Harry’s day out with racy Rihanna
PRINCE Harry and pop princess Rihanna spoke frankly about sex yesterday after publicly taking HIV tests to try to reduce the stigma surrounding the virus. It was the second time that Harry had taken a test in public in five months. Both times he has tested negative, as Rihanna also did yesterday. While they waited for their results, the pair spent 20 minutes touring stalls set up in the centre of Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, to promote the Man Aware campaign, urging men on the Caribbean island to get tested. Harry and Rihanna, who comes from Barbados, stopped at a makeshift barber shop set up in a small marquee, where one man was having a shave. Fabian Sargeant, HIV counsellor and social worker, explained that a barber shop was a perfect place to raise awareness of the need for HIV testing because it was where people discussed sex, friendship and what was going on in their lives. “I need to go to a barber shop,” Rihanna said, prompting laughter. “Not for sex,” she added quickly, wagging her finger and laughing. As the couple flirted, Harry replied: “Everybody tells their hairdresser everything.” Mr Sargeant said there were many myths surrounding sex in Caribbean culture. “One of the myths is that royalty don’t have sex,” he said. “And that royalty has blue blood?” Harry asked, perhaps hoping to change the subject. The Prince, who has taken up his mother Princess Diana’s Aids crusade, hoped that Rihanna also agreeing to take the HIV test would help spread the word across the Caribbean, where she has a huge fan base.
Later Harry picked up the theme on a visit to a charity which works with young people who have lost loved ones to HIV.
Joking that he might be “crucified” for being so open, he asked: “How many of you have heard that if you have sex in the sea, you can’t catch HIV? How many of you have heard you can’t if you use two condoms?” Some of the crowd raised their hands.