Prince Harry’s former polo playing friend threatens to publish damaging letter

Prince Harry’s former friend says the royal is “the furthest thing from a victim” as the duke faces a court showdown over his US visa.

A former polo mate of Prince Harry has threatened to publish a damaging letter about the royal that could include shock revelations.

Edward Charles Featherstone, a pseudonym used by Harry’s former friend, said the Duke of Sussex is “nothing like the man I met”.

Harry’s memoir Spare was “disappointing” because it portrayed him as “being the victim when he’s the furthest thing from a victim”, said Featherstone, according to The Mirror.

Featherstone, who has written a new book The Rude Beginning, told the publication he had written to the California-based royal to urge him to change his behaviour.

He is threatening to publish the letter “at some stage” in full.

“It really just says get over yourself, you’re not a victim and you were part of a noble cause as the torch bearer of the Invictus and what you’re doing now and what you’re doing to your family is, I think, inappropriate,” he said.

Prince Harry playing in the Young England vs. Young Australia polo match in NSW in 2003. Picture: AFP

The threat comes as Harry prepares for a court showdown over his US visa after admitting to past drug use in his memoir. Under US law, admission or evidence of past drug use can be grounds to reject a visa application.

The admission prompted a conservative American think tank, The Heritage Foundation, to launch a legal challenge to obtain his visa application after a Freedom of Information request was rejected. They argue that Harry must either have kept his experimentation with cocaine, cannabis, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca a secret or must have been shown favourable treatment by officials.

The Department for Homeland Security will attempt to get the lawsuit thrown out when the case resumes on February 23.

ADHS argued in a court filing seen by Newsweek that it “cannot confirm or deny whether any other records that (Heritage) are seeking exist because the mere acknowledgment of these records would constitute an unwarranted invasion of Prince Harry’s privacy.

Prince Harry’s US visa is up in the air. Pictured with wife Meghan Markle. Picture: Getty Images

“The records are particularly sensitive because releasing them, even in part, would reveal Prince Harry’s status in the United States, which Prince Harry has not disclosed.

“Specifically, the records would reveal the types of documents that Prince Harry used to travel to the United States, his admission status, and any immigration, or non-immigration, benefits that he may have sought.

“Courts consistently hold that a person’s visa or immigration status is private, personal information exempt from disclosure.”

However, Heritage hit back in a later court filing seen by Newsweek, arguing: “(The case) comes about in the main because HRH voluntarily – and for immense profit – admitted in writing to the elements of any number of controlled substance violations.

“The Duke of Sussex did so despite the fact that it is widely known that such admissions can have adverse immigration consequences for non-citizens and despite employing pre-eminent legal advisers on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Originally published as Prince Harry’s former polo playing friend threatens to publish damaging letter