EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Prince Harry WILL join friends at Boxing Day pheasant shoot after rumours animal rights supporter wife Meghan had ‘banned him’ from going are branded ‘completely untrue’
There had been speculation that the Duchess of Sussex had told her husband he could not take part in the royal’s traditional Boxing Day shoot
Prince Harry has received an early Christmas present from his wife, Meghan: I hear the Duchess of Sussex has made clear that she’s happy for him to continue shooting with the rest of the Royal Family.
There had been speculation that the American former actress had told Harry he could not take part in the royals’ traditional Boxing Day pheasant shoot at Sandringham.
But an authoritative palace source tells me: ‘It’s completely untrue that Her Royal Highness has banned the Duke from shooting.’
Harry is understood to have been shooting with friends since he started living with Meghan and they acquired a black labrador puppy earlier this year specifically to be a gun dog.
The news will delight Harry’s old chums, who had been worried by reports that he had abandoned his shotguns.
David Roper–Curzon, Lord Teynham’s son and heir, who has been shooting with the Prince, tells me: ‘He’s a very good shot.
‘Not only that, he is a great figure in supporting those who work in that industry.’
Meghan has been described as an animal rights advocate since her former showbusiness agent, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, claimed earlier this year that she declined to promote fur or animal products.
Harry is understood to have been shooting with friends since he started living with Meghan and they acquired a black labrador puppy earlier this year specifically to be a gun dog
A friend tells me: ‘Like Harry, Meghan is very keen to promote wildlife charities and animal conservation. However, Harry believes shooting is a sustainable field sport and she won’t stop him.’
For the royals, shooting is rooted in understanding the countryside and the delicate balance that is best protected by active management of the land.
Harry reportedly did not attend the Boxing Day shoot last year, before he and Meghan were married, but it’s not clear why.
He has enjoyed shooting since he was a boy. Although it was inaccurately claimed that his mother, Princess Diana, was opposed to bloodsports, she once shot a stag at Balmoral and did not object to either of her sons shooting: she used to refer to them jokingly as the ‘killer Wales’.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declines to comment.