Perhaps it was with these words ringing in his ears that Harry decided to play the fool as he walked onto the Usain Bolt running track that morning in Jamaica. No one – least of all his advisers – was expecting him to provide what will surely go down as a vintage Harry moment. The ‘race’ against the world’s fastest man was clearly Harry’s idea and he instinctively knew he could pull it off.
Perhaps, if he had talked through the plan with his private secretary and team of press advisers beforehand, they would have been justified in trying to talk him out of it. The ‘race’ against Bolt was the first time for more than twenty-five years that any member of the Royal family had dared to play the fool in such spectacular fashion while the cameras were rolling.
The last time that happened has also gone down in Royal history but for very different reasons. In 1987 Harry’s uncles Edward and Andrew had agreed, along with Princess Anne and Sarah Ferguson, to appear in a royal edition of the hit TV show It’s a Knockout. In a bid to look trendy and down-to-earth, the then ‘young’ Royals had agreed to don Olde English fancy dress to cavort through a series of party games along with other celebs dressed as squires, damsels and minstrels.
The custard pie-style game show may have been one of the most popular programmes on television at the time, but its cringeworthy outcome was the stuff of Royal nightmares. With 18 million people glued to their TV sets, the Royals opened themselves to ridicule. Their attempt to appear ‘normal’ backfired so spectacularly that the event was described as one of the most disastrous episodes in the history of the modern Royal family.
It was claimed that Prince Philip was furious at his son Edward’s decision to take a leading role in the project, describing it as ‘unwise and unwelcome’. In a candid exchange with a BBC executive, the Duke of Edinburgh apparently fumed that his son was ‘making us look foolish’.
His assessment of the programme was shared by many Royal followers. Philip Ziegler, the distinguished royal biographer, said: ‘It would surely have been possible for [the Queen] to take a stronger line over such an ill-judged enterprise as the It’s a Royal Knockout on television? Perhaps the full horror of this extravaganza did not become apparent until it was too late; if so, the Queen was remarkably ill-informed. Someone should have warned her what was about to happen so that she could have taken steps to stop it, or at least moderate its excesses.’
And James Whitaker, the then royal correspondent of the Daily Mirror, went further, saying the show was a ‘watershed’ in the public’s perception of the Royal Family. He said: ‘If you really had to pin down where it all went wrong, I would always point to It’s a Royal Knockout. That was the start of the high-profile thing that started everyone thinking, “Who are these appalling people?”’
By the time Harry pulled off his stunt in Jamaica he had already breezed through the first leg of his tour in Belize in Central America. There he had met the Prime Minister, watched a performance by schoolchildren and successfully completed his walkabout among what appeared to be an adoring crowd. The sight of children holding home-made banners saying ‘We love you Harry’ was greeted with a welcome sigh of relief by the palace advisers. Everyone seemed desperate to say hello, get a wave or better still a chat with the prince. His reception in Belize confirmed Harry as the Royal everyone wants to meet and was a testament to his global celebrity status. He was the Royal who got himself into scrapes, a party-loving prince with a glint in his eye, and the public adored him for that.
But mucking around on the track with someone so revered and loved by Jamaica as Usain Bolt could well have been a PR disaster. As Prince Edward and co. discovered to their cost, there is a fine line between trying to be funny and pulling it off. Miraculously for Harry, he nailed it. His ‘race’ was greeted with delight by the Jamaican audience and the headlines around the world the following day were full of praise for the prince. Seeing this unfold must have left Prince Edward scratching his head. In an instant his nephew had achieved everything he himself had tried to achieve by agreeing to take part in a wacky TV show all those years ago. But where the failure of Edward’s stunt still haunts him to this day, Harry’s antics were greeted with nothing short of adoration.
It’s a difficult skill to pin down, doing something outrageous in front of the cameras without the joke being on you. Politicians have long known of the pitfalls of trying to be funny. What may seem like a good idea at the time can make you look stupid and lay you open to ridicule.
But Harry is no politician. The Usain Bolt stunt demonstrates the scale of the gulf between today’s generation of young Royals and those of the 1980s. People know Harry has his faults, and they love him for it. When he is in front of the cameras the viewers want him to succeed, not fail. People simply do not examine Harry through the same cynical glasses they wear to view other Royals, and his antics with Bolt during his first solo overseas tour prove this.
As we left the stadium on the media bus and headed to our next engagement, the Royal pack was still buzzing from what we had witnessed. One thing everyone was in total agreement about was the fact that Harry’s stunt was both brave and hilarious. Brave because if it had gone wrong it could have been seen as another It’s a Royal Knockout moment which would haunt him for years to come.
But hilarious because it worked. He had made what would have been a slightly dry, if newsworthy, photocall into something very special. The images of Harry darting down the track with Usain Bolt trying to catch up, and those of him pulling the famous lightning bolt pose, would mean nothing but good publicity for the young Royal. The pressure of representing his grandmother on such an important tour had not stopped Harry from being himself. High risk in PR terms, but then he rarely does anything by halves.
