CBS 2 News This Morning

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Britain's Prince Harry has landed safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport, CBS 2 has confirmed. His British Airways flight touched down shortly after 11 a.m. Friday as he makes his first official visit to the United States.

The 24-year-old royal plans to talk about serious issues and raise money to help African children but, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, the paparazzi almost certainly have other plans.

Prince Harry plans to visit the World Trade Center site, meet with wounded veterans and a participate in a polo match.

 SLIDESHOW: Prince Harry Then & Now

In 1998, reports Palmer, Harry and his brother, Prince William, the sons of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, arrived in Canada as teen idol heartthrobs.

Ten years later, a grown-up Harry is arriving in New York as one of the world's most eligible bachelors.

Harry is, Palmer observes, notorious in Britain for partying, drinking, and even fighting photographers.

In the daytime, Palmer points out, he serves as an officer in the British military.

But, as she puts it, "Every modern prince needs a cause," and Harry's is a charity called Sentebale, which he helped set up in the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho.

"It was sort of based around what my mother had been doing. I wanted to sort of carry that on," Harry has said.

Diana made headlines when she used her celebrity to raise AIDS awareness. Now, Harry is focusing on the thousands of AIDS orphans in Lesotho.

"He's got," concedes Sentebale's Harper Brown, "a tabloid reputation for being a bit of a playboy. That certainly isn't how he comes across when he comes to visit. He's extremely caring, very in-touch with what the needs are, and very determined to have an organization that makes a difference on the ground."

Sentebale helps fund residential homes where AIDS orphans get food, education, and even an occasional visit from the prince, whose mission in New York -- between parties, Palmer points out -- is to raise money for the children of Lesotho.

"Prince Harry is well known and respected in the United States for having deployed alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan," said Alan Collins, the British consul general in New York.

Third in line to the British throne, the red-haired prince is a much-watched member of the royal family on both sides of the Atlantic. His party-boy image, romantic escapades and brushes with scandal regularly make newspaper headlines. Several years ago, Harry had to apologize for wearing a Nazi swastika armband to a friend's costume party.

But the younger son of the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles plans, no doubt, to be on his best behavior representing his country's crown during his two-day New York visit.

His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, is paying privately for Harry's travel and that of his staff, easing the young prince into his royal role. He's in line for the throne behind his older brother, William, and his father, Charles.

At midday Friday at the World Trade Center site, Harry is to meet with relatives of four people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They'll be joined by New York Gov. David Paterson and officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that oversees development at ground zero.

"It's a testament to our loved ones that royalty from another country is coming and expressing interest," said Monica Iken, who lost her husband, Michael, a 37-year-old bond broker.

"When Harry goes to ground zero, he can see how much progress has been made at this construction site," said Iken, who founded September's Mission, a nonprofit organization devoted to building a positive legacy in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Later Friday, the prince will formally name the British Garden in downtown Hanover Square to honor the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack.

Harry also will visit the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Manhattan, where he will tour the prosthetics facilities and a post-traumatic stress disorder clinic. He will be joined by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

A British soldier who lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan will accompany Harry on his American trip. Joe Townsend, 21, stepped on a Taliban anti-tank mine last year in Helmand Province, about the same time the prince was commanding troops nearby.

Harry is training to be an Army helicopter pilot and was the first member of the royal family to serve on the front line since his uncle, Prince Andrew, fought in the Falklands in 1982.

On Saturday, Harry is to participate in the only recreational event on his public schedule — the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Governors Island in New York Harbor, where he'll face off against Argentinian polo player and heartthrob Nacho Figueras.

The match will benefit American Friends of Sentebale, a U.S.-based charity that supports impoverished children in Lesotho, Africa, where the prince has worked and produced the documentary film "The Forgotten Kingdom."

Earlier Saturday, Harry is to see the Harlem Children's Zone, a community organization that offers families social and educational services. The prince will be accompanied by Sentebale's co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.

Prince Harry was born on September 15, 1984.



 

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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