Prince Harry is set to address the United Nations in New York City next week, and wife Meghan Markle will be by his side as part of Nelson Mandela Day. The Duke of Sussex is scheduled to speak in front of an informal General Assembly gathering, marking his and Meghan’s first public appearance since last month’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
What is Harry going to talk about? It could be a myriad of topics from climate change to world hunger, according to a report published by the UK’s Daily Mail. Harry’s words are expected to echo this year’s Nelson Mandela Day tagline, which says ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.’ The South African Mission has approved and confirmed the Sussex’s appearance at the commemoration next week.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s connection to Nelson Mandela began in 2019 when they met Mandela’s widow Graça Machel, grand-daughter Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela and the late South African leader’s prison cellmate Andrew Mlangeni. In an earlier visit prior to his marriage, Harry visited Mandela’s former prison cell in Robben Island. He followed in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, who met with Mandela in Cape Town in March 1997 a mere five months before her tragic death in a car accident in Paris.
This will not be the first appearance of the royal couple at the UN, as they appeared at the last UN General Assembly in September 2021. However, that visit was merely a “visit” since the couple didn’t participate in any speeches but did meet with higher-up officials such as Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. The couple also attended the Global Citizen Live concert in New York’s Central Park where they called for ‘vaccine equity’.
Meghan Markle to Join Prince Harry for Special U.N. Keynote Address. Harry a puppet of the democrats now https://t.co/BuwQxyMnPz
— J B Summers (@JB_Summers) July 12, 2022
But the prince’s upcoming New York trip comes at the heels of some controversy, as his bombshell tell-all memoir has apparently been delayed until next year as it did not make Penguin Random House’s list of upcoming books, which has been raising eyebrows among royal watchers.
As the Daily Mail reports, a Royal insider told The Sun on Sunday: ‘If this book’s coming out this year as originally planned it should be in the publisher’s marketing and promotional list — unless they’re planning a surprise or there’s been a delay.
Harry’s book is said to be ‘heartfelt’ and he himself had said he was writing ‘not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become’, revealing he wanted to include ‘the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned’. Harry worked with a ghostwriter who is reported to be novelist John Moehringer.
The Duchess of Sussex herself hasn’t shied away from work with the U.N., becoming an ‘advocate for political participation and leadership’ with the organization’s women’s group several years ago.
However, critics have said these appearances and charity work serve as fodder for their upcoming Netflix documentary special. Harry and Meghan have already visited a New York City school, the World Trade Center and the September 11 Museum ahead of next week’s big speech.