‘I didn’t know p*** was an insult’: Harry says he didn’t know slur was racist due to his privilege
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Prince Harry has claimed he “didn’t know P*** was a slur” when he famously used the racial slur to describe a fellow Pakistani soldier.
In an excerpt from his forthcoming autobiography Spare, the Duke of Sussex said he “heard a lot of people use the word” as a child and “hadn’t seen anyone flinch or get angry” and hadn’t considered them racist.
He added: ‘And I didn’t know anything about unconscious biases either. I was twenty-one years old, cut off from the real world and wrapped up in privilege, and I thought that word was the same as ‘Yankee.’ Harmless.’
In 2009, Harry apologized after footage surfaced of him using the slur to describe his Sandhurst colleague Ahmed Raza Khan. Harry said he had used the term without malice after the recording, taken in 2006, was released.
Prince Harry and Ahmed Raza Khan during The Sovereign’s Parade at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, April 2006. Prince Harry has claimed he “didn’t know P*** was an insult” when he famously used the racial slur to describe Your partner. pakistan soldier
Harry writes in his book: ‘I was twenty-one years old, cut off from the real world and wrapped up in privilege, and I thought that word was the same as ‘Yankee.’ Harmless.’ (Pictured: Harry at Eton in his traditional school outfit)
Recalling the video in his book, Harry said he had filmed it while killing time before boarding a plane for Cyprus with his fellow cadets.
He said he was filming each service member and making comments about them.
He recalls: “When I reached out to my partner and good friend Ahmed Raza Kahn, a Pakistani, I said, ‘Ah, our little friend P***’.”
Harry sent the video to another cadet who was making an ‘end of year video’, but the clip began to circulate and ended up being sold to the News of the World, sparking a firestorm of criticism.
The duke said people accused him of learning nothing from the Nazi debacle in 2005, saying he was “worse than stupid” or a “partier” and “was a racist”.
He said he was in Highgrove watching the scandal unfold as top politicians criticized him on national television and was unable to prosecute him.
Harry claimed that his father’s office issued an apology on his behalf and that he wanted to issue another, but the palace aides advised against it.
“It’s not the best strategy, sir,” he says he was told, to which he replied: “Fuck the strategy.”
Harry said he contacted Ahmed directly and apologized. He said that his comrade told him that she knew he was not a racist and that “nothing happened.”
However, the duke writes that it “happened” and that his friend’s forgiveness only made him feel worse.
The excerpt is one of many to be published overnight after copies of his book Spare were accidentally sold in early Spain.
The subject of racism is addressed elsewhere in the autobiography, when Prince Harry addresses his notorious Nazi uniform scandal.
But the duke seems to blame Prince William and Kate for his choice of outfit at the masquerade ball in 2005.
The Duke of Sussex says in his new memoir, which is also expected to detail his resignation from royal duties along with his wife Meghan, they both thought it was funny.
Harry claims he was considering the Nazi uniform or a pilot outfit for a ‘native and colonial’ themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinion.
I called Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. Nazi uniform, they said,’ Harry wrote, according to page six.
Prince Harry partially blamed both his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate for his infamous appearance at a costume party in a Nazi uniform.
They both howled. Worse than Willy’s leotard outfit! Much more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point.
The outfit became a major scandal when Harry, then 20, was photographed wearing Nazi regalia.
The story made global headlines after an image of Harry in the costume appeared on the front page of The Sun newspaper.
The Duke of Sussex wore the Nazi uniform at a party hosted by Olympic jumper Richard Meade.
Harry, seen here with William in 2021, asked his brother and sister-in-law for advice on whether to wear a Nazi uniform or a pilot’s uniform to the party.
Harry said William and Kate, seen here in 2020, ‘howled’ with laughter when Harry asked if he should wear the Nazi costume.
The theme of the event, held to mark the birthday of Mr. Meade’s son, Harry, was ‘native and colonial’.
Harry wore the desert uniform of General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps.
Earlier in the evening he had worn a military-style jacket with a German flag on the arm.
Harry had arrived with his older brother, Prince William, who was reportedly wearing a skintight black leotard with a leopard-skin pattern and a matching leopard-skin tail and legs.
A guest told the Daily Mail afterwards: “If this was his idea of a joke, then he went down like a lead balloon.”
Harry issued a humiliating apology shortly after the image was posted.
He said: ‘I am very sorry if I have caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor wardrobe choice and I apologize.
Addressing the issue in his Netflix series, Harry said that dressing up as a Nazi was one of the “biggest mistakes” of his life.
The Duke of Sussex was sorry for his 2005 mistake, saying all he “wanted to do was make it right.”
He said he met with the chief rabbi and also spoke with a Holocaust survivor as part of efforts to repair the damage caused by the blunder.
At the time, the Chief Rabbi was Jonathan Sacks, who passed away in 2020.
Harry, pictured in 2004, issued a humiliating apology shortly after the image was posted. He said: ‘I am very sorry if I have caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a bad wardrobe choice and I apologize.”
Prince Harry has said in his new Netflix series that dressing as a Nazi was one of the ‘biggest mistakes’ of his life
The Duke of Sussex said: ‘It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
‘I felt so embarrassed afterwards.
‘All I wanted to do was get it right. I sat down and spoke with the chief rabbi in London, which had a profound impact on me.
I went to Berlin and spoke to a Holocaust survivor.
“I could have gone up and ignored and made the same mistakes over and over again in my life, but I learned from it.”
Spare tells Harry’s story with “raw, unflinching honesty,” according to Penguin Random House.
Publishing sources said that the arrangements for the publication of Harry’s ‘explosive’ memoirs were closely guarded and handled in detail, with only a handful of top executives privy to the exact details.
Deliveries to bookstores are being scheduled at the last minute to prevent the leak of unauthorized copies. Guarded sites around the world have been secured to house copies of the book prior to distribution.
One source compared the complex security operation to the 2007 release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
An army of guards, satellite tracking systems and legal contracts were deployed to protect the first ten million copies of JK Rowling’s seventh Harry Potter book. When the finished manuscript was carried by hand from London to New York, a lawyer for the American publisher sat on it during the flight.