Duke duped into telling Youtube jokers of his differences with the Royal family
THE Duke of Sussex has been duped into speaking about his decision to quit the Royal Family by hoaxers pretending to be Greta Thunberg, it was claimed last night.
The Duke, 35, was pranked by Russian jokers who convinced him he was speaking to the teenage climate activist and her father, according to The Sun. He alluded to tensions between he and his wife, and the rest of the Royal family and also criticised Donald Trump, whom he said “has blood on his hands.”
The two phone calls were reportedly made to the Duke at his rented home on Vancouver Island, Canada, on New Year’s Eve and January 22, by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus.
One of them was recorded and published on Youtube and Facebook.
Discussing how hard it was to step away from his royal duties, the Duke said: “There’s lots of layers to it and lots of pieces to the puzzle. Sometimes, the right decision isn’t always the easy one, but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son. It’s a tricky one, but we will start a new life.”
The Duke also hinted at a Royal family gulf, revealing: “We are completely separate from the majority of the family.” Asked if normal life was worse than royal life, he laughed as he replied: “Oh no, I think it’s much better. You forget I was in the military for 10 years, so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe.”
He said that their new life would enable them “to say things and do things” that they could not have previously done, and to “try and make more of a difference without being criticised.”
The Duke also attempted to distance himself and his wife from the scandal around his uncle, the Duke of York’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Asked about the ongoing legal case, he replied: “I have very little to say on that, but whatever he has done or hasn’t done is completely separate from me and my wife.”
The revelations came just hours after the couple returned to Canada, where they were reunited with their 10-month-old son, Archie, after undertaking their last official engagement as working royals at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.
The Duke stayed in Britain to continue working as the Duchess flew back to Canada straight from the Commonwealth Day Service, it has emerged
Later this year, they are expected to announce the new name of their former “Sussex Royal” brand, as well as further details of their future work will entail. It is likely to be accompanied by huge publicity in America.
The Sussexes already have a network of high-profile friends in the US speaking in support of the Duchess, including Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Ellen Degeneres and the Clooneys.
Vice TV, a digital channel, last night broadcast in the US a documentary examining what it called the “racism” which drove the “UK’S first black princess” to leave Britain. A spokesman for the couple would not comment on the Sussexes’ private schedules.