Prince Harry says newspapers portrayed him as a ‘thicko’
‘I was thrown into the role of the fat man’: Prince Harry says he ‘played’ to stereotypes of a ‘thicko’, ‘trickster’, ‘underage drinker’ and ‘irresponsible drug user’
- Duke of Sussex says Press also described him as ‘cheater’ and ‘underage drinker’
- He gave evidence as part of a Supreme Court case against Mirror Group Newspapers
Prince Harry has claimed in the High Court that he was portrayed as a “thicko” by tabloid newspapers and felt he ultimately played on the stereotypes they created.
The Duke of Sussex told Mirror Group Newspapers in his case that the press had also described him as a ‘cheater’, ‘underage drinker’ and ‘irresponsible drug user’.
Harry, 38, claimed newspapers were trying to persuade members of the royal family to ‘play the roles that suit them best’ – and ‘particularly if you’re the ‘reserve’ of the ‘heir’.
The royal family, who attended the prestigious Eton College for five years, said tabloids are “peddling constantly” with an idea “that I wasn’t smart, struggled at school, a ‘fat'”.
Prince Harry will arrive at the High Court of London today for the Mirror Group Newspapers case
Harry meets Eton College principal John Lewis when he joins the school in September 1998
In his testimony, the Duke said it was ‘no secret that I have had and still have a very difficult relationship with the tabloid press in the UK’.
He continued, “In my experience as a member of the royal family, each of us is cast in a specific role by the tabloid press. You start out as a blank canvas as they work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have. They then start urging you to play the role or roles that suit them best and sell as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the ‘reserve’ of the ‘heir’.
“You’re either the ‘playboy prince’, the ‘failure’, the ‘dropout’ or, in my case, the ‘thicko’, the ‘imposter’, the ‘underage drinker’, the ‘irresponsible drug user’, the list goes on.” further.
“As a teenager and into my early 20s, I started to feel like I was playing into a lot of the headlines and stereotypes they wanted to put on me, especially because I thought if they printed this crap about me and people believed it, I might just as well as ‘committing the crime’, so to speak.
“It was a downward spiral, with the tabloids constantly trying to get me, a ‘damaged’ young man, to do something stupid that would make a good story and sell a lot of newspapers.
Harry is seen in May 2003 in his room at Eton College, where he studied for five years
Harry punches the air in June 2003 as he leaves Eton College on his last day of school
“Looking back now, such behavior on their part is downright mean.”
He also claimed that the advantage people claimed he had from walking into a room as ‘Prince Harry’ was ‘immediately turned on its head, as I was faced with judgments and opinions based on what had been reported about me, True or False’.
Harry said: ‘I expected people to think ‘he’s obviously not going to pass this test because he’s a dork’.
“For example, if you were one of the examiners on the Board of Ordinary Committees, you expect me to screw it up, since you’ve already expressed an opinion before even meeting me based on the tabloid reports.
“It meant I felt like I never went in on the same level as everyone else because the spotlight was always on me.”
He also referred to an article in the Sunday Mirror of 5 January 2003 with the headline ‘Harry – I’m joining the army’.
The duke said the story “revealed details of private conversations I had with my father about my future, mainly that I didn’t want to go to university and would rather join the army.”
He added: “Articles like this were part of the bigger picture that the defendant’s journalists and other tabloids were constantly peddling, that I wasn’t smart, struggled in school, a ‘thicko’.”