Three days after Archie’s birth on May 6, Harry was in the Netherlands, toasting the upcoming 2020 Invictus Games. A day after that, he dropped by the launch of Shout, a new text helpline in the UK. And in the coming days, he traveled to Oxford for a visit to the children’s hospital, then to Rome to play in the ninth annual Sentebale Polo Cup. Heck, he even attended Gabriella Windsor’s wedding (she’s the queen’s cousin once removed) dressed to the nines and ready to hobknob with everyone from his cousins Eugenie and Bea to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. (For the record, Prince William and Kate Middleton sat this celebration out.)
Before I go on, I want to be clear: I adore Prince Harry. In fact, I’m a fan of the entire royal clan. But even a royally obsessed lady like myself began to wonder: In this day and age, why didn’t he take a royally sanctioned paternity leave?
It was well within his right. In the UK, on average, fathers take two weeks off. And in the U.S., 40 percent of employers now offer paid parental leave, a 15 percent spike since 2015, according to BizWomen, with some states even formalizing the benefit with up to 12 paid weeks. Progressive companies like Apple or Facebook have stepped it up further—sometimes providing as much as 17 weeks.
I was curious, then, as to why Harry was so quick to go back to work. Is bonding just not that important to royal dads?