Prince Harry has arrived in New York ahead of his talk about Nelson Mandela’s legacy as he appears at the UN General Assembly today.
The Duke of Sussex is also understood to be preparing to lecture delegates on climate change and poverty during the two hour meeting.Â
The 37-year-old will be the keynote speaker at the United Nations event in New York City today.
South Africa´s UN Mission said Friday his remarks ‘will be around the memories and legacy of Mandela and what has been learned from his struggle and his life that can help up face the new challenges in the world today.’
The world still faces challenges that were there during Mandela´s life including racial intolerance, the divide between rich and poor, hunger and food insecurity, a mission diplomat said.
The Duke of Sussex is also understood to be preparing for to lecture delegates on climate change and poverty
Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, famously met with Mandela in Cape Town in March 1997, just five months before her tragic death
President Nelson Mandela shares a moment with Prince Charles as they visited Brixton in South London on the last day of Mandela’s four day state visit to the United Kingdom in 1996
General Assembly spokesperson Paulina Kubiak officially announced the program for Nelson Mandela International Day on Friday.
Harry is giving the keynote and participants including assembly president Abdulla Shahid, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, New York Mayor Eric Adams and Guinea´s Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouaté.
The General Assembly established July 18 – Mandela´s birthday – as an international day to honor him not only by celebrating his life and contributions but by carrying out the tradition of participating in a community service activity.
During the event, which begins at 10am EST, the 2020 UN Nelson Mendela Prize will be awarded to Mrs Marianna V. Vardinoyannis of Greece and Dr Morissanda Kouyaté of Guinea.
This prize is handed out every five years and recognises people who have dedicated their lives to the service of humanity.
Harry will be accompanied at the U.N. by his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, as he gives his speech.
Prince Harry and Meghan meet Graca Machel, the widow of the late Nelson Mandela, in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 2, 2019
This year will see the 77th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The first was held in London in 1945
The former actress spoke at a conference at UN headquarters organized by UN Women on International Women´s Day in 2015, before her marriage to the prince.
In January 2020, the couple stepped down as senior members of the royal family and moved to the duchess´ native Southern California, where they continue to live with their two children.
Harry and Meghan visited South Africa in 2019 with their son, Archie, on their first official tour as a family before they gave up royal duties.
They then travelled to Canada for a family holiday, and planned their move away from the Royal Family – stepping down from their roles before moving to the US. Â
Harry´s mother, the late Princess Diana, met Mandela in March 1997, just five months before her death in a car crash in Paris.
His speech comes hours after it was revealed in a new bombshell book that his Eton pals called him ‘f***ing nuts’ for dating Meghan.
Tom Bower, journalist and author of ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors’ says Harry invited Meghan to join him at Sandringham for his weekend shoot in 2016.
Their relationship had only just been publicly revealed, and the Prince reportedly invited 16 friends to join him over the weekend.Â
They mostly included old school pals from Eton, employed by international banks and auction houses, who joined him for dinner, shooting and lunch with the Queen’s permission.Â
Meghan ‘lacked any sense of humour’ and was a ‘dampener on the party’, Bower says in his new book
Tom Bower, journalist and author of ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors’ says Harry invited Meghan to join him at Sandringham for his weekend shoot in 2016 – shortly after the pairs relationship was publicly revealed
Bower says the Duke of Sussex was ‘looking forward’ to ‘endless banter’ with his friends – but Meghan, 40, was less than impressed and ‘challenged every guest’ who ‘contravened her woke values’
Bower claims the Duke of Sussex had been excited for a weekend of ‘endless banter’ with his pals, but Meghan, 40, was less than impressed and ‘challenged every guest’ who ‘contravened her woke values’.
Meghan ‘lacked any sense of humour’ and was a ‘dampener on the party’, Bower says in his new book, according to The Times newspaper.
She also reportedly ‘reprimanded them for their jokes about sexism, feminism and transgender people’, with Bower writing that Harry had ‘not anticipated’ Meghan’s reaction.
He wrote: ‘She lacked any sense of humour. Driving home after Sunday lunch, the texts pinged between the cars: “OMG, what about HER?” said one. “Harry must be f***ing nuts”.’
Bower claims Meghan ‘reprimanded guests’ if they made the ‘slightest inappropriate comment’ and ‘nobody was exempt’.
The claims comes after it was revealed Meghan ‘called her PR team in hysterics’ after Buckingham Palace reacted with ‘fury’ to ‘her Vanity Fair interview about Prince Harry’.
Bower says Meghan was ‘ecstatic’ when she was asked to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair’s September 2017 issue and do an interview with the magazine.
But when the magazine ran with the headline ‘Wild About Harry’ on its cover – focusing on Meghan’s relationship with the British prince rather than her work as an actor, activist and philanthropist – Bower says the Palace was taken aback.
Within hours of the magazine’s pre-publication copies being sent to Buckingham Palace, Bower says Meghan phoned her PR firm and ‘hysterically’ told them of the Palace’s fury.
Bower reports that Meghan was furious that the piece was not more focused on her philanthropy but says this was due to the fact Vanity Fair researchers were unable to substantiate two key stories she had told about her activism as a young child.
After first discussing Meghan’s speech at the United Nations and a letter she sent to Procter & Gamble as an 11-year-old requesting that they change a slogan promoting washing-up liquid that was deemed sexist, she was asked about Harry.
As reported by Vanity Fair in 2017, Meghan said: ‘We’re a couple. We’re in love.
