Prince Harry joined the NEXUS Global Summit in New York City on Friday (June 27), during which he apparently threw a shade at the royal family. In his fireside chat, “Building Tomorrow: A Conversation on Service, Impact & Collective Action with Prince Harry,” with Rachel Gerrol, co-founder and CEO of NEXUS, the former royal talked about his process and “finding his purpose” along the way.
Prince Harry Reflects on Service and Purpose
In his address, Prince Harry reflected on his experience in the philanthropic space, moving from “being born into a life of service to finding his own purpose.” He went further to encourage all present to “take care of one another and our children in the years to come,” as well as challenging them to “attack the systems rather than the symptoms holding us back.”
With roughly 350 influential philanthropists, impact investors, and social innovators in the audience, he leaned all the attendees toward leveraging their platforms to drive meaningful collaboration and important change, and looking at their legacies and making sure that their investment is part of a bigger vision. These quotes have caused many royal observers to cite this as another example of escalating tensions between the ex-prince and the British Royal Family regarding his wife, Meghan Markle.
A Bold Theme and Star-Studded Line-Up
The NEXUS Global Summit is a yearly conference in New York City that hosts top minds to discuss challenges of a generational sort. The topic of this year- Brave Voices and Bold Ideas- was to open dialogue on the important issues such as mental health, AI and technology for good, climate change, and impact investing to name a few. Christy Turlington and Emma Bloomberg were some of the other popular speakers at the gathering.
Representing Archewell and Revisiting the Spotlight
Prince Harry was also invited as an unannounced speaker to speak on behalf of the Archewell Foundation- a project spearheaded by him and Markle in 2020 that deals with three of the priority subjects covered in the summit- mental health, digital responsibility, and conservation. Prince Harry was most recently in New York City attending the Time100 Summit on April 27 to stand in support of his wife and speaker as she spoke about her business ventures and the principles that form their foundation.
Markle and Prince Harry both withdrew from royal life in January 2020 and have since been spending their time on charitable work and raising their two children (Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lillibet, 4) in Los Angeles, California. Relations between the couple and the royal family have remained tense ever since.
