Nor, it has to be said, did things improve when he returned to London prior to going to Lesotho. He was photographed lurching from nightclub to nightclub with a series of women, a drink ever-present in his hand. There was a contretemps with a photographer outside one club, and by the time he departed for Lesotho, for the second leg of his gap year, he was well on the way to reinforcing his reputation as a drunken and awkward Lad. Although it was not obvious at the time, this aspect of his personality, while causing adverse comment in the sanctimonious portals of the tabloid press, would work in his favour down the line.
Lesotho came into Harry’s life as a result of Mark Dyer. Dyer was friends with Damien West and his brother Dominic, star of the American TV series The Affair, who had attended Ampleforth College in their native Yorkshire with King Letsie III of Lesotho and his younger brother, Prince Seisso. Having been to South Africa with Harry, and having seen how he fell in love with Africa, when Dyer was told by Harry that he wanted to return there and follow in his mother’s footsteps by doing humanitarian work during his gap year, Dyer arranged for Dominic West to introduce Harry to Prince Seisso. Both men had lost their mothers, Queen Mamohato having died shortly before they met in London. She had been a revered figure in the high-altitude, landlocked kingdom which is entirely surrounded by South Africa, having been Regent three times and having dedicated herself to humanitarian works. Lesotho had the second highest HIV infection rate in the world. Some thirty per cent of the adult population was infected with the virus, life expectancy had dropped from sixty to the thirties, and in 2000 the King had been forced to declare HIV/Aids a natural disaster. Lesotho was also an impoverished kingdom where thousands of children were sent into the mountains to tend herds of cattle and sheep from the age of five, living in wholly masculine environments with neither creature nor emotional comforts.
Taking inspiration from his mother’s attitude to those who suffered from poverty as well as Aids, Harry saw this as an opportunity to make a contribution. He leapt at the chance to spend time in Lesotho.
For the first few weeks, Prince Seisso played host, taking him around and enlightening him to the tremendous problems the people of his impoverished nation faced. ‘We have shown him all sides of life in Lesotho. He has seen people dying of Aids, showing very severe symptoms such as blistering and lesions and with only a few days to live. Harry was very much taken aback. I think it really brought home the whole issue to him. He seems to have a genuine concern to play some role during his stay.’
Harry moved on to work at an Aids orphanage called the Mants’ase Children’s Home in Mohale’s Hoek, planting trees for shade, building fences and generally mucking in doing whatever was required to lend a hand. He has always been good with children, as I can attest to, having seen the patient way he and William played with my sons, despite a decade’s age difference, at polo when they were all much younger. He had brought out footballs for soccer and rugby from England, and used to organise games with the kids. He also developed a touching relationship with a four year old orphan named Matsu Potsane, who refused to leave his side and with whom he has remained in contact over the years.
Despite his antipathy to the press, even at that early age Harry knew how to use it to garner attention for causes dear to his heart. He therefore got Mark Dyer to invite Tom Bradby of ITN to make a half-hour documentary of his time at the orphanage, stating, ‘This is a country that needs our help.’ He also explained, ‘I’ve always been like this. This is my side that no one gets to see.’ The documentary raised $2m for the Lesotho Red Cross and alerted the world to the desperate straits in which Lesotho’s many victims of the Aids epidemic lived.
The documentary also proved to be a turning point in the public’s perception of Harry. Up to then, the British public had only known of his troubled, troublesome and laddish side. Now they could see for themselves that here was a prince with a heart, a man who loved children, who did not care about colour or class, who wanted to make a difference. This endeared him to the British public, who have a very kind and compassionate dimension. They now began to take him to their own hearts in a way they had
