Prince Harry has been pictured for the first time since the Buckingham Palace crunch talks took place last week.
The father-of-two took a solo journey to Angola, where he prepares to traverse a minefield to raise awareness for The Halo Trust’s landmine clearance work.
The Duke of Sussex is following in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, who famously walked through an Angolan minefield for the same charity 28 years ago. The trip has marked another chapter in Harry’s ongoing commitment to his late mother’s humanitarian legacy.
Harry’s Angola visit coincides with a potential thaw in relations between the Sussexes and the Royal Family.
The Halo Trust
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Prince Harry pictured for the first time since Buckingham Palace crunch talks but Meghan absent.
Senior aides from both camps were recently photographed meeting in London, marking the first such communication in years.
Images obtained by the Mail on Sunday showed Harry’s chief communications officer, Meredith Maines, and UK public relations head, Liam Maguire, meeting with the King’s communications secretary, Tobyn Andreae, at the Royal Over-Seas League near Clarence House.
A source described the meeting as “casual drinks” with “no formal agenda,” adding: “There’s a long road ahead, but a channel of communication is now open for the first time in years.”
Prince Harry, 40, has travelled to Angola without his wife, Meghan, who remained at their home in Montecito, California, with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The Halo Trust
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The Duke of Sussex is following in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana.
His decision to travel alone was driven by security concerns for the Duchess of Sussex’s safety.
A source told The Mail: “The Duke won’t let his wife go to England over security concerns, so there was no chance he’d allow her to go to Angola to walk across landmines.”
The safety considerations highlight the ongoing security challenges faced by the Sussexes since stepping back from royal duties.
Meghan’s absence from the trip highlights the couple’s cautious approach to international travel, particularly in regions where landmine clearance operations are ongoing.
The Halo Trust
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Prince Harry travelled without Meghan to protect her safety.
PA | Princess Diana walking through minefields in Angola in 1997.
The Halo Trust continues its mission to fulfil the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty’s promise of clearing the world of landmines by 2025. The organisation has successfully cleared more than 123,000 mines to date.
This is not Harry’s first visit to Angola for the cause. In 2019, he retraced his mother’s exact steps near Huambo and visited the remote Dirico region, where he toured a newly cleared minefield and detonated a landmine himself.
During that trip, he spent a night camping by the Cuito River and visited the Princess Diana Orthopaedic Centre.
More recently, in September 2024, the Duke attended a United Nations Halo event in New York.
