The royal contemplated his path from being born into a life of duty to finding his own calling and shifting from obligation to desire.

Prince Harry seemed to take a pointed jab at the Royal Family during an unexpected visit in New York.

The comments were made during a discussion on stage at the NEXUS Global Summit, where he spoke to an audience of 350 possible philanthropists and investors on Friday. Harry contemplated his personal journey from being born into a life of service to finding his own purpose and transitioning from a sense of obligation to a desire to serve.

He also highlighted that the Archewell Foundation, founded by him and his wife Meghan, 43, in 2020, is guided by principles of “compassionate leadership” and a commitment to “something greater than ourselves.”

Harry, 40, stated: “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, following the couple’s withdrawal from royal duties, the Queen affirmed they would not“continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service”. In a reply at that moment, Harry and Meghan released a brief statement declaring: “We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.”

In his recent remarks, Harry encouraged participants to “take care of each other and our children in the future” and to “tackle the systems instead of the symptoms keeping us down.”

He urged the audience to reflect on their intended legacies and align their investments with that vision, while also leveraging their platforms to promote significant collaboration and transformation.

He mentioned: “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.”

In a conversation with Rachel Gerrol, the co-founder and CEO of NEXUS Global, Harry discussed the rationale for advocating online safety. He stated: “It wasn’t something that was sexy, it wasn’t something that we were necessarily passionate about.

“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 noted: “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’.”