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ITN Source
UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Prince Harry celebrates his 21st birthday
UNITED KINGDOM: Britain's Prince Harry celebrates his 21st birthday
Prince Harry has spoken about his "amazing" girlfriend and wild-child image in a frank interview to mark his 21st birthday today. The third in line to the throne also denied that Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was a "wicked stepmother", and apologised for the infamous incident when he wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party. But he insisted that media criticism of his behaviour would not make him change, saying: "I am who I am." The Army cadet gave pooled interviews to the Press Association, BBC Radio and Sky News at his father's Home Farm in Gloucestershire. Wearing a crumpled blue and white checked shirt, green khaki trousers and six metal bangles on his right hand and a leather band on his left, the Prince opened up about his life as a royal, dealings with the press and hopes for the future. He admitted he had grown up over the past few years, but said he still had a "child streak" that he wanted to keep. The Prince maintained he was not going to be "some person in the Royal Family who just finds a lame excuse to go abroad". He added: "I don't want to change that much. I am who I am. I'm not going to change because I'm being criticised in the press. "Yeah, I've grown up, everyone's got to grow up. But there's something inside me that's always going to be, I'm always going to have that little sort of - how do you say? - child streak. "It's something that I'd like to keep. I've got friends of mine saying before I went to Sandhurst, 'Don't change, Don't change, Don't change'. "Well, I'm not going to." Asked if he was a party prince or the caring prince, he replied: "I am both of them. If that's a problem with anyone, then I'm very sorry. "What, does everyone expect me to be just the caring person and not to have a cigarette, not to have a beer? When quizzed on whether he was misunderstood, Harry replied "Yes." He said he planned to join an infantry regiment after completing officer training at the military academy in Camberley, Surrey, and was keen to fight on the front line with other soldiers. "The last thing I said was there's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country. "That may sound very patriotic, but it's true. It's not the way anyone should really work." Harry denied that Camilla was a "wicked stepmother", declaring that he and William "loved her to bits" and that it was good to have her around. "To be honest with you, she's always been very close to me and William ... But no, she's not the wicked stepmother. I'll say that right now," he said. "Everyone has to understand that it's very hard for her. Look at the position she's coming into. Don't always feel sorry for me and William, feel sorry for her." He added later: "She's a wonderful woman and she's made our father very, very happy which is the most important thing. William and I love her to bits." Speaking publicly for the first time about girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the Prince said she was "special" and "amazing" and added that she had been left upset by the press attention. But he steadfastly refused to be drawn further on his private life. About coping with their relationship being in the spotlight, he said: "What I think about it is definitely something I'm not going to talk about. "How do I deal with it? Just get on with it, really. "Deep down inside there's lots of stuff I'd love to say. "Sometimes you deal with it, sometimes you don't deal with it. You find yourself shouting and screaming at all sorts of different stuff. Next question." Harry also apologised for dressing up in a Nazi uniform for a party earlier this year. "Looking back on it now, and at the time as well, it was a very stupid thing to do and I've learnt my lesson, simple as that really," he said. "I'm very sorry if I offended anybody. I'd like to put it in the past now. What's done is done. I regret it." He reiterated his hopes of making his mother proud, and spoke of his closeness to brother William and the difficulty of seeing stories about Diana, Princess of Wales, in the papers. "I mean, ever since our mother died, obviously we were close, but he is the one person on this earth who I can actually really, you know, we can talk about anything," The Prince remains passionate about helping Aids orphans in Lesotho, the southern African country he travelled to last year and addressed the challenge of balancing this with life in the Army. "It's a difficult one, what I should be doing and what I want to be doing. It's hard." The Prince insisted he would do the best he could within the Royal Family. "Where I can see myself is doing as much as I can in the position that I've got. "I'm not going to be some person in the Royal Family who just finds a lame excuse to go abroad and do all sorts of sunny holidays and whatever. "I mean, I'll do the best I can. Yes, Lesotho will probably play a very major part in that." For his official birthday picture, Harry called once again on his mother's favourite photographer, Mario Testino, who captured him at Home Farm in his Sandhurst uniform. A second image shows the Prince with brother William. Harry specifically asked Testino to take one of them together. The television footage was shot by Sky cameraman Mike Inglis, who previously worked for ITN and filmed Harry in Lesotho for the documentary about the Prince's stay in the southern African country. Harry appeared relaxed and happy, laughing as a crowing cockerel repeatedly interrupted the radio recording, as he sat in the sunshine on a stone wall. "Is my shirt too crumpled?" he asked, concerned, trying to smooth out the wrinkles with his hand. "I was told to go casual." In the back of his four-wheel drive vehicle was a copy of celebrity magazine Heat - though whether this belonged to Harry, Chelsy or even the Prince's bodyguard remains a mystery.
ITN Source | September 22, 2005
