Will Prince Harry and his children need to leave the U.S. after hard drug scandal?

Prince Harry was painfully honest in his memoir Spare. The memoir not only delves into the insecurity he felt as a child, the frustration he felt over his mother’s mistreatment at the hands of the media, but his decision to reject the Royal lifestyle and move to the United States with his wife, actress Meghan Markle and their children; Lili and Archie.

Needless to say, there’s plenty of material for an entertaining read. Some of the details that Prince Harry decided to share may just get him in trouble, though. The ex-Royal revealed that he took a myriad of different drugs when he was younger, and given that he’s not a citizen of the United States, the admission may lead to his deportation.

Has the ball already gotten rolling on Prince Harry’s deportation? Will his celebrity and his influence enable him to say? Let’s investigate.

Drug confessional

Prince Harry went on 60 Minutes to promote Spare, and given the salacious drug use that’s mentioned in the memoir, host Anderson Cooper wanted to follow up on it. He asked Prince Harry to elaborate on the drugs he took, and the ex-Royal was very open:

“It was obvious to us as kids the British press’ part in our mother’s misery and I had a lot of anger inside of me that luckily, I never expressed to anybody,” he explained. “But I resorted to drinking heavily.  Because I wanted to numb the feeling, or I wanted to distract myself from how … whatever I was thinking. And I would, you know, resort to drugs as well.”

Prince Harry went on to say that, in addition to drinking, he used cocaine and pot. He also consumed mushrooms because they made him feel better about the death of his mother, Princess Diana. “For me, they cleared the windshield, the windshield of the misery of loss,” he admitted.

“They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that– that my mother, that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her,” the Prince added. “When in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy.”

Royal family reaction

The candor with which Prince Harry talked about his childhood and his youth has not been well-received by the Royal family. They are among the most private institutions in the world, so the notion of one of their own spilling “tea” to the rest of the world was never going to be a welcome idea.

An insider told People Magazine that Prince Harry’s memoir has been described as “ghastly” by those in power. “Although there is sorrow because the Queen has died, the coronation should be a joyful moment, too, because Charles will be crowned. But this is a massive shadow.”

The insider went on to say that the release of Spare has only worsened the relationship between Prince Harry and the rest of his family. As far as anyone can tell, there have been no steps taken to smooth things over on either side, and it doesn’t look as though there will be for some time.

Deportation risks

Prince Harry is a globally famous person, but he’s still subject to the same laws that everybody else (at least, he should be). He could face deportation for his admittance of heavy drug use. That said, the opinions of various high-profile attorneys suggest that maybe the case is not as big a deal as it initially seemed.

James Leonard, an attorney who has represented reality stars in the past, claims that there isn’t much to pursue in terms of a case. As long as Prince Harry is not a heavy user in the year 2023, there’s very little to worry about.

“Absent any criminal charge related to drugs or alcohol or any finding by a judicial authority that Prince Harry is a habitual drug user, which he clearly is not, I don’t see any issue with the disclosures in his memoir regarding recreational experimentation with drugs,” the high-profile New Jersey-based lawyer tells Page Six. 

Only time will tell what happens to Prince Harry’s status in the United States.