi amiga (my friend)’.

She received a loud cheer when she said: ‘Sorry if my Spanish is not perfect because I learned 20 years ago in Argentina but I’m trying because here I can feel this community and this feeling which is the best in the world.’

Yesterday Ms Marquez showed the couple around Cali, known as the country’s salsa capital, whose cartel was once responsible for controlling more than 80 per cent of the world’s cocaine market.

It followed a visit to Escuela Tambores de Cabildo, a school in Cartagena working to preserve traditional African drumming.

Prince Harry and Meghan had a go themselves after being welcomed with a performance by pupils.

Meghan Markle on stage for the Afro women and power debate in Cali

School founder Rafael Ramos said: ‘I love seeing Meghan’s big, big smile. I can tell she’s excited.’

Afterwards the couple heard from members of the community about the importance of preserving the region’s culture, specifically its Afro-Colombian roots. The country has the third largest population of African descent.

It echoed William and Kate’s visit to Jamaica in March 2022, when they played the bongos in Trench Town, Kingston.

The couple were mobbed by crowds chanting, ‘We love you’ as they walked through Jamaica’s capital. In contrast, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have pointedly avoided public interaction during their trip.

The last chapter of the tour marked a change of pace after a visit on Saturday to a traditional Afro-Caribbean village, San Basilio de Palenque, where they enjoyed a performance by local rapper Afroneto.

Josefa Hernandez, 38, who served as master of ceremonies for the trip, said: ‘This visit has been very symbolic for us.’

Meghan’s speech in full

(bold section said in Spanish) 

On lessons in her life, Meghan Markle said: ‘I’d like to start in Spanish because we are in your country, my husband and I, and because I feel the embrace in Colombia. It’s incredible. 

‘So thank you, thank you very much, because the culture, the history, everything has been like a dream on this trip. 

‘And I’m sorry that my Spanish isn’t perfect, because I learned it in Argentina 20 years ago, but I’m trying [it] here because I can feel this community and this feeling is the best in the world.

‘So thank you very much to the vice president, my friend, thank you very much. Well, now in English. 

‘I would say, from my standpoint, that I was very fortunate that from a very young age to feel as though my voice was being heard. And I think that is a luxury that a lot of young girls and women aren’t often afforded.

‘I was 11-years-old, and you may know this story, I had seen a commercial that I felt was sexist, and I wrote a letter, several letters, about it, and the commercial was changed when you’re 11-years-old, and you realise very quickly that your small voice can have a very large impact.

‘I think it creates the framework to feel empowered to use your voice, because you know you’re being listened to. It doesn’t ever feel good to use your voice and no one hears you. That’s not ideal.

‘So for us and the work that we do with our Archewell Foundation, certainly the work that we do as parents, as I do as a mother, is ensuring that young girls feel as though their voices are being heard, and also that young boys are being raised to listen and to hear those young women as well.

‘And the same goes for adult women and men. This isn’t something that can be solely responsible and in the hands of just women.

‘Yes, we work incredibly well together as a team, but as my husband is great testament to, the role of men in this of empowering women, of allowing them to know that their voices are heard, starting at a young age all the way through adulthood, is key.

‘So at the Archewell Foundation, we are very, very dedicated to creating a sense of community, but also one in which women are heard and that their ideas are really felt and implemented in the programming that we do.

‘So we just recently launched a programme called The Parents Network, which is for parents who have lost children or have encountered the worst possible challenges and level of grief as a result of online harms, and allowing those mothers, those parents, to be heard, is very key to the work that we’re doing.

‘We also have something called The Welcome Project where we are working with women, specifically, who have been displaced.

‘And really giving them projects and work that are comparable to the work that I have done in the UK with something called the Hub Community Kitchen which was also women and community hearing each other, supporting each other.

‘You know, you might be cooking together, you might be doing a craft together, but what are you doing at the same time [is that] you’re working on your mental health, you’re working on your emotional healing, you’re working towards supporting each other with micro finance and business building and partnership.

