‘He totally has an American accent now’: Expert has her say as fans notice major change in Prince Harry’s speech

Last week, Prince Harry filmed a humorous video where he appeared to get a tattoo. The skit, which was posted to the likes of Instagram and X, saw the 40-year-old royal show up at the New York City-based tattoo parlor East Side Ink to meet up with singer-songwriter Jelly Roll to invite him to perform at the closing ceremony of next year’s Invictus Games (which, of course, the Prince co-founded).

Faux confusion then abounded as Jelly Roll assumed the Duke of Sussex had turned up to get himself inked, and a sequence followed in which the performer — who isn’t a trained tattoo artist, incidentally — appeared to adorn Harry’s neck with the words “I am Jelly Roll.” Of course, that would be unbecoming of a member of the British Royal Family, and the whole thing was merely a promotional film for the aforementioned 2025 Invictus Games. Harry’s skin remains unblemished.

However, the prince’s fans noticed something else had changed: his accent. On the day of the video’s release, there was a smattering of comments on social media from people who took heed of the fact that his upper-class British voice was slowly making way for an American twang — something augmented by Harry’s use of American words like “dude” instead of “mate”.

It wasn’t the first time Harry’s fans had noticed such a change. The Mirror reminds us that, in 2022, the prince appeared in another promo video for tech start-up BetterUp — an organization on a mission to help people everywhere live their lives with greater clarity, purpose, and passion, for whom he is the chief impact officer. When people pointed out his fading English accent back then, speech and accent expert Emma Serlin, founder of the London Speech Workshop, spoke to the publication and had much to say about the subject.

Harry’s accent now sounds much more rounded and middle rather than upper class. In a classic Harry way, he’s doing what we know him to be – he’s the friendly prince, he’s charming, he connects with people. He is his mother’s son. He is now ‘of the people’ in a much more overt way. He has always toned the classic royal accent down and softened it, but previously he was much more aligned with the Royal Family.

Now that Harry hardly ever sees the Royal Family – not only is he no longer aligned with them in the same way, but he also doesn’t spend time with them in the same way. So, he has adapted his accent to connect more with the people he is meeting and seeing every day, and the people around him. Ultimately, I’m sure he would heighten his accent if he was around the Royal Family again, but it’s really about adapting to build connections.

So, Prince Harry’s accent isn’t necessarily turning American, but it’s losing its poshness. It’s undoubtedly intriguing watching Prince Harry evolve as a person since he and Meghan Markle stepped down as working royals in January 2020, and there’s no doubt his accent has altered a little. Whether or not he’ll ever end up with a fully-fledged California accent remains to be seen, but it’ll certainly be fun to witness if he does.