The royal reflected on his journey from being born into a life of service to discovering his own purpose and transitioning from having to serve to wanting to

Harry made the comments during a surprise appearance at a conference in New York(Image: BBC)

Prince Harry appeared to make a barbed dig at the Royal Family during a surprise appearance in New York.

The remarks came during an on-stage chat at the NEXUS Global Summit, where he addressed an audience of 350 potential philanthropists and investors, on Friday. Harry reflected on his personal journey from being born into a life of service to discovering his own purpose and about transitioning from having to serve to wanting to serve.

And he also emphasised that the Archewell Foundation, which he established with his wife Meghan, 43, in 2020, operates on principles of “compassionate leadership” and dedication to “something greater than ourselves”.

Harry spoke passionately to young people at the event(Image: Getty Images)

Harry, 40, said: “The thing that gives me the most hope is the grassroots approach. Many of you here today are connected and involved with so many community solutions, because it’s what energises all of you, and that service part is really what energises me as well.”

In 2021, after the couple stepped back from royal life, the Queen confirmed they would not “continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service”. In a response at the time, Harry and Meghan issued a terse statement saying: “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”

During his latest comments, Harry also urged attendees to “take care of each other and our children in the future” and to “tackle the systems instead of the symptoms keeping us down.”

During the chat, Harry recalled wife Meghan telling him: ‘If you live your life by truth, it’s the most efficient way to live’(Image: Getty Images for 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala)

And he encouraged the audience to consider their desired legacies and align their investments with that vision, while also using their platforms to foster meaningful collaboration and change.

He added: “As the world gets harder, as people’s lives become harder, compassion can shrink. My wife said to me very early on in our relationship ‘if you live your life by truth, it’s the most efficient way to live. We will continue to live our life by truth and we will continue to stand up for what we believe in – the difference between right and wrong.”

Speaking to Rachel Gerrol, co-founder and CEO of NEXUS Global, Harry spoke about the thinking behind campaigning for online safety. He said: “It wasn’t something that was sexy, it wasn’t something that we were necessarily passionate about.

Meghan has faced criticism and online trolling, including about her Netflix TV show(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)

“But it became very clear to us very quickly, speaking to a lot of experts, that for all the work we are collectively doing, and all the progress we are achieving – if the digital world is not done responsibly, it’s going to turn back that progress. And we can see that with climate change.’

He added: “We started to meet a lot of parents who had lost their kids to social media – the majority through suicide – and that’s when it really started to make sense to us.

“One of the reasons why the digital world was so important to us is because my wife, in 2018, was the most trolled person in the world. There was a lived experience, but at no point did we suddenly think ‘OK, well, let’s take this industry on’.”