Prince Harry says newspapers painted him as a 'thicko'

‘I was cast into the role of the thicko’: Prince Harry says he ‘played up’ to stereotypes of being a ‘thicko’, ‘cheat’, ‘underage drinker’ and ‘irresponsible drug taker’

• Duke of Sussex says Press also described him as ‘cheat’ and ‘underage drinker’
• He gave evidence as part of High Court case against Mirror Group Newspapers 

Prince Harry has claimed in the High Court that he was painted as a ‘thicko’ by tabloid newspapers and felt like he ended playing up to stereotypes they created.

The Duke of Sussex said in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers that the Press had also described him as a ‘cheat’, ‘underage drinker’ and ‘irresponsible drug taker’.

Harry, 38, claimed newspapers tried to edge Royal Family members towards playing the ‘roles that suit them best’- and ‘especially if you are the ‘spare’ to the ‘heir”.

The royal, who spent five years at the prestigious Eton College, said tabloids were ‘constantly peddling’ an idea ‘that I was not bright, struggling at school, a ‘thicko”. 

Prince Harry arrives at London’s High Court today for the Mirror Group Newspapers case

Harry meets Eton College headmaster John Lewis as he joins the school in September 1998

In his witness statement, the Duke said it was ‘no secret that I have had, and continue to have, a very difficult relationship with the tabloid press in the UK’.

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He continued: ‘In my experience as a member of the royal family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press. You start off as a blank canvas while they work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have. They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the ‘spare’ to the ‘heir’.

‘You’re then either the ‘playboy prince’, the ‘failure’, the ‘dropout’ or, in my case, the ‘thicko’, the ‘cheat’, the ‘underage drinker’, the ‘irresponsible drug taker’, the list goes on.

‘As a teenager and in my early 20s, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to pin on me mainly because I thought that, if they are printing this rubbish about me and people were believing it, I may as well ‘do the crime’, so to speak.

‘It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers.

Harry is seen in May 2003 sitting in his room at Eton College, where he studied for five years

Harry punches the air in June 2003 as he leaves Eton College on his last day at the school

‘Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.’

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He also claimed that whatever advantage people claimed he had by walking into a room as ‘Prince Harry’ was ‘immediately flipped on its head, because I was facing judgments and opinions based on what had been reported about me, true or not’.

Harry said: ‘I expected people to be thinking ‘he’s obviously going to fail this test, because he’s a thicko’. 

‘If you were one of the examiners for the Regular Commissions Board, for instance, then you are going to expect me to screw up, as you’ve already made an opinion before even meeting me based on the tabloid reports.

‘It meant that I felt that I never went in at the same level as everybody else because the spotlight was always on me.’

He also referenced an article in the Sunday Mirror on January 5, 2003 which had the headline ‘Harry – I’m going to join Army’.

The Duke said the story revealed ‘details of private conversations I had with my father about my future, mainly that I didn’t want to go to university and would rather join the Army’.

He added: ‘Articles such as this were part of the bigger picture that the defendant’s journalists and other tabloids were constantly peddling, that I was not bright, struggling at school, a ‘thicko’.’

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