‘I’m sure there will be a time when we will have to come forward and present ourselves and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time.
‘This is for us. It’s part of what makes it so special, that it’s just ours. But we’re happy. Personally, I love a great love story.’
The Duchess guest-edited the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, which reportedly left the editorial staff in ‘silent exasperation’ according to Bower.
A bombshell new book claims that the Queen told her closest aides ‘thank goodness’ that Meghan was not coming to Prince Phillip’s funeral in April 2021. Harry and Meghan named their daughter Lilibet –Â a nickname the Queen was given in her youth
Meghan and Harry were not allowed on the balcony during the Queen’s Jubilee events last month, but was snapped appearing to shush the royal children as she is seen inside the Major General’s Office overlooking Horse Guards Parade in London during Trooping the Colour celebrations
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex flew over to the UK in June for the first time Lilibet and her brother Archie (pictured last December)Â
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly introduced their youngest child to the Queen in Windsor after a private Royal Family lunch at Buckingham Palace
Earlier this year, Princess Diana’s biographer Tina Brown claimed that the Duke ‘can’t stand’ Camilla and might deepen his rift with the royal family by ‘going after’ her and Prince Charles in his upcoming memoirs
They found her contributions ‘superficial’, with the former actress coming under fire for mission off the Queen in her list of 15 women that she admired as ‘forces for change’.
In one telephone conference Bower claims that Meghan announced to the gathered editorial staff ‘I want to break the internet.’
He wrote: ‘They believed most of her contributions were superficial, lacking rhyme or reason. To avoid confrontation she was never asked to explain.’
His book also alleges that the Queen said ‘thank goodness Meghan is not coming’, when she discovered that the Duchess was not attending Prince Philips funeral.
The Duchess reportedly did not attend because doctors advised her against flying, as she was seven months pregnant with the couple’s daughter Lilibet.
However the couple last month jetted off to the UK with their two children for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – with sources confirming that the Queen had met her granddaughter.
Pictured: Vanity Fair’s September 2017 edition cover, featuring Meghan Markle and the headline ‘Wild About Harry!’, which reportedly angered Buckingham Palace
Her Majesty, who was nicknamed Lilibet as a child, was reportedly introduced to the little girl in Windsor after a private Royal Family lunch at Buckingham Palace.
The Sussexes, who are stayed at their old home Frogmore Cottage in Windsor while visiting from California, were not allowed on the Buckingham Palace balcony yesterday and instead watched proceedings from Horse Guards Parade.
The event in June was the couple’s first appearance with The Firm since the frosty Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 shortly before they officially stepped down as senior royals.
It comes after a royal expert claimed that Prince Harry ‘doesn’t have great respect’ for the Duchess of Cornwall and has ‘no interest’ in ‘developing’ a relationship with her.
Camilla, 75, has been stepmother to the Duke of Sussex, since she married Prince Charles in 2005.
However royal expert Ingrid Seward has revealed how the pair’s relationship went ‘off the boil’ and Harry now does not ‘have a great deal of warmth for her.’
Speaking on the Mirror’s Pod Save the Queen podcast, Ingrid said: ‘I don’t think Harry is interested in developing a relationship with his stepmother at this stage in his life.
‘I don’t think Harry has a great deal of warmth for her, he waxes and wanes with her.
Ingrid’s comments come after Princess Diana’s biographer Tina Brown claimed that the Duke ‘can’t stand’ Camilla and might deepen his rift with the royal family by ‘going after’ her and Prince Charles in his upcoming memoirs.
Speaking in April, Brown said Prince Charles’ estranged son is likely to voice his frustration in his memoirs, which are set to be published later this year.
Nelson Mandela: Anti-apartheid fighter jailed for the cause who became South Africa’s first black presidentÂ
Prince Charles along with the Spice Girls meeting with Nelson Mandela in 1997
Nelson Mandela was arguably the world’s most potent symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle against thanks to his courage in the face of persecution.
He was known for trying to unite South Africa after its long history of division, and was affectionately known as ‘Madiba’, his clan name, meaning ‘grandfather’.
Mr Mandela guided South Africa towards multi-racial democracy, and was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule.
Upon becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994, he said: ‘The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.’
A year earlier, Mr Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from jail.
He became a global advocate of human dignity, before officially leaving public life in June 2004, telling his country: ‘Don’t call me. I’ll call you’.
Mr Mandela, who defended himself at his own treason trial in 1963, married three times and had more than 30 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
He wed his first wife Evelyn Mase, who was a cousin of his political mentor Walter Sisulu, aged 26 – and they were married for 13 years, having four children.
His romance with second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was 16 years his junior, began while he was on trial for treason.
However they also separated before Mr Mandela became president following political and personal differences.
He then married his third wife Graca Machel – widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel, who died in a plane crash – on his 80th birthday in 1998.
She already had six stepchildren and two of her own children, and helped him in his final years but admitted: ‘To see him ageing is something that pains you.’
Mr Mandela was treated in the 1980s for tuberculosis and had an operation to repair damage to his eyes as well as prostate cancer treatment in 2001.
After his departure from politics, Mr Mandela gradually stepped away from the public eye and made his last significant public appearance at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
His death came on the day the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the London premiere of biopic Long Walk to Freedom, in which Mr Mandela was played by Idris Elba.
Mr Mandela died at home in December 2013 aged 95 after a long battle with illness.
