Prince Harry falls victim to embarrassing prank call
The Duke of Sussex has allegedly revealed his heartbreak over Megxit and his thoughts on Donald Trump in two extraordinary phone calls. And he’s not the first royal to get duped.
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Prince Harry has fallen victim to Russian pranksters, revealing his heartbreak over Megxit and addressing everything from US President Donald Trump to climate change in two extraordinary phone calls.
The Duke of Sussex believed he was speaking to teen climate activist Greta Thunberg earlier this year when he twice spoke candidly of his difficult decision to step away from the royal family and Britain.
“Sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one,” he said, according to transcripts from The Sun.
“I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it’s made out to be!
“And this decision certainly wasn’t the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son.
“And I think there’s a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first.
“But, yeah, it’s a tricky one, but we will start a new life.”
In the two calls, published to YouTube and Facebook and made on New Year’s Eve and January 22, Harry tells the hoaxers, “You can call me whatever you want — Harry is fine.”
The two notorious Russian pranksters, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, managed to get through to Harry when he and Meghan were living at their luxurious estate on Vancouver Island in Canada.
Prince Harry is just the latest victim of the pranksters, who have managed to fool everyone from Elton John to Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix and Democrat hopeful Bernie Sanders.
Pretending to be Thunberg and her dad Svante, the pranksters managed to have two long and personal conversations with the 35-year-old prince.
In one of the calls, Harry spoke of how his time in the military had helped him be “more normal”.
“You forget, I was in the military for 10 years so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe,” he joked.
“But certainly being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not have been able to do.
“And seeing as everyone under the age of 35 or 36, seems to be carrying out an activist’s role, gives us the opportunity to try and make more of a difference without being criticised,” he laughed.
Harry also briefly addressed US President Donald Trump and said the controversial leader had “blood on his hands”.
The pranksters had asked Prince Harry about the US President following his refusal to take a picture with Thunberg at an international summit last year.
“What a surprise,” Harry joked.
“But Trump will want to meet you to make him look better but he won’t want to have a discussion about climate change with you because you will outsmart him.
“Whether you have an option to meet President Trump or an option to meet Boris Johnson, I think I would always.
“It’s far more important to have an open dialogue and have conversation with these people than not.”
Harry also praised Thunberg for the 17-year-old’s activism, revealing he and Meghan had briefly thought about starting a charity to fight climate change.
“Unfortunately the world is being led by some very sick people, so people like yourselves and younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference,” he said.
Harry also briefly commented on his uncle Prince Andrew, slammed earlier this year when he denied his alleged involvement in disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking ring.
“I have very little to say on that. But whatever he has done or hasn’t done, is completely separate from me and my wife. We operate in a way of inclusivity and we are focusing on community. We are completely separate from the majority of my family,” he said.
Prince Harry isn’t the first royal to fall victim to prank callers.
In 1995, the Queen spoke at length to a prankster she believed was then Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien.
A year later, radio host Victor Lewis-Smith pretended to be scientist Professor Stephen Hawking and managed to get through the Buckingham Palace switchboard and speak with Diana where the pair joked and she even said the “F-word”.
Earlier, a spokesman for Prince Harry refused to comment.