WAYWARD YOUTH AN INSIGHT INTO THE PRINCE’S WILD YOUNGER DAYS
As a teenager, Prince Harry was held in affection by the nation, growing up as he did without his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, and he now reflects on some of those years – and mistakes he may have made.
He has also revealed the moment he lost his virginity to an older woman when he was 17 and still a student at Eton College in Windsor. He describes how it took place in a field behind a busy pub, writing that the woman treated him “not unlike a young stallion”.
“I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and sent me away,” the translated text reads.
Of taking drugs, he tells how he snorted cocaine aged 17 during a shooting weekend in the summer of 2002 and also tried the drug on a few other occasions, revealing it made him feel different, which was his goal, rather than happy. He added that as a 17-year-old he was willing to try almost anything that would upset the established order.
MAGIC MUSHROOMS
It was in California, many years later, that a 31-year-old Harry got drunk on tequila and took magic mushrooms. He writes about how he started hallucinating, believing a bin in a bathroom was staring at him before growing a head.
He also recounts a trip to Lesotho, where he “smoked a whole bag of marijuana in one night”.
However, it was when he wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party, aged 20, which he has previously described as “one of the biggest mistakes of my life”, that he garnered some of the most negative attention. Now, he claims that he asked William and Kate if he should wear that outfit or a pilot’s uniform. He writes that they said the former, and both howled with laughter when he went home and tried it on for them.
ERROR OF JUDGEMENT
When a photograph of him in the uniform, with a swastika armband, appeared on the front page of a newspaper, it sparked outrage. In a statement following the incident, Harry said: “I am very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise.”
He has also revealed that he was unaware that the derogatory word “P***” was a racial slur, writing that people used the word around him when he was growing up. “I had grown isolated from the real world and wrapped in privilege, and I believed that word was the same as ‘Yankee’. Harmless.”