Without even seeming to try, Harry had nailed the photocall and there was no suggestion whatsoever that his antics would be seen by anyone in the same way as the infamous It’s a Knockout debacle. Unlike his predecessors he simply managed to play the fool without looking foolish. People were laughing at him, but for different reasons than when viewers in 1987 had laughed at the young Royals. Where they had seemed awkward and almost as though they were trying too hard, Harry had simply been himself – the Royal with a gift for making people laugh.
But the tour was by no means over and the serious business of meeting the Prime Minister was a hurdle he still had to overcome. The high jinks with Usain Bolt were a long way from the pressure of meeting a politician who had only recently raised the thorny issue of turning Jamaica into a republic and breaking the historic ties with the British Royal family.
The following day, as we waited in the garden outside the official residence of the Governor-General of Jamaica in the capital Kingston, the team of dignitaries gathered on the steps looked nervous. This was to be perhaps the most politically sensitive engagement of the entire tour, and even the prince’s media team couldn’t hide their anxiety.
Harry was due to meet Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on the steps outside the immaculately manicured entrance to the white-washed colonial building. Everywhere you go in Jamaica the historic buildings serve as a constant reminder of the island’s colonial past. It was in Jamaica where the British plantations made fortunes for their white owners. More than 200 years earlier the country was one of the main destinations for black slaves dragged out of Africa and forced to work in what were often terrible and cruel conditions. Feelings about those dark days of Jamaican history are still raw when it comes to politics, and for many people the British Royal family are a symbol of the past.
As Harry’s motorcade pulled up, the pack of waiting photographers readied themselves for what were surely going to be the most symbolic pictures of the tour. And as the dozens of television cameras started to roll, live footage was pumped around the world. No matter how much planning and nervous energy had been put into this moment, the pressure was now all on Harry. How would he react? His every move would be captured and a single awkward gesture analysed like never before.
; As if the pressure of the occasion wasn’t enough, a huge portrait of Her Majesty the Queen had been placed on an A-frame right next to where the prince would greet the Prime Minister as the photographers snapped away.
What happened next was to sum up the unique quality that Harry alone brings to his family. Instead of an awkward handshake, the young prince, who was wearing a smart linen suit for the occasion, smiled straight at Ms Simpson Miller as he approached. For her part, the Jamaican Prime Minister beamed back at Harry before throwing her arms around him and planting a kiss on his cheek. The greeting, which had been the subject of so much speculation, was as warm as it was natural. The obvious age gap between the two VIPs made it look more like a son coming home to see his mother than a politician greeting a foreign dignitary.
The Prime Minister seemed overwhelmed to be finally meeting the prince she doubtless would have read and heard so much about. After greeting him on the steps of the Governor-General’s residence, she locked her left arm into Harry’s and led him inside. The greeting was warm and without flaw. The Prime Minister seemed genuinely delighted to welcome Harry, and her feelings were shared by the officials looking on.
As Harry walked arm in arm with Ms Simpson Miller he sensed her warmth and without a second thought looked at the cameras and said: ‘This is my date for the night.’ As the people around laughed, the Prime Minister beamed with delight and showed no sign of being offended by Harry’s flirtatious remark.
Standing next to me as we watched the events unfold that day was the seasoned Royal correspondent Phil Dampier. A veteran of many Royal tours, Dampier was well aware of the pressure Harry must have been under. He reckons the prince’s natural charm is his biggest asset. ‘He is brilliant at winning people over by just being himself. Rather like his mother, he has a natural way with people and doesn’t talk down to them.’
Dampier, who has reported on the Royal family for thirty years and wrote Prince Philip: Wise Words and Golden Gaffes, added: ‘The Queen and her senior courtiers were watching him very closely on his first trip to see how he did. After all, he was representing Her Majesty in countries where times are changing fast. In Jamaica he hugged Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who had made comments about removing the Queen as head of state and the Commonwealth. The Queen is a pragmatist and knows that some countries will drop the British monarchy when she dies, but she very much wants the Commonwealth to hold together and for Prince Charles to become its head. So it’s important for Harry and William and Kate to carry on her life’s work and make friends.
‘The Queen knows only too well how a gaffe can ruin a tour from her experiences with Prince Philip. She would never stop him being himself, but I have been on some tours where one of the Duke’s comments has made headlines around the world for the wrong reasons. A notable example was on her Golden Jubilee tour of Australia in 2002 when he asked an aboriginal leader: “Do you still throw spears at each other?” The story made headlines globally and overshadowed the tour, much to the annoyance of some courtiers. Harry avoided any such comments and just spread goodwill everywhere, dancing with people, sampling local drinks, hugging politicians and visiting hospitals.
‘I know that the Queen was delighted and sent him a note congratulating him and thanking him when he got back. He was absolutely chuffed with that. The last thing he or William would ever want to do would be to let their grandmother down, and so far on overseas trips they have passed with flying colours.’
