‘I met Prince Harry and apologised for how I referred to him’ | Royal | News
In 2009, footage emerged of Harry calling Sandhurst student Ahmed Raza Khan his “little P*** friend”. This term is considered one of the most offensive terms to use when referring to people of South Asian descent. Speaking on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive podcast, Jobson said Harry accused him of having a “hidden camera” that caught him at the time. However, the author admits that he retaliated, which led him to apologize to the prince.
He said: “I did the story about him when I was in the News of the World about him making a racist comment, which was a big deal at the time as a cadet against one of his army colleagues, and he asked me, ‘Where’s your hidden camera?’ he said.
“And I said: ‘Respectfully, mate, it was your camera, it was your racist comment, and obviously it was someone in your circle who gave you the video.’ “I had to apologize and I apologized, I apologized for calling her my friend because she is not my wife.”
Jobson went on to say that Harry was “pretty nice” when they met on another occasion. He said: “I remember flying from New Zealand on the same plane as him and I had just uncovered the story about him leaving the army and he was actually quite good.
“There were only a few of us on the trip, and I was like, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said. And he said, ‘I’m really going to try to do a lot for men with prosthetics.’ ‘But you’ll probably find out what I’m going to do next before I do,’ he said. “He was always a little grumpy with me, but he’s doing well.”
Harry addressed this comment in his explosive memoir Spare. He says the insult was used by “a lot of people” when he was growing up.
He wrote: “I didn’t know [it] It was an insult. When I was little, I heard a lot of people use that word and I never saw anyone frown or look sad and I never thought of those people as racist.
“I was 21 years old, growing up isolated from the real world and surrounded by privilege, and I believed the word was like saying ‘Yankee.’ It’s harmless.”
Harry explained that his father’s office decided to release a statement following the incident. He claimed he wanted to release his own but was advised against it.
Harry revealed that he reached out to his former colleague to apologize for the incident. He said: “I contacted him directly and asked for forgiveness.
He said he knew I wasn’t a racist and it was okay. But all was not well. And his forgiveness, his natural deference, made me feel even worse.”
