British Royals Defend 'Horrible' Prince Harry

Yahoo! ^ | Fri Feb 20, 7:00 AM ET | By Andrew Cawthorne

[.cnI redruM]

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's royal family rounded on a columnist on Friday who had branded Prince Harry "a national disgrace," lazing his way through a year off in Australia and Africa and touching up girls in nightclubs.

The office of Harry's father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, sent a furious letter to the Daily Express saying Carol Sarler's attack on his son was "unfair" and "nonsense."

"I understand that columnists are paid to express their opinions vigorously and with style, but the piece entitled 'Spoiled and lazy Harry is one of a kind"' was grossly inaccurate and ill-informed," Charles' new communications secretary Paddy Harverson wrote.

Harry, 19, is no stranger to controversy after dabbling in drink and drugs a couple of years ago. The youngest son of Charles and the late Princess Diana, he is currently in Lesotho following three months in Australia on a gap year after school.

In an extraordinary tirade against the prince, Sarler began her column on Wednesday: "That Prince Harry is a national disgrace is scarcely news.

"His exploits have been making headlines for years: the drinking, the drugging, the yobbing, the waste of the costliest education in the land, the explicit disdain for the lower orders, the increasingly sexual public romps -- we've seen it all, we've heard it all."

Calling him a "thoroughly horrible young man," Sarler said Harry "has rarely lifted a finger unless it's to feel up a cheap tart in a nightclub or shoot some harmless critter."

The columnist said Harry spent his time in Australia slumped in front of a TV waiting "to behave badly" at the next rugby match, while in Africa "he has reluctantly agreed to spend a bit of the trip staring at poor people."

A newcomer to the frequent spats between the royals and Britain's feisty tabloid press, having just been poached from Manchester United soccer club to run Charles' PR efforts, Harverson took on the Express point-by-point.

In Australia, Harry spent most of his time working long days in high temperatures on cattle farms, where "his employers found him to be a hard and conscientious worker," Harverson wrote. He took a "deserved break" to see England win the rugby world cup.

In Africa, Harry has insisted on working on projects for disadvantaged children and their families rather than just making VIP-style visits, Harverson added.

"Like any other 19-year-old fortunate enough to be able to spend time traveling and working abroad, Harry should be allowed to enjoy and benefit from his experiences without being subject to the kind of ill-informed and insensitive criticism made in your paper by Ms Sarler," he wrote.

The Express column was a rare piece of vitriol against Harry who, like his older brother Prince William, has been treated relatively kindly by the media since an appeal for sensitivity following Diana's 1997 death in a Paris car crash.

[.cnI redruM]

Spoiled Brat Syndrome rears it's ugly head. The initial article that started this spate referred to him as a "Pommie Jackaroo". I'm not sure what a jackaroo is, but Pommie will get you in a good fist fight if you use it at a truly authentic English Pub.

[veronica]

Leave Harry alone. He's a young man who tragically lost his mother. All the royals feed off the public trough. Harry and William are just doing what rich young men do. He's having fun. Good for him say I.

[onedoug]

"Hip-hip. Cheerio. And all that sort of rot."

[cyborg]

Why do they hate him so much? I like him over Paris Hilton who sometimes annoys me.

[dfwgator]

And just what exactly does the Royal Family do?

[Tijeras_Slim]

And just what exactly does the Royal Family do?

I guess you didn't read the article. :)

[.cnI redruM]

They hate royalty and privelege. They see the royalty as a leftover vestige of a troubled past. I'm guessing they believe that abolishing the symbolic traditions of the royalty will alter the actual substance of British society.

[theDentist]

Soon enough he will be in the Military, and they'll certainly set him straight, Prince or not.

[dfwgator]

I'm guessing they believe that abolishing the symbolic traditions of the royalty will alter the actual substance of British society.

Well at least they wouldn't have to pay as much in taxes to support the Royals.

[.cnI redruM]

Quite possibly. Josh Lewsey, who played for the British RWC Championship team, was hardened by his experience at Sandhurst. Like any country with a sound military, the Brits have some individuals in their organization that Harry doesn't want to trifle with.

[buffyt]

He is a VERY distant cousin of mine. And NO, I don't claim his father as my kin. I deny deny deny that one~

[Polonius]

In an extraordinary tirade against the prince, Sarler began her column on Wednesday: "That Prince Harry is a national disgrace is scarcely news.

"His exploits have been making headlines for years: the drinking, the drugging, the yobbing, the waste of the costliest education in the land, the explicit disdain for the lower orders, the increasingly sexual public romps -- we've seen it all, we've heard it all."

It almost puts one in mind of another Prince Hal ...

[cyborg]

How sad... that would be like me hating the Bush twins.

[Dan Cooper]

I thought "Pommie" was a slur on Australians? Pom for "Prisoner of His Majesty". Of course I used to sail with a guy who would call all the British sounding/looking racers "Pommie Bastards".

[Blue Screen of Death]

And just what exactly does the Royal Family do?

They provide a life support system for some really old DNA.

[billorites]

Must come as a bit of a relief that the Prince is "touching up" girls.

[Verginius Rufus]

He's the youngest son? That means there must have been at least three sons...why have we never heard of William and Harry's other brother?

It sounds like Prince Harry has taken John Kerry as a role model.

[Bedford Forrest]

"I'm not sure what a jackaroo is"

A jackaroo is a cross between a Texas jack rabbit and a kangaroo. Easily distinguishable from a jackalope, the latter having antlers, being a cross between a Texas jack rabbit and a pronghorn antelope.

[.cnI redruM]

Thus proving that The Texas Jack Rabbit is indeed a creature of fecund ways and fertile seed. Exactly as one would expect.

[Lizavetta]

Britain's royal family rounded on a columnist on Friday who had branded Prince Harry "a national disgrace," lazing his way through a year off in Australia and Africa and touching up girls in nightclubs.

He's just keeping up the family tradition. Anybody who's read about the 'royals' going back a hundred years knows this is par for the course.