Prince Harry 'only has one friend left' after bitter estrangement from UK pals
Prince Harry reportedly didn’t visit his “only friend” left in the UK during his whistle stop visit to London.
The 39-year-old flew to be by his father King Charles’ side on Monday, as it was announced the monarch had been diagnosed with a type of cancer following a procedure on an enlarged prostate. Many hoped the brief reunion at Clarence House would help reconcile the estranged father and son, but it later emerged Harry had spent less than 30 minutes with his father, before the King flew to Sandringham in Norfolk.
While in the country, Harry also failed to see his brother Prince William, and his return to Los Angeles just hours after seeing his father indicated he had no intention of speaking to his older brother amid their bitter fall out. However, he also didn’t catch up with old pal Mark Dyer, who has been called Harry’s “only friend” in the UK after his controversial exit from the Royal Family in 2020 with wife Meghan Markle.
READ MORE: Harry switched flights to get home quicker to Meghan after brief meeting with King
Prince William and Prince Harry with Mark Dyer in 1999 (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)According to royal author Phil Dampier, Harry is “not interested” in seeing any of his old friends anymore, and has become “Harry No Mates”. He told Fabulous: “The one friend he still has in the UK who could help build bridges is Mark Dyer.” The former royal equerry served as a second father to Harry and William following Diana’s death, and the Duke of Sussex recalled fond memories of the former Welsh Guards officer.
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Mark, nicknamed Marko, served Prince Charles until the late 1990s, and acted as a mentor to the young princes after their mother tragically died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Writing in his memoir Spare, Harry admitted he was initially mesmerised by Mark, who had the same ginger hair he did. “I was a ginger, self-conscious about it, but Marko was an extreme ginger and owned it. I gawped at him and thought: teach me to be like that,” he wrote.
Harry recalled being in awe of Mark when he first met him (Getty Images)
The former Welsh Guards soldier was a pillar of support to Harry during his troubled teenage years (Getty Images)He also revealed in his memoir that Mark was there for the important moments in his life, and was even sent by Prince Charles to have a word with him about the negative headlines he racked up during his teenage years. The father-of-two recalled Mark met him in a cafe to scold him over his drug-taking, and Mark took him to visit a residential centre for drug users in south London in an effort to make him see the error of his ways.
It was also Mark who warned Harry to never talk about his mother Diana in interviews, at the insistence of his father Charles. “Pa was dead-set against me addressing that topic; he didn’t want either of his sons speaking about Mummy, for fear it would cause a stir, distract from his work, and perhaps shine an unflattering light on Camilla,” he wrote. After he left school, Harry and Mark embarked on a gap year together, travelling to Australia, Argentina and Lesotho, and the pair are said to still be close.
Harry was an usher at Mark’s wedding to Amanda Kline in 2010 in Wales, while Harry asked Mark to serve as an usher at his own wedding in 2018. Mark’s son Jasper, who has the Duke as his godfather, also served as a page boy at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s star-studded wedding in 2018. Mark was later asked by the couple to be godfather to their firstborn Archie in 2019.
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