Harry used racist slur about soldier after 'hearing the word used when a child'

05 January 2023 , 21:37

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The Duke of Sussex's tell-all memoir, Spare, contains some eye-widening details of his life (Image: Getty Images)

Prince Harry has addressed his past use of a racial slur while describing a fellow soldier from Pakistan.

In his new autobiography, Harry claims he had no idea the word "P***" was an insult, saying he had "heard many people use the word as a child".

The Duke goes on to claim he "had not seen anyone wince or get upset" at the word, and he had not considered these people to be racist.

Harry writes: "I didn't know anything about unconscious biases either. I was twenty-one years old, I had grown isolated from the real world and wrapped in privilege, and I believed that word was the same as 'Yankee', harmless".

The shocking incident which occurred in 2006 became public when footage of Harry using the word emerged three years later.

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Prince Harry and Ahmed Raza Khan during The Sovereign's Parade at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in Surrey in 2006 (PA)

Prince Harry attending a mission briefing at the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion in 2012 (Getty Images)

He used the highly offensive word when referring to Sandhurst colleague Ahmed Raza Khan while filming them individually and narrating.

As he panned to Ahmed, Harry was heard saying: "Ah, our little P*** friend."

The clip was sent to another cadet before it became circulating and eventually being sold to the News of the World.

Harry claims he was denied the right to issue a personal apology while his father's office released a public statement on the issue.

Prince Harry takes part in a training exercise in Cyprus in March, 2006 (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

Prince Harry has broken his silence on longstanding rumours about his parenthood in a bombshell new book.

The Duke of Sussex's mum Princess Diana confirmed before her death that she'd had a five-year affair with Major James Hewitt during the 1980s.

And there has always been some hearsay that she had a child with him.

Officer Cadets take part in The Sovereign's Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Getty Images)

Writing in his memoir Spare - which is released next week - Harry makes reference to the rumours and how the now-King Charles had often made light of guessing who his real father was.

The Duke writes: "The joke was damn funny in light of the rumour going around at the time that my real father was one of my mother's ex-lovers: Major James Hewitt."

Abigail O'Leary