Prince Harry addressed accusations that he "boasted" about killing 25 Taliban militants in ‘Spare’
January 11, 2023 By Alberto Mesti
(Image Credit Google)
Prince Harry has addressed the accusations that he "boasted" about his military experience in his
Spare memoir.
In a teaser for his appearance on
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex said referring to the criticism regarding the book's information about his military career, "Without a doubt, the most dangerous lie that they have told is that I somehow boasted about the number of people that I killed in Afghanistan."
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Image credit: TV Insider[/caption]
He added, "If I heard anyone boasting about that kind of thing, I would be angry. But it’s a lie. Hopefully, now that the book is out, people will be able to see the context.”
Furthermore, according to Harry, the manner the British media is presenting the chapter is "really troubling and very disturbing."
He continued, "It wasn’t like, ‘Here’s just one line.’ They had the whole section, they ripped it away and just said, ‘Here it is. He’s boasting on this.’ … And that’s dangerous. My words are not dangerous, but the spin of my words are very dangerous.”
More details
Prince Harry's memoir was released on Tuesday, January 10, just hours before his sit-down with Stephen Colbert was scheduled to air on CBS.
Also read: Prince Harry reveals that Prince William “aired some concerns” regarding his relationship with Meghan Markle
Moreover, Prince Harry talked about his background, his strained connection with the royal family, his relationship with Meghan Markle, as well as his military career, in his book
Spare. Additionally, the BetterUp CIO joined the British Army in 2005 and served with them for the next ten years, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
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He wrote in the book that he killed more than twenty Taliban militants as a helicopter pilot in 2012 and 2013, stressing that he had a deep commitment to his nation's objective. Harry stated in the book
Spare that "If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game." However, his statement has since drawn criticism for comparing war deaths to chess pieces and video games.
What's more
Prince Harry told Colbert, 58, in the clip about his justification for disclosing his military service in
Spare, "I think the most important thing here is, not only the context, but the reason why I decided to share this in my book. To the vets here and to the civilians here — which this may feel as though this is slightly a weird conversation to have, especially on this show of all shows — I made a choice to share it because having spent nearly two decades working with veterans all around the world, I think the most important thing is to be honest and to be able to give space to others to be able to share their experiences without any shame.”
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Harry continued by saying that he wrote about his military service to lessen the number of veterans who commit suicide as a result of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Lastly, Prince Harry's interview on
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert aired on Tuesday, January 10, at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.
By Alberto Mesti
Introvert. Eccentric at times. A fashion enthusiast, designer and writer. Lives for the drama, hates being at the centre of it. Can be best described as \'wannabe modern day Lady Whistledown\'.