Prince Harry and Meghan Markle branded ‘eco-hypocrites’ after flying to Katy Perry’s gig on a Texas oil heir’s private plane

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been branded ‘eco-hypocrites’ after flying to a Katy Perry performance on a private jet.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have been outspoken on environmental issues in the past, hitched a ride along with other celebrities on a plane belonging to Texas oil heir Michael Herd from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas.

They joined Cameron Diaz and her husband Benji Madden, as well as actress Zoe Saldana, on the Gulfstream jet on a private 40-minute flight to watch the final show of Perry’s Vegas residency.

Just hours later, the Duke’s brother, Prince William, flew on a British Airways commercial flight to Singapore for the Earthshot Prize awards, which reward winners for their contributions to environmental awareness.

Harry and Meghan’s move has led to accusations of hypocrisy, with the Duke previously setting up his charity Travalyst to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism.

One royal expert has suggested that Harry, who remains a patron of the charity, should be ‘sacked’ over the decision to fly private.

Angela Levin told it Sun: ‘They think they have become so great that they wouldn’t dream of making a normal flight.

‘They have all these rich friends who have to pay for it. It’s worse than ‘do as I say, not as I do’ because he is a patron of a charity.

‘William received a huge reception in Singapore, which must have irritated Harry and Meghan. This kind of behavior is exactly why we call them eco-hypocrites.”

The couple had boarded a plane co-owned by Herd, who along with his wife Whitney Wolfe – the billionaire founder of dating app Bumble – has grown close to the Sussexes in recent months.

The plane emits around 1.8 tonnes of CO2 every hour – almost a quarter of the 7.4 tonnes the average Briton produces annually, the newspaper reports.

According to the Paris Climate Agreement’s goals of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, each person’s carbon budget should not exceed 2.1 tons per year.

When contacted by The Sun about Harry and Meghan’s flight, Herd said they were “just going for dinner and seeing Katy’s last show.” They’re nice people,” adding that he had no comment on the criticism of the Sussexes’ private flight as “I’m not them.”

Harry helped launch Travalyst in 2019, a charity that aims to ‘catalyze sustainability within the tourism sector’ and help travelers ‘make informed decisions, learn what good looks like and ultimately become more sustainable travellers’.

In one blog after The charity’s website urges people to ‘consider greener transport options such as coaches, ferries or trains’ when they travel, and if they travel by air to choose the economy as this is ‘more space efficient than wider options , which means your share of the The carbon footprint of flights is lower.’

MailOnline has contacted the Sussexes’ representatives for comment.

The Sussexes are also no strangers to private jets. In 2019, Harry and Meghan came under scrutiny for taking four flights by private jet in just 11 days, including one to Sir Elton John’s home in Nice.

Last month, Harry and Meghan flew to the Caribbean on a private jet, just days after attending a conference discussing the impact of climate change on mental health.

The pair used a Dassault Falcon 7X jet to fly from New Jersey to Canouan after attending the summit in New York on October 10, and again for the four-hour hop between the exclusive retreat and Atlanta, Georgia.

Harry has previously said he flies commercial flights “99 percent of my life,” while implying he sometimes uses private jets to “make sure my family is safe.”

It comes after it was reported that Harry had turned down an invitation to his father King Charles’ 75th birthday party.

The monarch will today hold a week-long bash at Clarence House in London to celebrate this major milestone.

However, a spokesman for the couple has insisted they have had no contact with Buckingham Palace regarding His Majesty’s 75th birthday.

The Sunday Times reported that Prince Harry had turned down an invitation to the birthday party and would instead stay in California.

But a spokesperson for the couple told MailOnline that the couple had never been contacted about the celebrations in the first place.

‘There has been no contact regarding an invitation to His Majesty’s upcoming birthday. It is disappointing that the Sunday Times misreported this story,” they said.

A source close to the Sussexes told MailOnline that the couple had not been invited to the plans, which they were completely unaware of.

“They had not received any invitations and were not aware of any celebrations until the stories came out,” the source said.

They added that the Sussexes would normally have been included in plans for major events, despite the widening gap between themselves and the rest of the royal family.

“In this case, that’s not the case and that’s okay. I am sure the Duke will find a way to get in touch privately to wish His Majesty a happy birthday, as he always did.”

‘The story in The Times and subsequent stories are positioned in such a way as to make it appear as if the Duke disapproves of his father, which is not the case.’