Prince Harry is reportedly 'embarrassed about his pre-Meghan life' and his 'laddish' behaviour while serving in the army, according to royal experts. Speaking in the new Channel 5 documentary Prince Harry in Therapy, which aired on Saturday, author Tom Quinn claimed the Duke of Sussex—once dubbed 'the party prince' and criticised for using a racial slur against a fellow soldier from Pakistan—'would be horrified' by his past self.
Harry's Transformation
'He's completely shifted now,' Quinn explained. 'He wouldn't dream of using a racial slur. I'm pretty certain he's embarrassed about his pre-Meghan life. I think Harry would be horrified now if he looked back at times when he was completely a part of the sort of laddish army, old Etonian world.'
In 2009, Harry apologised after footage emerged of him using the slur to describe his Sandhurst colleague Ahmed Raza Khan. Harry said he had used the term without malice after the recording, taken in 2006, was released.
Reflections in 'Spare'
In his memoir, Spare, Harry wrote that he 'heard many people use the word' as a child and 'had not seen anyone wince or get upset,' adding that he had not considered them to be racist. He said: 'And I didn't know anything about unconscious biases either. I was twenty-one years old, I had grown isolated from the real world and wrapped in privilege, and I believed that word was the same as 'Yankee.' Harmless.'
The Duke noted that people accused him of learning nothing from the Nazi debacle in 2005, calling him 'worse than stupid' or a 'partyboy,' and saying he 'was racist.' He recalled being at Highgrove watching the scandal unfold as leading politicians blasted him on national television, unable to process it.
Apology and Regret
Harry claimed that his father's office issued an apology on his behalf and that he had wanted to issue another one, but palace aides advised against it. 'Not the best strategy, sir,' he claims they told him, to which he said: 'F*** the strategy.' Harry said he contacted Ahmed directly and apologised, and his comrade told him he knew he was not racist and that 'nothing happened.' However, the Duke wrote that 'it did happen' and that his friend's forgiveness only made him feel worse.
In 2020, Harry spoke about his own 'unconscious bias,' which he didn't know about for 'many years.' Speaking to BLM activist Patrick Hutchinson for GQ, he said: 'Unconscious bias, from my understanding, having the upbringing and the education that I had, I had no idea what it was. I had no idea it existed. And then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realise it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife's shoes.'
Expert Opinions
Journalist Bidisha Mamata told Channel 5: 'On the one hand, you could say he's evolved enormously, he's a man of the 21st century, so different from his army days. You could also see this as the Harry of now, of being just as susceptible to outside influences.' Historian Dr Tessa Dunlop added: 'Sometimes individuals assume the mantra and the philosophy of the individual they've married. I think that happened to an extent with Harry and Meghan. It's like he sees the world through a different lens, he has had an epiphany. Probably all this stuff was beneath the surface, and she's validated it.'
Nazi Uniform Scandal
Harry has also spoken about his notorious Nazi uniform scandal since leaving for Montecito in 2020. In his memoir, the Duke claimed he was considering either the Nazi uniform or a pilot's outfit for a 'Native and Colonial' themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinion. 'I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said,' he penned. 'They both howled. Worse than Willy's leotard outfit! Way more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point.'
The outfit became a huge scandal when Harry, then 20, was photographed wearing the Nazi regalia. He had arrived with his elder brother Prince William, who reportedly dressed in a skin-tight black leotard with a leopard skin pattern and a matching leopard skin tail and paws. One guest told the Daily Mail afterwards: 'If this was his idea of a joke then it went down like a lead balloon.'
Harry issued a grovelling apology shortly after the image was published, saying: 'I am very sorry if I have caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.' Addressing the issue in his Netflix series, Harry said that dressing as a Nazi was one of the 'biggest mistakes' of his life. The Duke of Sussex expressed regret for his 2005 gaffe and said all he 'wanted to do was make it right.' He met with the chief rabbi and also spoke to a Holocaust survivor as part of efforts to repair the damage.
