Prince Harry has been caught out talking about his family and the scandals that have engulfed him, after Russian pranksters fooled him into thinking he was talking to climate activist Greta Thunberg.
According to a transcript published in UK newspaper The Sun, the embarrassing chat, which has been uploaded to YouTube, includes Harry’s feelings on leaving the royal family, what he thinks about Donald Trump, and his views on Prince Andrew’s recent sex scandal.
He also gave an insight into the chaos that has recently surrounded himself and wife Meghan Markle, reportedly conceding, ‘I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it’s made up to be.’
Russian jokesters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov — who are widely known as Vovan and Lexus —spoke by phone to the prince at his home on Vancouver Island on New Year’s Eve and January 22.
When pressed on leaving the royal family and life in the UK, Harry reportedly says, ‘Um, it’s, that’s probably a conversation for another time, there’s lots of layers to it and lots of pieces to the puzzle.
‘But sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one.
‘And this decision certainly wasn’t the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son.
‘And I think there’s a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first.
‘But, yeah, it’s a tricky one, but we will start a new life.’
When asked what it was like moving from a royal life to something more normal, Harry insisted his is more normal than even his family realises.
‘You forget, I was in the military for ten years so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe.
‘But certainly being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not have been able to do.
‘And seeing as everyone under the age of 35 or 36, seems to be carrying out an activist’s role, gives us the opportunity to try and make more of a difference without being criticised.’
Harry denied reports he has been stripped of his royal title, saying that’s not the reality.
‘No, no, again you mustn’t believe what you read, no one has stripped us of our titles.
‘Because of a technicality within the family, if we are earning money separately from within the family structure, then we obviously have been asked not to use our titles in order to make money, which we would never do.
‘But the press managed to jump on that to make it look like we had been stripped.’
On Prince Andrew’s involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Harry says: ‘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. We operate in a way of inclusivity and we are focusing on community. And so we are completely separate from the majority of my family.’
Speaking about Donald Trump’s alleged refusal to meet Greta, Harry told her to persist, while displaying his obvious distaste for the US president.
‘It’s far more important to have an open dialogue and have conversation with these people than not,’ he said.
Harry later added his thoughts on the state of global politics, saying, ‘Unfortunately the world is being led by some very sick people, so people like yourselves and younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference.’
Giving some insight into the way he sees his marriage; Harry suggested the UK tabloids are giving him a hard time because he and Meghan are assertive together and won’t back down.
‘From the moment that I found a wife that was strong enough to be able to stand up for what we believe in together, has basically scared them so much that they’ve now come out incredibly angry, they’ve come out fighting, and all they will try and do now is try and destroy our reputation and try and, you know, sink us.’
The Prince has not commented on the phone hoax scandal.
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