I look like Prince Harry: Meghan Markle changed my life overnight

I was dressed in a suit and boots at a wedding in 2006 when I suddenly felt multiple eyes on me for some reason, instead of the bride and groom. In fact, an entire table was looking at me and laughing.

I had no idea why until my friend turned to me and said, “Dude, everyone thinks you look like Prince Harry.”

Not a day goes by that I’m not mistaken for Harry. The frequency varies depending on whether or not you are on the front pages of newspapers or magazines on any given day. The higher your profile, the more people stop me for photos.

And I owe most of this attention, and my entire career, to none other than Meghan Markle, who literally changed my life overnight.

The first time I noticed the similarity between myself and Harry was when I saw him on TV as a teenager. I thought, “You know what? He looks a lot like me ».

But it wasn’t until that wedding in 2006 when I was 23 that I received the first big public reaction to my resemblance. He was wearing a suit and Harry was most often seen wearing suits at public events, so this image seemed to resonate with the crowd.

Little did I know that just over a decade later, another wedding would change the course of my life forever.

As Harry started getting more attention in the media, I also started getting more reactions from the public when they walked past me on the street. I often heard laughter and comments as people walked past me.

As a result, my family encouraged me to apply to similar agencies, which I did in 2011. I didn’t get any response at the time, so I figured I might look a bit like Harry, but not enough to be a stuntman.

But everything changed after a certain woman came into my life, through Harry. In November 2017, Harry and Meghan got engaged, and like the rest of the world, I was watching the engagement interview at home. I remember thinking, “God, I wish I was working as his stunt double right now, that would be so much fun.”

Remarkably, the next day, I received a fateful email from one of the agencies I’d contacted six years earlier asking, “Hey Rhys, I guess you’re still nothing like Harry, are you?” she replied delightedly: “Yes! I hope so!”

That email completely changed my life and I probably wouldn’t have pursued the possibility of working as a stunt double for Harry if it wasn’t for Meghan’s arrival on the scene.

The agency invited me to London to officially list me in their books, and I contacted several others who did the same. I soon found out from the agencies that back in 2011, Harry’s media profile was kept deliberately low for security reasons because he was serving in Afghanistan with the British Army and receiving death threats at the time. Understandably, there wasn’t much demand for jobs like Harry back then.

But with Harry’s engagement and a royal wedding on the horizon, agencies began to see the potential high demand for people who looked like Harry.

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Upkeep to fix myself up to reflect the details of Harry’s appearance has been a full-time job in itself. I decided to gain weight to better match Harry’s physique. We’re about the same height at 6’1″, but he was a bit bulkier than me before, so since starting this similar job five years ago, I’ve gained an extra 22lbs. I have to exercise and be careful what I eat to stay in good shape like Harry and maximize our similarities.

I also work very hard to try and capture the full essence, not just physical characteristics, of Harry. So I’ve studied his body language as well as his voice, because I also work as a ‘sound’ for Harry. His voice isn’t a million miles from my own natural voice, I just have to speak a little slower and deeper.

From what I’ve observed, Harry usually exhibits quite anxious body language at public events and engagements. He often plays with his wedding ring and the buttons on his suit, which I think he does to help calm down. He tends to smile less than me, so I try to smile a little less too, which is not very natural for me.

Although many look-alikes have had the opportunity to meet their celebrity counterparts, I never met Harry or Meghan. As royals, we have always been discouraged from getting too close to actual royals, on the assumption that they would not like to meet their members.

I have heard that the security personnel of the royal palaces have hung our photos on the walls to make sure that we are not admitted by mistake, in case we try to enter.

But working as a stunt double for Harry has been an absolute whirlwind. From my humble first concert; a photo shoot for a small chocolate company, fly around the world and be treated like royalty.

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I’ve stayed in five-star hotels and met fascinating people and celebrities that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to rub shoulders with.

As stuntmen, our jobs obviously follow how busy the real royals are. So whenever there’s been a major royal event, we’ve all been extremely busy, from weddings and births to “Megxit” and the recent Jubilee events.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend was jam-packed with various jobs, working alongside my Meghan doppelganger Sarah Mhlanga, from meet and greets to touring different nightclubs until 2am to wow partygoers during several nights with the theme of the Jubilee. We had our own security at each nightclub and were given our own private champagne booth each time in an attempt to convince guests that Harry and Meghan were partying with them.

But the highlight of my career so far has been appearing on The Pentaverate, Mike Myers’ Netflix comedy series, in which I play Harry, who is portrayed as part of an Illuminati-style secret society, along with stunt doubles for Meghan, Queen Elizabeth II, Simon Cowell and others. It was an incredible experience and it would be my dream to play Harry in the Netflix series. The crown serie.

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When “Megxit” happened in January 2020, the couple were on the front pages of newspapers every day for weeks and couldn’t walk more than 20 meters in London without people doing double-takes and laughing with their friends as they passed. .

And weirdly, I still get mistaken for Harry even when I’m not wearing the typical clothes he wears and when I’m wearing my glasses. I’ve also been recognized like him abroad, including in Las Vegas, where I had a huge reaction, even bigger than here in London.

Some people actually believe that I am the real Harry. When I see how meeting Harry has made your day, I just don’t have the heart to tell you that I’m double. They are delighted, so I always let them enjoy the moment.

Once in Windsor, England, he was working with a double for Prince William. On my way back to London with him, a tourist, breathless with excitement, stopped us to say, ‘I know them. You are the brothers!”

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I thought Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down from their roles as senior members of the royal family full-time would reduce my work, but since then I’ve been busier than ever.

However, I’ll have to decide what to do about Harry’s bald spot, which he even recently joked about while promoting the Invictus Games in April 2022. I’m only a year older than Harry, who is 37, but seems to be losing more hair that I. Hopefully, Meghan can persuade him to try and recapture his missing hair, or I might have to create my own bald batch too!

Being a real likeness is definitely a blessing rather than a curse. I feel very lucky to have shared all the amazing experiences on this journey so far. Therefore, I will always be grateful to Harry, and especially Meghan, for launching my stunt career.

I also have to thank Harry and Meghan for meeting my future wife. I met my partner Maria at an event last year, dressed as Prince Harry, and we got engaged three weeks ago. When we met, she said that she reminded him of Harry but “I have much better hair than him!”

I have yet to meet any other royals as of yet, but I would be honored to meet Her Majesty the Queen, who can even do a double take of herself for a second or two.

Rhys Whittock has been working as a Prince Harry since 2017 for various commercial clients. For more information, follow him on Instagram @theprinceharrylookalike or visit princeharrylookalike.com.

All opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

As Soo Kim was told.

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