Celebrity power has been a major subplot of this year’s NBA Finals, with stars such as Taylor Swift, Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner and Ben Stiller drawing attention from premium courtside seats during New York Knicks games.
Prince Harry, however, was seated farther from the spotlight, appearing unexpectedly in the eighth row for Game Five of the championship series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Knicks.
The Duke of Sussex attended the game in San Antonio alongside US Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient JP Lane. He was also seen seated next to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, several rows behind many of the night’s top celebrity guests.
On the court, the Knicks delivered a historic result, defeating the Spurs 94-90 to secure the franchise’s first NBA championship since 1973.
The crowd featured plenty of other recognizable names, including Euphoria actor Sydney Sweeney, who attended with music executive Scooter Braun, as well as director Spike Lee. Actor John Turturro and comedian Tracy Morgan were also among those seated courtside.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the couple’s children were not at the game. Since relocating to the United States in 2020, Harry and Meghan have frequently been seen at major sporting events, including the NBA All-Star Game earlier this year.
Harry, 41, was already in Texas for the Warrior Games – a multi-sport event for wounded, injured or ill military personnel and veterans organised by the US government.
The duke’s appearance came hours after the King celebrated his official birthday with a ceremony showcasing the British Army’s ceremonial prowess.
Prince Harry (circled, sitting in the eighth row) made a surprise appearance at game five of the finals series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Knicks
Charles took part in Trooping the Colour on Saturday, where military pomp and pageantry were on display in the heart of the capital.
The Princess of Wales and her children joined the Queen and thousands of spectators at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall to view the spectacle featuring some of the nation’s most prestigious regiments.
Future king Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight, watched their grandfather from the first-floor window of the Duke of Wellington’s former office overlooking the parade ground.
Crowds gathered in The Mall to watch the Royal Family’s carriage procession from Buckingham Palace, with Charles and Camilla in the middle of a Sovereign’s Escort provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
Harry’s eighth row appearance behind Hollywood’s A-listers at one of America’s biggest sporting events comes after royal experts claimed the ‘tide has turned’ for the duke and duchess.
When Harry and Meghan left the UK, US media companies gave every indication that they would support their American duchess and her prince charming, and they were inundated with commercial deals.
Netflix spent a rumoured £60million to partner with the couple a few months before Spotify reportedly pledged £15million with their production company Archewell Audio in late 2020.
But after a series of business missteps, media organisations that were once their cheerleaders are now less visible, royal experts have claimed in a new Channel 5 documentary – Harry & Meghan: Has America Had Enough?
While A-listers had the best seats in the stadium, Harry was relegated to row eight, sitting next to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
Actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller had a seat courtside, giving him a clear view and allowing him to capture the action on his smartphone
Actor Timothee Chalamet and model Kylie Jenner cosy up at Game Four of the NBA Finals, between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, at Madison Square Garden on June 10
Taylor Swift was at Game Four of the NBA Finals with friends, musician Este Haim and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay. They were wearing customised T-shirts with ‘Stevie Knicks’ and ‘Knicole Kidman’ in orange letters
The Daily Mail’s Editor at Large, Richard Kay, says there was an enormous sense of goodwill towards the Sussexes when they relocated to the US.
‘America likes people who are having another go, and Harry, in a sense, was having another go,’ he explains. ‘He felt he’d been driven out of his home country, he got this lovely American wife, and I think America respected him for coming to them and building a new career on their side of the pond.’
It was no surprise that Netflix quickly came calling, hoping for the exclusive tell-all about their experiences in the Royal Family. But Harry and Meghan sat down for their first major television interview with Oprah Winfrey in a primetime special that aired on CBS, before Harry released further insight in his memoir Spare.
‘Netflix were the least beneficial. Oprah got the first bite of the cherry, and Spare had loads of exclusive materials that hadn’t been told,’ journalist Jack Royston told the Channel 5 documentary.
Alexander Larman, author of Power And Glory: Elizabeth II And The Rebirth Of Royalty, added: ‘Netflix are not a stupid company. But they are beginning to look, very strongly, like they had gambled far too much money on a public appetite for a brand that doesn’t exist.
‘In America, there is this great love and affection for the Royal Family, but there’s also the sense that Harry and Meghan were not quite the people they thought they were going to be.’
Meghan split from Netflix in March and took complete control of her As Ever food and homeware brand – just months after the streaming giant dropped her lifestyle and cookery show, With Love, Meghan.
Insiders claimed Meghan thought Netflix was being too ‘cautious’ and wants to ‘go global’, believing her brand can ‘stand on its own’.
Harry was seen walking off the court at the San Antonio Spurs vs the New York Knicks game with Adam Silver and US army veteran and Purple Heart recipient JP Lane (right)
Sydney Sweeney with her music producer boyfriend Scooter Braun in the stands during Game Five of the NBA Finals
Proud New Yorker Spike Lee, decked out in Knicks colours, making his way through the packed court after the game
But the abrupt split came just two months after the streaming giant axed With Love, Meghan, which ran for two series.
