THE REAL HARRY
Antics of the fun- loving prince
For many years, Duncan Larcombe’s role as royal editor of the Sun newspaper in London gained him unique access to the British royal family and he built a unprecedented, trusted working relationship – particularly with the young Princes William and Harry.
Duncan has now chronicled his experiences with Harry – travelling the world by his side at his numerous official engagements and the unusual off-the-cuff moments he shared with the prince while the cameras weren’t rolling.
In this extract from his book, Prince Harry: The Inside Story, Duncan recalls the events of March 31, 2005, when he went to the posh Swiss ski resort of Klosters for an official photocall with Prince Charles. It came three months after photos leaked of Harry wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party. Harry was 20 at the time and was joined by William, who was in his final few months at St Andrews university and for the first time was allowed to bring his girlfriend – a young
Kate Middleton.
The night before the photocall, Duncan decided to have a drink in the downstairs bar before he turned in for the night. When the royal protection officers arrived, he got up and left – so as to give the young royals some space – but to his surprise, he was told he was welcome to go back in and enjoy his beer...
The club itself was quite dark and very loud. The main bar area was in the middle of the room, with a dance floor behind and a crowded drinking area at the front. It was a tiny place and that night there was barely room to move.
Sitting on stools at the far end of the long bar were two people who were easily recognised. William and Harry were staring straight at me as I gestured to double-check they didn’t mind me being there. I could see they were both laughing at my expense as they started to mimic the clumsy hand gestures I was making in a bid to make sure I was not encroaching on their turf.
I respectfully stayed at my end of the bar and ordered a drink. If they were happy for me to be there, I didn’t want to blow it by rushing over and getting in the way. Besides, if Harry wanted to let rip at me for the Nazi story, then tonight I was a sitting duck.
After a few minutes, I realised I needed to use the toilet, which meant walking straight past where Harry was now sitting on his own after William had disappeared into an adjoining room. My respect for their personal space was one thing, but it didn’t extend as far as deciding to wet myself in the corner of a crowded club.
So I slowly made my way through the crowds in the direction of the toilets, which were up a flight of stairs directly behind the barstool where Harry was sitting.
As I got right up close to the young royal, he smiled and said hello. By now, I had no time to get into conversation with anyone because my priority was to answer the call of nature. But I had just enough time to say hello back and looked at Harry to joke: “It’s very late – are you sure you’re going to be there for the photocall tomorrow?”
Harry grinned and replied, “I’ll be there, with a glass of brandy, smoking a big, fat cigar with my dad.”
I laughed and nodded back at what was clearly a risky comment from a prince everybody in the media had been branding boozy. I carried on past and went upstairs into the gents’ toilets. Within seconds, as I stood at the urinal, I was aware of a flash going off. Looking round, I saw Harry holding a small disposable camera and falling about laughing. He had followed me upstairs and decided it would be funny to get a bit of revenge on a member of the press by taking my picture for a change.
“Leave me alone, you paparazzi scumbag,” I barked at Harry, which only caused him to laugh even more. The other half a dozen or so people in the gents’ heard the exchange and they too started to laugh.
This candid moment was,
I was later to learn, typical of the third in line to the throne. He has a very down-to-earth, spontaneous sense of humour and an opportunity for a gag like this was too good to miss. Harry was in his element fooling around and making everyone around him feel at ease. From that moment on, I realised that the prince we had all written about was a far more natural and fun-loving young man than he was given the credit for.
If Harry has the chance to say or do something funny, he will. This spontaneity and ability to play the fool, even
‘Harry was in his element fooling around and making everyone around him feel at ease’
at his own expense, is a key reason why he has risen to become one of the most popular members of the royal family in history.
I returned downstairs still laughing at what had happened. Instead of returning to where I had been standing, I decided to take my drink out to the foyer, where the protection officers still sat waiting for the signal the boys were ready to call it a night.
I sat down next to one of the officers, and we started chatting about rugby and anything other than our jobs. After a few minutes, a young reveller appeared out of a side room wearing nothing but a pair of silk boxer shorts. The lad clearly knew the protection officers and in a bid to find somewhere to sit and talk to them, he jumped onto my lap. One of the officers then couldn’t resist the temptation of having a bit of fun at this high-spirited reveller’s expense.
