“Safely attached to a professional like a toddler.” That was the provocative caption circulating online beside images of Prince Harry’s recent tandem skydive. The post compared Harry’s jump with an old photograph of his father, King Charles, then Prince Charles, parachuting from an aircraft alone in 1971. The caption ended with one blunt word in capital letters: “EMBARRASSING.”
Welcome back to British Royal Family. Before we get into the story, leave your verdict below in one word: brave or embarrassing? And remember one simple idea throughout this story. Every photograph usually has two people behind it: the person doing the work and the person receiving the attention. Sometimes they are the same person. Sometimes they are not. And when they are different, the photograph can tell a very different story.
Harry had been back in Britain for only a short time before travelling across the Atlantic again, first to New York and then to Canada. His latest appearance involved a promise he had made nearly a year earlier.
The story began last November when Harry visited Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto. During that visit, he met Ed Marshall, a Second World War veteran who had trained as a paratrooper. Ed had celebrated his 100th birthday by completing a fundraising skydive, and during his conversation with Harry, he suggested that the two of them should make another jump together sometime.
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Harry agreed.
On Friday, September 25, he honoured that promise by taking to the skies over Ontario. But there was one important change. Ed Marshall was now 102, and his doctor had concerns about him making another jump. Instead, Ed’s grandson Bailey took his place, while Ed watched from the aircraft.
Harry eventually stepped out at approximately 11,000 feet, but he was not jumping alone. He was attached to Adam Winky, an experienced Canadian Armed Forces veteran and professional tandem instructor. In a tandem skydive, the instructor controls the parachute, manages the descent and handles the landing while the passenger remains securely attached to the front of the instructor’s harness.
After reaching the ground, Harry kissed the earth. He then called his wife, Meghan. The jump also raised money for Sunnybrook and the True Patriot Love Foundation, meaning the event had a clear charitable purpose.
So why did the photographs attract so much criticism?
Part of the answer came directly from Harry himself.
Speaking to CTV News after the landing, Harry admitted that he had not exactly been enthusiastic about jumping from the aircraft. He explained that he had actually wished he could get out of the commitment, but Ed had been extremely persuasive.
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Harry also spoke about Meghan’s reaction. According to him, she was relieved once he was safely back on the ground. He joked that the climb seemed to take a long time and that she repeatedly asked whether they had landed yet.
It was a surprisingly candid admission. But once those comments were combined with the photographs of Harry attached to his instructor, critics quickly turned the story into something very different.
On Dan Wootton’s program, the skydive was discussed in highly critical terms, with commentators questioning how much of the actual work Harry had performed. One comparison even linked Harry’s ground-kissing moment to singer Katy Perry, who had similarly kissed the ground after her own brief spaceflight.
The criticism did not stop there. Some commentators mocked the way Harry celebrated after landing, while others argued that the excitement of the experience had been provided largely by the professional instructor.
Another broadcaster, Mark Dolan, raised a different question. Harry had spent approximately a decade in the British Army and completed two tours in Afghanistan. During his second tour, he served as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner. Because of that military background, Dolan argued that some people might naturally expect Harry to have more parachuting experience.
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But that argument leaves out an important fact: Harry’s military career did not make him a qualified solo parachutist. A tandem jump with a trained instructor is the standard arrangement for someone without the required parachuting qualifications.
Harry never claimed that he had jumped alone.
And that distinction matters.
The strongest criticism therefore comes not from the technical details of the skydive, but from the contrast between the image of Harry and the older image of his father.
On July 29, 1971, the then-22-year-old Prince Charles made his first parachute descent while training with the Royal Air Force. He jumped from an Andover aircraft over Studland Bay in Dorset.
The jump itself was not completely straightforward. Charles later recalled emerging from the aircraft upside down, with his legs becoming caught in the rigging lines. He eventually landed in the sea as planned and was helped from the water by Royal Marines.
But Charles did not stop there.
Later that year, he joined the Royal Navy and served for several years. In 1976, he became commander of the minehunter HMS Bronington. The following year, he became Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment and chose to complete the parachute training course himself so that he could earn his wings.
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That history explains why the old photograph carries such a different meaning.
It shows a young prince undergoing genuine military parachute training and making a descent independently. Harry’s recent photograph shows a 42-year-old prince participating in a charity tandem jump while secured to a professional.
But there is another side to the story.
Harry’s jump was never presented as a military exercise. It was a charitable event connected to a promise made to a 102-year-old veteran. Harry agreed to participate, kept his word and helped raise money for worthwhile causes.
The fact that he used an instructor does not make the jump fraudulent. In fact, allowing an untrained passenger to jump alone would be irresponsible.
There is also something ironic about the comparison. The man Harry originally promised to jump with, Ed Marshall, was the veteran with the parachuting history. Yet because of his age and medical advice, he remained on the aircraft while his grandson completed the jump.
And ultimately, the photographs were dominated by Harry.
That is where the debate becomes more interesting. The instructor performed the technical work. Ed Marshall provided the original inspiration and promise. Bailey completed the jump in Ed’s place. Harry became the face of the story.
So perhaps the real issue is not whether Harry was brave enough to jump. He certainly stepped out of an aircraft at 11,000 feet. The more complicated question is why the public image became centered almost entirely on Harry when the event was rooted in a veteran’s story and charity fundraising.
The comparison with Charles will continue because the photographs are so dramatically different: one young prince descending alone during military training, and another prince safely attached to a professional during a charitable tandem jump.
Whether that makes Harry’s appearance admirable, awkward, courageous or simply misunderstood depends on how the viewer interprets the circumstances.
But one thing is clear: Harry never claimed to have completed a solo parachute jump.
So now the question is yours.
Was Harry’s skydive a brave way to honour a veteran and support charity, or did the photographs create an image that invited an unfair comparison with his father?
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