Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at the GQ Men of the Year awards on Wednesday, calling in on Zoom from California.
In the video, Harry had a big smile as he gave his speech to what appeared to be a standing ovation from the crowd at the London ceremony.
The awards celebrated Sir Anthony Hopkins who was previously announced as the winner of GQ’s Legend Award, while Bridgerton’s Rege-Jean Page took home the Standout Performance award and Gareth Southgate won the Inspiration Award for taking the England football team to the finals of the European Championship.
Harry moved to California with his wife Meghan Markle in early 2020 after stepping down as a senior royal.
While Meghan was born in California, the couple has never publicly stated their reasons for moving to Montecito, a community located in Santa Barbara, which is popular with A-list celebrities.
However, a new epilogue in royal biography Finding Freedom claims that a number of the Sussexes’ friends, including US chat show host, Oprah Winfrey, had recommended Santa Barbara County to them as a “perfect place to raise a family, specifically Montecito, where houses sat within double-gated communities for maximum privacy yet were close enough to the amenities of civilisation when needed”.
The epilogue also claimed that their £11m property was purchased with a mortgage.
The book, written by royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, reads: “As they settled into the nine-bedroom, 7.4-acres, 18,671-square-foot property (which, like nearly all average couples, they took a mortgage out on), Harry and Meghan enjoyed the lush grounds with Archie, who was now running around with boundless energy and making the most of the private playground at his disposal.”
