Prince Harry Not ‘Qualified’ to Speak at United Nations, Royal Expert Says

Following Prince Harry‘s keynote speech at the United Nations, royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti weighed in on why he believes the royal’s appearance didn’t seem appropriate.

“I can’t say I was surprised [about his speech at the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York] bearing in mind, he’s making a habit of this. But I certainly wasn’t impressed,” Sacerdoti exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 19, about the Duke of Sussex’s recent involvement. “The reason for that is that Prince Harry made out that he really wanted to kind of duck out of this royal circus that he felt he was trapped in.”

The journalist claimed that Harry’s actions weren’t lining up with his previous statements, adding, “Why was he speaking at the U.N.? Because he’s Prince Harry, otherwise, without meaning to be too offensive, no one would be interested in a guy who scraped through high school’s opinion on world affairs.”

According to Sacerdoti, Harry, 37, has “no qualifications” to be discussing worldwide issues. “He’s, literally, completely unqualified to have anything important to tell to people, but instead he’s using his position as somebody in the British royal family to spread what he sees as an important message,” he continued. “Now, I’m not disputing whether it’s an important message or not, but I am disputing whether or not he’s really got any right to be spreading it to us at the same time as having told us, he doesn’t like the attention of being a royal.

The broadcaster concluded: “If you want to use the status of being part of that royal family, for what you see as good causes and good ends, you have to obey their rules because that’s just kind of polite.”

Sacerdoti’s insight comes amid Harry and Meghan Markle‘s trip to New York City. The pair, who share son Archie, 3, and daughter, Lilibet, 13 months, previously made headlines when they announced their plans to step away from their roles in the royal family. In 2021, they confirmed that the decision was made permanent and moved to the United States ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Suits alum, 40, later opened up about how her mental health suffered due to the British press. “I just didn’t see a solution. I would sit up at night, and I was just, like, I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out,” she said in a CBS tell-all interview in March 2021. “I realized that it was all happening just because I was breathing. I was really ashamed to say [how I was feeling] at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry, especially, because I know how much loss he’s suffered.”

Harry, for his part, also explained that therapy helped him deal with his own challenges. “It was a conversation that I had with my now wife. She saw it. She saw it straight away. She could tell that I was hurting and some of the stuff that was out of my control was making me really angry. It would make my blood boil,” he said during an appearance on Dax Shepard‘s “Armchair Expert” podcast in May 2021.

At the time, Harry compared his time in the U.K. to being in a cage. “It’s a mix between The Truman Show and living in a zoo,” he added. “The biggest issue for me was that, being born into it, you inherit the risk. You inherit every element of it without a choice. And because of the way the UK media are, they feel an ownership over you.

He continued: “In my early 20s, I was in space of, ‘I don’t want this job. Look what it did to my mum, how am I ever going to settle down, have a wife and a family, when I know this is going to happen again.’ I’ve seen behind the curtain, I know how this operation runs and works. I don’t want to be part of this. Then once I started doing therapy suddenly the bubble was burst.”

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi