Was just reading a news report online earlier this evening that made some pretty harsh accusations: drinking, drugs, groping women, and general obnoxiousness.
Now, as an American, I’m not up to speed on the Windsors. So I’m asking these questions out of genuine curiosity; they’re not rhetorical.
As far as you know, does he just party a lot? Or is he really a rude, inconsiderate lout? Bearing in mind again that I’m American , drinking is not necessarily terrible…unless someone can’t hold their liquor and becomes violent, or spends too much time hungover to be productive. Toking up is not necessarily bad…unless someone uses his wealth and power to avoid getting busted when anyone else would have been. Guys his age go to clubs…but if he’s forcing himself on women who aren’t willing, that’s wrong.
If he’s not being jerkish, but just sowing his wild oats with no harm done, is there a significant difference between what he’s doing, and the stuff Prince Andrew got up to in the early '80s, which at the time was pretty much winked at?
First, I think the fundamental answer to this is yes, he is a bit loutish.
However, his behaviour has to be seen in comparitive terms. Is he any more loutish than other celebrities? No. Is he more loutish than many “normal” young men of his age? No.
In the UK, behavioural norms are slipping, even for the children of important people. Jack Straw’s son was nicked in a tabloid honey trap selling dope to an undercover reporter; Tony Blair’s 16-year-old Ewan was found paralytic in the middle of London. Times have changed.
Therein is the crux of the matter - he is an overprivileged young man with celebrity status, whereas us UKers (and the world) used to expect the Royals to behave with some superhuman kind of decorum, and didn’t consider them celebrities in the normal sense of the word.
I’m 32 and it would have been normal for every 16 year old I knew at the time to at least try drinking and get too drunk. It was the same in my fathers day if he is to be believed. Was Britain that different? Jack Straws kid was in a pub/party and a very good looking girl asked him if he could get some dope for her. IIRC he got her a eight maybe a quarter. He was most likely hoping to get his end away with a pretty thing who was impressed by his steet connections.
Harry is 19/20 years old. Even people that don’t have his money or access acts the goat a bit.
These guys are no different than their peers or my peers 16 years ago. They’re just in the public eye.
The UK is not the same country. Much more bullshit moral outrage etc. mostly driven by hypocritical journalists from tabloids IMO.
I don’t pay much attention to media coverage of the Royals but I know he was very popular in the little country town in Queensland where he was working. For most of his stay in Australia he was just a working cattle-hand.
A woman I work with met him in a pub in Sydney during the Rugby World Cup. She didn’t know who he was until her boyfriend told her after Harry left with his friends. Apparently she was fooled by the fact that when he went out to the pubs in Sydney he wore a Barmy Army shirt and introduced himself as plain Harry. She thought he was quite charming and very funny.
As for groping women, I imagine this is more the norm.
He’s actually probably going to come out the most normal of the royal family, seeing that he’s living as close to an ordinary teenagers life as being a royal will allow.
I think Harry will end up being like his uncle, Prince Andrew, a guy allowed to chose his own path without as narrow parameters about his very existance.
In ten or fifteen years, he will probably be a world icon in charity work, much like his mother.
there.