Prince Harry has taken a dig at the Australian gossip magazine that broke a worldwide media embargo and forced his withdrawal from Afghanistan in his memoir, Spare.
The Duke of Sussex’s first deployment to Afghanistan was cut short in February 2008 after New Idea revealed he was in Helmand Province fighting the Taliban.
That original report in the magazine was followed up in the United States by Matt Drudge’s news website the Drudge Report.
Harry recalls in his new memoir Spare the moment his commanding officer, who he calls only ‘Colonel Ed’, told him how a media embargo over his posting had been breached on the other side of the world.
Prince Harry has blamed New Idea and an American reporter for sharing a story published in an ‘inconsequential’ Australian magazine about his presence in Afghanistan which forced his withdrawal from the warzone. He is pictured in Helmand Province in February 2008
The Duke of Sussex’s first deployment to Afghanistan was cut short in February 2008 after celebrity gossip magazine New Idea revealed he was in Helmand Province fighting the Taliban. He is pictured outside a Scottish service to honour those killed in Afghanistan in June 2008
‘An Australian magazine had picked up the story and told everyone that I was in Afghanistan,’ he writes.
‘The magazine was inconsequential, so at first no one had noticed the story, until some [journalist] in the US read the article, posted it on his c***py website, and the trackers got hold of it.’
Harry writes that Colonel Ed apologised that he would have to be evacuated and the young prince almost begged to stay but knew he could not for the safety of those around him.
‘Now that the Lebanese knew that I was in the country, and roughly where, they would use all their efforts to eliminate me,’ he writes.
Harry recalls in his new memoir Spare the moment his commanding officer, who he calls only ‘Colonel Ed’, told him how a media embargo over his posting had been breached on the other side of the world. Harry is pictured with wife Meghan
After shaking Colonel Ed’s hand, Harry left his tent, gathered his belongings and said goodbye to some of his comrades. He then boarded a Chinook helicopter and an hour later was in Kandahar.
The Ministry of Defence explained it was too dangerous for the 23-year-old to complete the last month of his 14-week rotation.
‘This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier,’ it said in a statement.
New Idea later issued an apology for breaching the media blackout over Harry’s presence in Afghanistan.
‘We regret this serious lapse of judgment,’ its publisher said.
‘We sincerely apologise to all our readers, to the servicemen whose lives are at constant risk while serving at home and abroad and to their families and loved ones.’
‘The magazine was inconsequential, so at first no one had noticed the story, until some a**hole in the US read the article, posted it on his c***py website, and the trackers got hold of it,’ ‘ Harry writes in Spare. The prince is pictured manning a machinegun in January 2008
Harry, who returned to Afghanistan flying Apache attack helicopters in 2012, has disclosed in Spare he killed 25 Taliban during that second tour.
He has been widely criticised by former soldiers for revealing the number of insurgents he killed, who he described as ‘chess pieces removed from the board’.
During a trip to Australian in June 2017, Harry said he had felt ‘guilt’ at being evacuated from Afghanistan due to New Idea revealing where he had been posted.
‘I could no longer stay with my soldiers as it would have put them at greater risk,’ he said in Sydney at the time.
‘It was a decision over which I had no control, but the guilt of having to leave my guys behind was something I felt hard to swallow as anyone who has served would understand.
‘It was that flight home from Afghanistan that put me on the path to create the Invictus Games.’
After shaking Colonel Ed’s hand, Harry left his tent, gathered his belongings and said goodbye to his comrades. He then boarded a Chinook helicopter and an hour later was in Kandahar. Harry is pictured sitting on his camp bed at a forward operating base in January 2008
It was not until he prepared to board that plane in Kandahar that Harry realised for the first time the devastation the conflict was causing.
‘While we waited to board, a coffin of a young Danish soldier was put on the plane, and three soldiers in induced comas, all three wrapped in plastic, some with missing limbs and tubes coming out everywhere,’ he said.
‘The sacrifices we ask our men and women to make came home so powerfully to me in those moments.’
On a trip to the Warrior Games in the United States in 2013, Harry saw how sport could help servicemen and women who had been physically or psychologically injured by war.
He was inspired by that visit and the Invictus Games was born.
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