Prince Harry appeared ‘sad, anxious and tired’ during their pseudo-royal tour of New York after he and Meghan Markle collected their ‘Humanitarians of the Year’ Award.

The Sussexes’ were also described as ‘very businesslike’ together by someone who  said they were watching from the audience of the World Mental Health Festival the couple supported last week.

The royal watcher suggested that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have been affected by a lack of crowds to greet them at Friday’s event run by Project Healthy Mind, describing the festival as ‘bleak’.

She said of Harry: ‘You got the impression his life had taken a wrong turn’, adding: ‘Harry just looked sad, anxious and tired. He obviously hates speaking in front of a crowd’.

The Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation sponsored three panels at the festival, focusing specifically on their passion projects: the mental health crisis amongst young people and online safety.

The anonymous audience member said: ‘I had hoped that they would be on the panel but each got up and read a speech from a teleprompter to kick off a session each’.

The Duke of Sussex speaks on stage at Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival in New York last Friday. An audience member claimed he looked tired and worried

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the audience at  the Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival at Spring Studios in New York, which their Archewell Foundation helped sponsor

Harry went first at the event on World Mental Health Day and said that: ‘The global pandemic stripped away the ordinary scaffolding of life and brought a measurable surge in anxiety, depression and loss of connection.’

Meghan later got up as her husband watched on and introduced the second panel moderated by Katie Couric.

She said: ‘For this next panel we’re going to turn to one of the most urgent questions facing families today: what’s happening to childhood and how and what do we do to allow our children to just be children.’

Following three panels of discussion, Meghan and Harry got up together, hugged some people who took part in the festival and left together to have lunch with Serena Williams at Soho House.

The woman watching in the crowd claimed: ‘It felt so bleak. No crowds to greet them. And was very businesslike between the two of them. Was so interesting to see them in person’, the account on The Royalist Substack claimed. 

Meghan took to the stage herself separately from her husband

Meghan and Harry then headed off for lunch with Serena Williams at Soho House

The night before Meghan and Harry were the stars of Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Gala.

Footage from the red carpet showed that Prince Harry appeared to try to hurry along his wife before they took their seats.

The Duke of Sussex took Meghan’s hand and started moving away after posing for photographers – but the Duchess of Sussex appeared to linger.

Royal watchers claimed the Duke of Sussex may even have gently whispered to Meghan to ‘come on now’ as she paused.

And in another video taken backstage at the Project Healthy Minds gala in New York, the Duke of Sussex is grabbed by a member of the team, who asks him a question.

Meghan was left standing awkwardly, alone, waiting for him to arrive with some critics claiming she briefly ‘glowered’ before smiling. But a supporter said that she was going to every effort not to ‘overshadow’ her husband.

Meghan then collected the humanitarian award and was praised as ‘a mother, wife, entrepreneur, and philanthropist’. Harry’s work with mental health companies and his controversial 2021 memoir Spare were listed among his achievements.

CEO and founder of Project Healthy Minds, Phillip Schermer, told the audience the Sussexes’, ‘leadership and generosity…had made a profound difference in the lives of so many’.

Some critics said that there was some ‘irony’ in the award given the pain the Sussexes’ have caused Harry’s family.

But an ally of Meghan and Harry, who was on stage to hand them the gong, has since insisted that ‘no one’ is more deserving of the accolade.

Attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett on stage with the Sussexes and says ‘no one’ is more deserving of being named

Attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett – herself a campaigner on social media safety campaigner – has called their critics ‘sad’, ‘pessimistic’ and accused them of lacking humanity.

‘NO ONE has done more for the thousands of families the Social Media Law Center serves than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’, she wrote in their defence on LinkedIn.

She revealed that the Sussexes’ have been privately supporting families who have lost loved ones due to social media abuse.

She wrote that the couple have helped ‘not just through money and words … but by personally showing up over and over … by personally making phone calls, sending notes, and picking fruit from their garden for grieving parents so that they know they are not alone. By putting ideas, resources, and support into action to ensure that these families have what they need to stand up and fight back’.

She said: ‘ No one … I repeat … NO ONE has done more for the thousands of families the Social Media Law Center serves than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And no one … I repeat … NO ONE has done more for those of us at SMVLC who love these families and need them to be okay to do the work we do across litigation, legislation, and education than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

‘Their humanity speaks for itself and I feel bad for those who live in the place where social media dictates life rather than seeking truth from those who have witnessed it first hand. That must be a sad, pessimistic, and scary place to live’.