Dampier’s verdict on Harry’s first overseas tour was shared by all of the Royal reporters who witnessed it at first hand. It was a flawless display of how to endear yourself to just about everyone you meet, from children to war veterans and politicians alike, and no one had anything but the highest praise for Harry throughout the solo tour. The only blip during the carefully orchestrated visit was not caused by any controversy that could have cast a shadow on events but simply by Harry’s immense popularity.
On the final day of his visit to Jamaica Harry arrived in a coastal town near Montego Bay. There it had been planned for the prince to take part in what is referred to on Royal visits as a ‘walkabout’. These less formal photo opportunities are when the Royal in question gets to press the flesh with ordinary members of the public. It was planned that Harry would walk through a market and meet shoppers and stall-holders along the route. What the organizers hadn’t banked on was the fact that on the afternoon Harry was due to arrive, a vast cruise ship had docked in the bay. The town was heaving with tourists, including many Europeans and Americans, and word that the famous prince was in town had spread like wildfire.
By the time Harry stepped out of his motorcade as planned and began to make his way through the market, the place was swarming with thousands of people clutching cameras and pushing forward in a desperate bid to see the Royal visitor. What should have been a relatively low-key event had quickly grown into a full-scale scrum of people, and Harry’s seasoned protection officers began to show signs of panic. Their usually calm and laid-back approach was visibly strained as the crowds surged forward and threatened to turn into a stampede. After just a few minutes they were forced to pull the plug on the walkabout. There were simply too many people being whipped up into an excited frenzy at the prospect of seeing the prince. Eventually they called in the vehicles through their radio earpieces and Harry was bundled into the back of the car.
The press may have underestimated Harry when he raced Usain Bolt, and the palace officials may have worried unnecessarily about how he would cope with the pressure of meeting the outspoken Jamaican Prime Minister. This time it was the protection officers who seemed to have been caught unawares.
Later that day one of them reflected on what had happened in Montego Bay and told me: ‘Wow, that was quite something. We had not expected so many people to be there and some of them were getting almost hysterical as they pushed forward to see Harry. We had no choice but to abandon the walkabout for Harry’s safety and the safety of the crowds. That is something you don’t often see on a Royal tour, it was really rather overwhelming.’
The tour was a triumph. By the time Harry waved goodbye to the press pack after finishing the final leg in Brazil, he knew he had proved a hit, not least because of all the pages and pages of positive coverage which had documented each stage. For the men in grey suits it was time for a joint sigh of relief. Nothing had gone wrong and everyone was praising the prince’s performance. But Harry’s first major overseas tour was significant for another reason. His grandmother, who was by now approaching her ninetieth year, would inevitably have to scale back her duties, especially those involving long and gruelling foreign visits. The burden travelling thousands of miles to represent Britain needed to be shared among other senior Royals. And as Harry had proved, his popularity across the globe was matched by his natural ability to charm people everywhere he went.
Flying home from Brazil, Harry knew that his next few months would involve knuckling down as he prepared to return to Afghanistan as an Apache pilot. But while his military career was going from strength to strength, how much longer would he have before the demands on the family would mean him having to give it all up and embark on a life as a full-time working Royal? The problem for Harry in many ways was that he was in danger of becoming a victim of his own success. Yes, there was no doubt he was an accomplished pilot and an asset to the Army Air Corps, but in this role he could be replaced.
The truth was that by 2012, it was beginning to dawn on the Royals that Prince Harry had a magic touch, a spark that the House of Windsor desperately needed. Unlike other members of his family, Harry brought a unique take on what it means to be a Royal. In an earlier age it might have been concluded that the best way of ‘dealing’ with a wayward and controversial prince was to keep him out of the public eye. But Harry’s fame was eclipsed only by his popularity with the public. No one cared about his mistakes, in fact these were precisely the reason why so many were captivated by Princess Diana’s younger son.
In
2012 Prince William was already married but continued to insist he wanted to remain working as a search and rescue pilot. William’s reluctance to commit to becoming a full-time working Royal meant the pressure on Harry was increasing. He was fast becoming the Royal family’s star attraction, and an asset they wanted to utilize. But in his heart Harry wanted to see through the role that he had trained so hard for. He wanted to return to Afghanistan and, for the time being anyway, nothing was going to distract him from that mission.
CHAPTER 20
HARRY IN LAS VEGAS
‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ Well, that’s what they claim.
The irony of this statement will not be lost on Prince Harry. Type his name into Google with the words ‘Las Vegas’ and the million-plus hits will lay bare what was one of the most high-profile episodes in the young prince’s life – proof, if any were needed, that the famous advertising slogan dreamed up by Sin City’s tourism department in 2003 should not be taken literally.
In reality the decision to join his pals on a lads’ weekend in the gambling capital of the world in August 2012 will surely dog Harry for the rest of his life. In the newsrooms of Fleet Street there is a less well-known saying, used when the story seems too good to be true: ‘You couldn’t make it up.’
This was exactly how rumours of the party-loving prince’s latest antics were greeted in London on the day the internet began to go into meltdown. As news and picture editors rubbed their eyes in disbelief, there was no denying that this time Harry really had landed himself in hot water. What was to unfold over the following few days would tell us more about the popular Royal than we had ever known before.
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