27 July 2023 , 20:41
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Prince Harry has revealed details of an awkward Balmoral holiday after a "shameful" incident left him feeling guilty.
Harry joined the Royal Family on their traditional summer trip to their Scottish retreat following a Las Vegas scandal where he was pictured paying strip billiards in a hotel in 2012. Harry was photographed naked - with images appearing in the media across the world.
Writing in his memoir Spare, Harry detailed how his visit to Balmoral following the leaked images evoked "complicated memories" for him. The father-of-two described his feelings of shame and guilt following the scandal. He wrote: "I berated myself: How had I let it happen? How had I been so stupid? Why had I trusted other people?" The Duke continued: "My sense of guilt and shame made it hard at moments to draw a clean breath."
"I fled to Scotland, met up with my family at Balmoral. It was August and they were all there. Yes, I thought, yes, the one thing missing from this Kafkaesque nightmare is Balmoral, with all its complicated memories and the pending anniversary of Mummy's death just days away."
Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duty in 2020 in their bid for 'privacy' in the US (Getty Images)Harry, who now lives in Montecito with wife Meghan Markle and their two children, went on to describe how he met with his father at first, who was "gentle". Harry, 38m adds: "Soon after my arrival I met Pa at nearby Birkhall. To my surprise, to my relief, he was gentle. Even bemused. He felt for me, he said, he'd been there, though he'd never been naked on a front page."
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Harry also reveals in the book how Balmoral holds traumatic memories for him - being the residence where he and his brother received the news of their mother's death in 1997, reports HELLO! Spare, his bombshell tell-all memoir discussing everything from losing his virginity to quitting royal life, also details his sadness at his brother, William, and father, King Charles missing Archie's first steps.
Harry opened up about his move to USA after with Meghan Markle and son, Archie. The family initially lived at actor and filmaker Tyler Perry's Californian home, before going on to move into their Montecito megamansion
During their stay at Perry's home in 2020, Harry wrote how Archie made a huge developmental milestone, saying: "Within a week Tyler's house felt like home. Archie took his first steps in the garden a couple of months later, at the height of the global pandemic lockdown. We clapped, hugged him, cheered. I thought, for a moment, how nice it would be to share the news with Grandpa or Uncle Willy."