Boris Johnson's 'futile' attempt to get Prince Harry to stay

According to the former prime minister's soon-to-be-released memoir, Boris Johnson was part of a last-minute attempt to stop the Duke of Sussex from giving up royal life in Britain.

According to Unleashed, Johnson gave what he called a “male pep talk” to Prince Harry on the sidelines of a British-African investment summit in London in January 2020. The memoir will be published in the Daily Mail.

It was a “completely hopeless” task, says Johnson, as Prince Harry was already on the verge of leaving the country.

The man famous for Brexit couldn't make the young prince stay.

That encounter did not turn out to be a meeting of minds, but Johnson's report now explains what was reported at the time as a 20-minute one-on-one “catch-up” with no aides present between the then-Prime Minister and Prince Harry.

It was a time of great interest in Prince Harry and his falling out with the royal family. The meeting with Johnson came the day after a speech in which the prince said he had “no choice” but to step down from his royal role.

Based on the quotes published so far, Johnson appears to have made a doomed attempt to persuade Prince Harry to change his mind – by suggesting he was acting on behalf of Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street.

It was a “ridiculous affair… when they made me try to convince Harry to stay. A kind of male encouragement. Totally hopeless,” writes Johnson about the meeting between the two Old Etonians.

There has been no comment from representatives of Prince Harry or Buckingham Palace.

But this meeting between the Spare and the Hair Apparent appears to reveal an unexpected overlap between the political and royal worlds, adding another dimension to the way Prince Harry and Meghan left the UK.

There is no mention of it in her Netflix film or in Harry's own memoir.

It's also not clear from the details revealed so far whether the prime minister gave relationship advice based on his own experiences. A month later, Johnson announced that he was engaged to Carrie Symonds and they were expecting a baby.

However, nothing seemed to prevent the departure of Prince Harry, who the evening before meeting the Prime Minister had spoken “not as a prince or a duke, but as Harry” of his plans to lead a different life than his role as a working royal.

This family drama overlapped with the Africa Investment Summit – and when Prince William hosted a reception for summit guests at Buckingham Palace that evening, Prince Harry was not there and was about to board a flight to Canada.

He has now moved to California in the US with his family – although he regularly returns to the UK and will be here at a charity event next week.

According to the Mail, in his effort to stop the prince from leaving, Johnson praised him as a valuable asset to UK plc and praised his work, such as the Invictus Games for military veterans.

The event discussed UK investment in Africa and shared an interest in improving education in Africa – with Prince Harry involved in a charity in Lesotho and both Meghan and Johnson has championed the importance of girls' access to education.

Since that brief encounter in London's Docklands, much has changed for both Prince Harry and Johnson, as both men have spectacularly fallen out with their respective organizations.

Prince Harry attended a number of events in New York this week. This also included serious moments, such as a speech warning about the risks of social media for young people.

But then he also appeared in one haunted labyrinth object on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, where, in a strange exchange, he was asked if he was afraid of pandas.

Would this have happened if he had followed Boris' advice? Although the ex-prime minister's critics may have also spoken about him in terms of food, shoots and leaves.

“Unleashed” by Boris Johnson, published by William Collins on October 10th