The documentary explained that another turning point in the couple’s perception was the release of the February 2023 South Park episode, The World Wide Privacy Tour.
The show ridiculed Meghan and Harry’s demands for privacy while on a publicity blitz for the prince’s autobiography ‘Waaaagh’ – a dig at Harry’s memoir Spare.
The cartoon prince and princess carried banners emblazoned with the ‘Respect Our Privacy’ slogan, and they shouted at anyone who looked their way.
Speaking on the documentary, Journalist Emma Loffhagen says: ‘In America, that was perhaps the first time that that perception had been broadcast in that way. It’s a sign that the tide was turning, and that scathing tone would become more popular.’
At the same time, the Sussexes’ relations with Spotify also took an about-turn. The streaming giant and the couples Archewell Audio reportedly signed a £15million ($20million) deal in late 2020.
A well-placed royal source told The Mirror at the time: ‘Meghan was the driving force behind the deal. She was incredible in the meetings with executives and had a clear vision of what they, as a couple, had to offer.
‘Spotify’s whole business plan is to acquire the world’s most talked about celebrities in one place and Harry and Meghan fit the bill entirely. It’s a win-win scenario.’
After the deal was signed, Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, issued a gushing statement which read: ‘The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may live in California, but the power of their voices rests in their status as citizens of the world.
‘That they are embracing the extraordinary capacity of podcasts on Spotify while also seeking to elevate underrepresented voices is a testament to their appreciation for the potential of audio storytelling.’
Prince Harry sat next to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver during Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio
But after one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes, Spotify announced it was axing the deal in June 2023.
Insiders claimed at the time that the royal couple did not meet the productivity benchmark required to receive the full payout.
Sources have since claimed the couple ‘wanted a big theme that would explain the world, but they had no ideas’.
Some of Harry’s concepts allegedly ranged from reviewing hot chocolate every week to interviewing the likes of Putin and Donald Trump about being ‘sociopaths’.
Meanwhile, Meghan is said to have found it hard to commit to a single idea before ‘backtracking’ and ‘watering them down’, meaning each episode had to be ‘completely reimagined late in production’, the article stated.
The couple were also disparaged by podcaster Bill Simmons, who worked with the Sussexes at Spotify.
In June 2023, he referred to the couple as ‘grifters’, adding: ‘I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.… F*** them. The grifters.’
Spotify appeared to have made a business-led decision that the duke and duchess don’t have the media brand value they once had.
Over the weekend, just hours before the Royal Family’s appearance at Trooping the Colour, Meghan shared a new photograph of herself with her best friend’s newborn baby to her 4.6million Instagram followers.
The duchess, 44, who lives in Montecito, California, with Prince Harry and their two children, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet, hasn’t stepped out on the Buckingham Palace balcony since 2019 after quitting the Firm a year later.
Posting on social media ahead of the King’s official birthday, Meghan shared the image to her Stories following her visit to her friend, Kelly McKee Zajfe, who gave birth to Jack Oliver earlier this year.
Unlike Kelly, who is the co-founder of Alliance of Moms, a non-profit whose mission is to empower pregnant and parenting teens in foster care, Meghan typically hides her children, Archie, seven, and five-year-old Lilibet’s faces when posting about them on social media.
However, following her friend’s approach, she posted newborn Jack’s features in the photo, in which she’s pictured embracing the baby and giving him a peck on his head.
‘We know I love a redhead,’ the duchess wrote alongside the image, before joking: ‘And let me stop you before they start, no it’s not his baby.’
Her close friend Kelly, a former model, announced she was expecting Jack in November last year, after tragically losing her nine-year-old son in July 2022, after he contracted a viral illness.
Meghan added a second picture of her fellow California mother, whom she has been friends with for 20 years, smiling alongside Jack, saying: ‘Love you @heartmom’.
Earlier this month, the duchess was forced to defend her decision to share images of her two children online more frequently while warning of the dangers of social media to young people after posting new photos of Lilibet on her fifth birthday.
In a post captioned ‘our dream girl’, the Duchess of Sussex released the clearest photo yet of Lili to her millions of Instagram followers.
Despite the images showing much of the five-year-old’s face, Meghan, through her spokesperson, insisted she is protecting her daughter’s privacy while sharing important family moments.
The response came after she was accused of hypocrisy last month when she shared an image of Lilibet sitting at her feet in a wardrobe packed with designer fashion before leaving for Geneva, where she gave a speech warning of the dangers of social media for children.
‘The duchess has always been clear that there is a distinction between sharing moments from her life and exposing her children to public scrutiny,’ her spokesperson said.
‘By obscuring their faces, she is demonstrating the very principle she advocates for: giving children privacy, agency and protection in an increasingly digital world.’
