Prince Harry follows abdicated King's footsteps

King Charles III's youngest son, Prince Harry, who lives in Montecito, drew a chilling parallel to the abdicated King, who historically gave up the British throne for love.

The Duke of Sussex ‘looks very sad’ after stepping down as senior working royal. Royal expert compared his path to Edward VIII, who chose love over duty and faced lasting consequences.

Hugo Vickers, author of 'Behind Closed Doors,' explains the parallels between two royal husbands who walked away from the royal life for their beloved girls.

Harry's wife, Meghan Markle, is often likened to Wallis Simpson, but according to one author, it’s not the American divorcees who deserve scrutiny, adding that it’s the husbands who married them.

The author tried to examine the shocking final years of the Duchess of Windsor, who breathed his last in 1986 at the age of 89.

Vickers uncovered striking and troubling parallels between Harry and Edward, Duke of Windsor — the late Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle — who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson.

"… The one thing in common is that the two husbands both look pretty miserable," Vickers claimed to Fox News Digital.

"If you look at photographs of the Duke of Windsor in old age … I’ve never seen such sad eyes on a man because of what happened. In both cases, they decided not to do the duty which they had been born to undertake."

The expert explained that the queen: "When I give talks occasionally, usually at schools, I show a picture of the queen, our Queen Elizabeth II, with sparkling eyes at the age of 90, having done her duty and feeling the calm, level gaze, conscious of duty fulfilled, as somebody put it," he said.

He went on: "Whereas the Duke of Windsor looked pathetic, and he looked very sad. And Prince Harry also looks very, very sad most of the time and rather angry."

Harry, 41, has been estranged from his family since he and his wife relocated to the US in 2020.

Vickers noted that while Harry attempts to embrace a laid-back California life years later, Edward didn’t let go of the past. Wallis surrounded him with reminders of the crown he left behind.

"If Wallis made a mistake, it was to almost become the epitome of a royal duchess," he said.

While Harry may be privately looking back, Meghan, 44, is more focused on her future. Meghan didn’t fully grasp the institutional reality of marrying into the royal family, said another expert, Schofield.

That’s not unusual. The monarchy isn’t just a family. It’s a centuries-old constitutional machine with high expectations, limited personal autonomy and a hierarchy that doesn’t bend easily to modern celebrity culture.