‘So these are all the ways in which I see the spirit of community and of us supporting each other as women play themselves out in so many different facets of our lives.’

After being asked about what inspires her, the Duchess said: ‘For me, I think I find inspiration in so many of the strong women that are around me. My mother being one of them.

‘I think life is full of surprises and can be quite complex. And we (as Meghan turned to the Colombian vice president) have talked about over the past few days you finding your inspiration and this fighting spirit and for me, we talked about the power of words as well.

‘So much of how I approach things is through the lens of [it’s] less about the fight, that’s not interesting to me, and more about how do we show up in this space and wash things over with love and kindness and generosity.

‘And we talked about this the other day and of course that is part of that same spirit that you have in you. That you see something wrong and you go to fix it. Maybe that’s just a very female thing. Whether it’s a fan or something else.

‘That’s what we do. As women we are multi-taskers and we are fixers. And so when I try to look at the conditions in which we’ll make women most comfortable in the space, that’s multifaceted.

‘And that includes finding ways to create political space, where women’s voices can be heard.

‘In business, where women can have a seat at the table and be in positions of leadership, having examples as you do with your vice president.

‘We all know how much representation matters. We all know that if you see someone who looks like you, who talks like you, who comes from a community like yours, that you can believe it’s possible to also be in a similar position of power so you’re not underestimating yourself, you’re not underestimating your worth, you’re not underestimating your future.

‘Instead, you’re leaning into the possibility that every single thing can happen because you have conditions surrounding you and examples in front of you that indicate that you, too, can help to change the world.

‘And I think in the small ways that women are doing that each day and the larger ways that we are doing that as a community, those are the elements that continue to inspire me to use my voice.

‘Because I also recognise how small it feels when you don’t. It doesn’t feel great to suffer in silence or even just sit in silence if in those moments you want to be heard or if you have something to say.

‘So I think part of the role-modeling that I certainly try to do as a mother is to encourage our daughter – at three she has found her voice and we are so proud of that, because that is how we, as I was saying, create the conditions in which there is a ripple effect of young girls and young women knowing that if someone else is encouraging them to use their voice and be heard, that’s what they are going to do.

‘They are going to create a very different environment than so many of us grew up in, where our voices were meant to be smaller and now, in raising them, we’re changing the conditions and the environment where everyone has space to be the best version of themselves.’

Making her final remarks to the panel, Meghan Markle said as Prince Harry listened from a seat in the audience:  ‘I think when we really look at how we can continue to inspire and create change, all of the examples I was listing earlier from our standpoint, certainly through the Archwell Foundation, are key elements in doing that.

‘And I can start at the very grassroots level, I do believe that also starts at home, modelling that behaviour very young and seeing it work its way through.

‘From my standpoint, how I will continue to express this, both through our foundation and through being able to move through the world, I suppose, is just looking at this as my chapter of joy.

‘And the more that you are able to look at your life and really, truly, recognise that if you’re going to be grateful for your life, you have to be grateful for all aspects of it.

‘The parts that were opportunities of growth and may have felt very difficult as well as the parts that feel inspiring, joyful and full.

‘I think part of the role-modelling doesn’t necessarily need to be a large plan, it just needs to be an intention and my intentionality is to enjoy this chapter and to be able to move through every piece of that as best as I can, modelling that if we are in the spirit of gratitude and of generosity, how we are able to connect with each other as women and how we are able to move through the world in a much freer way, I think is part of how we continue to create the conditions that I was speaking about earlier.

‘And you may have noticed, my husband and I were talking about it this morning, I just really relaxed on this trip – that’s probably because it’s Colombia and you all know how to have fun.

‘There is something so liberating about being able to be yourself and be comfortable in your skin and be surrounded in a space that is excited to see you exactly the way that you are.

‘I think that is part of the chapter for me, of joy, that will hopefully continue to inspire and allow me to keep doing the work that we love to do, which is to just be of service and to see other people live their lives through that same joyful spirit.’