Forty photos to mark Harry’s milestone 40th birthday
The Duke of Sussex reaches his milestone 40th birthday on Sunday.
In a statement to the BBC, Harry said he was “excited” about reaching the milestone, adding: “Whatever the age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”
Forty photos – one for every year of Harry’s life – have been compiled to mark the duke entering his fifth decade.
He is seen as a soldier at war in Afghanistan, as a groom on his wedding day, and welcoming his first child Prince Archie.
Opening his mouth wide, he stuck his tongue out at photographers as he passed in a car on his way to nursery.
As a bashful 13-year-old, Harry met the Spice Girls on a trip to South Africa.
And in 2003, he was pictured in his room at Eton, aged 18.
The collection of images also shows the prince on the day of his mother’s funeral.
The duke’s love of all things military is evident.
Fast forward nearly 20 years, and Harry was shown charging along as he responded to an alert and scrambled to his Apache in Camp Bastion while serving in the frontline in Afghanistan in 2012.
In Jamaica in 2012, Harry, then 27, represented his grandmother the late Queen Elizabeth II on a Diamond Jubilee tour.
When he turned 30, Harry was still a working member of the royal family, carving out his role as the spare to the heir.
The photos also highlight the lost bond between Harry and William.
In 2017, when Harry was 32, the pair were seen laughing as they ran along a stadium race track with the now-Princess of Wales in 2017.
And in their twenties when Harry was 25, the brothers took a joint trip to Botswana.
Their estrangement shows no sign of abating, with the duke also having a strained relationship with his father, now the King.
Kate reportedly told a senior royal the public show of unity “was one of the hardest things she had ever had to do” because of the depth of ill-feeling between the Waleses and the Sussexes.
Harry and Meghan quit royal life in 2020 for new-found freedom in the US, where they live with children Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The duke, 35, is pictured hand in hand with Meghan in March of that year as they made their way into Westminster Abbey for their last official public royal engagement as working royals.
Harry’s relationship with his brother and father worsened after the public accusations he levelled at them and their wives in the Sussexes’ bombshell Oprah interview and Netflix documentary, as well as his tell-all memoir, Spare.
Harry, who is pursuing a number of cases in the High Court, told an ITV documentary earlier this year that his determination to fight the tabloids over allegations of phone hacking was a “central piece” in destroying his relationship with his family.
The Waleses are concentrating on their family life and children amid Kate’s news earlier this week that she has finished her chemotherapy treatment.
The duke’s past year has seen the Sussexes undertake quasi-royal tours to Colombia and Nigeria, and Meghan start a new business venture with the soft launch of her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard when she sent limited edition strawberry jam to her friends.