Stepping again from royal duties in 2020, Prince Harry gave up a lot in trade for private freedom: the cosy trappings of Frogmore Cottage, monetary safety, and the reassurance of the Met Police’s Royalty and Specialist Safety command.
However studies recommend he could have additionally given up one thing else as he and Meghan Markle fled to sunny Montecito: a detailed circle of friends.
Experiences recommend the Duke of Sussex is more and more lonely in California and counts on a former royal safety officer, to whom he’s now thought to pay 1000’s of kilos a day for safety, as his ‘finest pal’.
David Langdown served as a detailed safety officer with the Met for 16 years and was assigned to Harry for round a decade – accompanying Harry on his notorious journey to Las Vegas the place he had a pool celebration surrounded by bikini-clad girls.
However even because the Duke’s wild facet was tempered with age, ‘Langers’, as he’s recognized, has been a constant presence at his and Meghan’s facet.
And after retiring from the general public sector he has continued to work for the Duke, turning into one in every of his closest confidants.
David Langdown has been at Harry’s facet for greater than a decade – seen right here accompanying the Prince out of a Soho nightclub after an evening out in 2011
He turned Meghan’s safety officer as she and Harry courted and after they wed – seen right here on the Duchess’ again in New York in 2019
And he was within the entrance seat of a Vary Rover that whisked Harry and Meghan away from Frogmore Cottage in 2022
Langdown accompanied Harry on his notorious 2012 journey to Las Vegas, the place he loved the corporate of bikini-clad girls and a recreation of strip billiards
Harry is alleged to be lonely on the opposite facet of the Atlantic, together with his fortieth birthday bash anticipated to largely characteristic Meghan’s Hollywood friends on its guestlist.
It’s not recognized whether or not Langdown shall be amongst these attending, or whether or not he’ll accompany the Duke on the vacation he’s reported to be taking with mates to mark the tip of his fourth decade on the planet.
However the ex-Met copper, who’s believed to have gotten his begin as a beat constable in north London’s Stoke Newington, is regarded as a daily customer to Los Angeles in his function as US Operations Director at personal safety agency Broadstone Dangers.
He has been pictured alongside Harry at many key moments in his life in each a public service and mercenary capability.
‘Langers’ was alongside Harry as he left a Soho nightclub in 2011; he additionally joined the Duke on the notorious Las Vegas journey that noticed Harry photographed fully bare after enjoying strip billiards.
Mr Langdown was additionally seen with Meghan after she and Harry courted, accompanying the couple on their first royal journey to Northern Eire in March 2018 earlier than they have been married two months later.
He was behind Meghan when she stepped out in New York for a child bathe a 12 months later, noticeably pregnant with younger Archie.
Mr Langdown is believed to have retired from the Met in the summertime of 2022, months after he acquired the Royal Victorian Medal from Queen Elizabeth II for companies to the royal household.
Months later, he was within the entrance seat of a Vary Rover transporting Harry and Meghan from Frogmore Cottage having begun his work with Broadstone, a agency arrange by former Met officer Peter Miles.
It’s reported to have protected the likes of Beyonce and Jay-Z in addition to pop star Ariana Grande.
The agency describes Mr Langdown as having a profession ‘distinguished by profound dedication and unparalleled experience’ throughout which he guarded Queen Elizabeth II, the then-Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, now the Prince and Princess of Wales.
‘Bringing his huge expertise and insights to Broadstone Dangers in 2022, David now considerably contributes to the corporate’s worldwide operations,’ its web site reads.
‘His concentrate on royal and government-level protecting companies enriches Broadstone Dangers with a depth of experience hardly ever discovered within the subject.’
He’s an omnipresent power on the Sussexes’ engagements, seen right here behind Meghan in 2022 at an Invictus Video games launch occasion in Dusseldorf, Germany
David Langdown pictured with Prince Harry in London in March 2023. He’s believed to primarily work out of California
‘Langers’, as he’s recognized amongst mates, turned a police officer within the early Nineties and retired in 2022 (pictured in Nigeria as a part of the Sussexes’ entourage in Could)
The place the Sussexes go, ‘Langers’ follows: seen right here over their shoulder as they visited Colombia in August
A senior safety supply instructed MailOnline in 2022: ‘Dave is a beautiful man and a really skilled royal safety officer who labored for Harry for a few years.
‘Harry clearly trusts him – a lot in order that he accompanied Meghan on her child bathe in New York. He was additionally with Harry in Vegas.’
And since then, he has been an omnipresent power at Harry and Meghan’s again: ever current, however by no means the main focus of consideration.
He lingered at Meghan’s shoulder at a 2022 Invictus Video games launch occasion in Dusseldorf, and was on the Duke’s again in London in March final 12 months.
Extra just lately, Mr Langdown was seen sustaining a watchful eye over the Sussexes as they undertook a quasi-royal tour of Nigeria in Could – sternly monitoring the go to from behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.
And because the pair touched down in Colombia for an additional tour – one which was criticised for costing south American taxpayers £45,000 – the minder wasn’t far behind.
Sources say Harry and Mr Langdown are ‘thick as thieves’, with the safety guard relocating his household to California.
One supply instructed the Solar: ‘The guard is an English man who moved to Montecito together with his household. He and Harry are very shut, very tight. As thick as thieves.’
However his presence doesn’t come low cost.
A safety supply instructed the Mirror in 2022 that whereas Mr Langdown ‘is one of the best of one of the best’ and his relationship with Harry goes again ‘donkey’s years’, the invoice for his companies is ‘definitely…1000’s of kilos a day’.
Harry is alleged to spend his days doing faculty runs and happening bike rides together with his safety workers, with rising resentment on the Sussexes’ public picture in distinction to that of his brother and sister in legislation, the Prince and Princess of Wales.
One previous pal final month instructed The Instances how Harry is now a ‘very offended boy’, including: ‘Anybody who is aware of him feels he’d slightly be high of the pops right here with everybody loving him, as they do with William and Kate.’
The Sussexes and Broadstone have been contacted for remark.
