Prince Harry’s Bond With Royal Family Member Goes Viral

Prince Harry’s relationship with a senior member of the royal family has become the focus of a new viral post, after images of the prince and his aunt, Princess Anne, won praise on social media site TikTok.

Harry and Anne have been photographed together on numerous occasions over the prince’s life. Anne is the only sister of King Charles III and is one of the most popular royals in Britain, regularly topping the list of hardest working family members and reportedly carrying out over 450 public engagements in 2023.

Interest in Harry’s relationship with his family members in Britain has grown since his split from the monarchy and move to the U.S. with Meghan Markle in 2020. Since then, in media projects and interviews, the prince has made a number of behind-palace-walls revelations about interactions and conflicts with his family members, most notably King Charles and Prince William.

Uploaded to TikTok by user elisabethiilili on April 13, several images of Harry interacting with Anne over the course of his life have been viewed over 150,000 times so far, winning praise from fans who have reflected on their apparent closeness.

Harry and Anne have shared a number of touching links, the most apparent of which being that she was his military colonel when he was serving as a member of the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry in the British Army.

Harry served two tours of Afghanistan during his military career. Anne was made colonel of the Blues and Royals regiment in 1998, an honorary role given to her by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2008, in her capacity as colonel, Anne presented her nephew with his Afghanistan war campaign medal along with others in the Household Cavalry.

Captioned “The most iconic duo of the Royal Family,” the photo compilation of Harry and Anne over the years has received in excess of 8,900 likes and numerous comments, many of which have praised the prince and his aunt.

“I just know she’s a cool aunt,” wrote one TikTok user of Anne.

“The spares 💗,” posted another, in reference to the fact that both Anne and Harry were the second born children in their families. A further comment added: “They look alike.”

In addition to their shared military connection, Anne played an important role in the aftermath of one of Harry’s major life events, the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Anne was staying at Balmoral with her mother on September 8, 2022, when the 96-year-old monarch died, 70 years after she acceded to the throne.

In his memoir, Spare, published in 2023, Harry recounted that it was a tense time for relations within the royal family, as he claimed Prince William ignored his attempts to join other royal family members in traveling from London to Scotland to visit the queen when news of her worsening health was announced.

Harry chartered his own private plane to make the journey and when it landed, news of the queen’s death had already broken. He told readers that when he arrived at Balmoral Castle, his father, the new king, and his brother had already left, being greeted at the door by Anne.

“I hurried into the foyer. Aunt Anne was there to greet me,” he wrote. “I hugged her.”

Most recently, the prince and his aunt were photographed engaged in friendly conversation at the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in May 2023. Despite this, social media focus highlighted the fact that Anne’s plumed hat appeared to block Harry’s view of the proceedings, with some users suggesting a deliberate snub.

In a rare interview given after the event to the biographer Robert Hardman, Anne addressed the hat controversy, saying she’d flagged the potential issue with organizers and had been told to go ahead. “‘I said: ‘Are you sure you want me to keep the hat on? Because it’s quite a decent-sized hat.’ And the answer was yes. There you go. Not my choice,'” she said.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

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