He said, “Hello, Guy, have you met The Sun’s new royal correspondent,
Duncan Larcombe?”
It was Guy Pelly, William and Harry’s best-known pal. He had taken the rap when
Harry was accused of smoking a joint in Highgrove. Since then, his wild antics had often made the headlines.
The son of a self-made millionaire car dealer, Guy had struck up a close friendship with William and Harry while they were at school together at Eton.
Without a second word, Guy jumped off my lap and ran back into the adjoining room. The incident had clearly spooked him, much to the delight of the protection officers.
They definitely enjoyed the look on Guy’s face when he realised whose lap he was sitting on, wearing nothing more than his boxers.
To this day, I don’t know whether it was the incident with Guy that prompted William to break with royal protocol. Bizarre as some of the things I had witnessed in less than an hour of being in that club were, nothing could have prepared me for what was to happen next.
A few minutes later, I was still chatting to the protection officers when William himself came into the foyer. This was the first time I’d met the future king and I was surprised that he seemed keen to speak to me.
“What is the story in tomorrow’s papers, then?” he asked. I explained that most of the papers were running pictures of him on the slopes with his girlfriend Kate Middleton. They had been taken earlier that day and with the couple looking so in love, the story was bound to be splashed all over the papers.
William seemed strangely surprised by this and asked what all the fuss was about. Surely he knew the level of interest in his first serious relationship, I thought. Kate, whom he had met at university and had been secretly dating for more than 18 months, ticked all the right boxes.
She was stunning and came from a wealthy family, but not the usual aristocratic background. Their relationship was a real love story about a young, handsome prince who had met and fallen in love with a “commoner”. Kate had already been briefed on how to act in front of the cameras. Every time a photographer went near her, she smiled and kept her mouth shut.
I asked him if he had heard the rumours that Kate was “the one”. His father was due to marry his true love in just a few days’ time, so it was inevitable that people would be drawing comparisons between Kate and Camilla Parker Bowles. This was dodgy ground for William and I felt bad putting him on the spot. But he gave me an answer that oddly enough became more of a prophecy when we look back now.
He replied, “I’m only 22 for God’s sake. I don’t want to get married until I’m 28 or maybe 30.” I couldn’t have imagined back then that six years later, I would be sitting in Westminster Abbey, watching Kate walk down the aisle while two billion people sat in front of their TV sets to see her and William tie the knot. It still makes me wonder whether William already knew that Kate really was the one and that as soon as he felt they were old enough, they would get married.
Even more than his brother Harry, William’s life is destined to follow a fairly rigid script. As the heir to the throne, he carries the weight of expectation and is only too aware that his life is, in many respects, not his own.
But the main and most touching part of our conversation that night was about his kid brother. Since embarking on his gap year, Harry had been the subject of a great deal of criticism. When the Nazi story broke, people were saying he was out of control, a dangerous loose cannon whose antics risked damaging the monarchy.
Now William leapt to Harry’s defence, insisting the way his brother was being portrayed in the media was nothing like the real person he knew and loved. “He’s just a kid who’s madly in love,” he said.
The way William defended Harry that night was very special. It was clear the two brothers were so close.
They really cared about each
‘It was clear the two brothers were so close. They really cared about each other’
other and William was visibly upset that Harry had endured such criticism.
Once again, his words would turn out to be prophetic. Over the coming few years, Harry’s true colours would shine through. Yes, he would always be known as a party-loving prince, but the fun-loving, caring and genuine side to the young royal would take him from that point to becoming one of the most popular royals. The more the public saw of Harry, the more they would come to adore him. His natural way with people and ability to come across well in front of the cameras were gifts that, back then, had yet to be unwrapped.
William’s words also confirmed that Harry and his girlfriend Chelsy Davy were head over heels in love with each other. She was not a holiday fling or someone Harry was enjoying time with before he knuckled down to military life. Chelsy clearly held a very special place in Harry’s heart and William had been listening to his brother rave about her for months. We talked for more than half an hour and William came across as a confident, friendly and trustworthy young man.
Since the tragic death of his mother, William had withdrawn into the background. He had been kept away from the cameras and allowed to finish his studies in relative peace. In that time, he had met and fallen in love with Kate and his relationship with Harry had grown closer than ever. The shy, slightly awkward-looking young prince had grown up. He was confident in himself and clearly concerned for his brother.