Prince Harry’s furious four-word outburst after reporter ‘kicked wasp’s nest’ on tour

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship with the media has been fraught for years, with things coming to a head during their South Africa tour in 2019.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s visit to South Africa marked their last royal tour (Image: Getty)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s life in California couldn’t be any more different to the one they once lived.

After marrying in 2018, the couple were full-time working members of the Royal Family who travelled both within the UK and overseas to engagements representing Queen Elizabeth II.

In late 2019 when Harry and Meghan embarked on a tour of South Africa with their young baby son, Prince Archie Harrison. Months later, they stunned the world when they dramatically announced they’d be stepping down as working royals.

A BBC documentary that aired in 2021 charted the media coverage of Harry and Meghan from their wedding in May 2018 until they quit the Royal Family and left to start a new life in the United States.

In it, members of the royal press pack talked about their experiences on that tour.

Harry and Meghan revealed there were cracks in their relationship with the royals during the tour (Image: Getty)

Sky News Royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills recalled an exchange in Malawi with Harry where she called out to ask him a question while he was on an engagement – and was given short shrift after she “kicked the wasps’ nest”.

In the documentary, she acknowledged that she was indeed “slightly pushing her luck” by daring to ask a question once Harry had finished his visit to a health centre and was en route back to his vehicle, reports The Mirror.

Mills said: “He doesn’t yield to me for a full-blown chat, but he acknowledges my existence.” However, on this occasion, things unfolded rather differently.”

The documentary proceeds to depict how the incident played out, with Mills posing a question to Harry upon his departure from an event after engaging with some youngsters. She asks him: “What do you hope to achieve through this? “.

Meanwhile, Harry retorts with a simple: “What? Ask them.”

Reflecting on the occurrence for the documentary, the reporter added: “Most people observe this and think, ‘hold on, that query seems polite. Why did it provoke such a reaction?’

“In retrospect, I realise I’d essentially stirred up a hornet’s nest and was oblivious of it at the time.” Soon after the Duke and Duchess’s return to British soil, ITV released content documenting their journey.

The programme featured Harry discussing his reported rift with Prince William publicly for the first time, while new mum Meghan confessed that she hadn’t been asked if she was OK.

Following this revelation, news broke that Meghan and Harry planned to take some weeks off from royal duties, and they later spent Christmas 2019 in Canada.

Merely a few weeks into 2020, following the infamous Sandringham Summit, it became known that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were planning to withdraw from their senior royal duties.

Since then, they’ve fashioned a life for their own family and children in the United States, settling down in a Tuscan-style villa in Montecito and establishing a separate foundation to continue pursuing their charitable and business interests.