77 thoughts on “New photos of Prince Harry’s summer in Africa helping move elephants”

1. So, so proud of Harry! Elephants are majestic animals to behold. I’m glad he’s found his passion. And yes, you called it, Harry and I were snuggling under the Malawi sky for three weeks. I, jest, I jest.

   On another note, I’m tired of KP’s spelling errors. Heck, their overall lack of professional communication overall.

   Thanks, KMR!

2. I really like how Harry included his own captions explaining what was happening for every photo. It creates more of a connection between the viewer and Harry and his work. I think it’s been said on here before, but Harry could easily have his own Instagram page with photos like these or the ones from Nepal. He seems to know how to use photographs to his advantage.

   But at the same time, even though I really like Harry, I wonder whether it’s a little hypocritical of him to be publicly backing conservation efforts against poaching and hunting in Africa when we know within a week of him returning home, he spent his birthday weekend on a hunting trip with his friends at Balmoral. Same goes for William.

   Also, I think he spent the rest of his time there working with Sentebale, especially since the charity is now doing work in Botswana. But I don’t know why KP wouldn’t just say that’s what he was doing cause it’s not as if that would make Harry look bad.

   1. I assume he was doing some work with Sentebale for the rest of his time in Africa but I don’t know for sure. But if so, I don’t know why KP didn’t jut say that.

      I agree that there is hypocrisy there especially since like a week after returning from Africa Harry went hunting in Scotland. I mean, it’s great that Harry cares about the elephants, but does he not even see how bad it looks for him to be seen hunting when he’s trying to get people to care about wildlife conservation?

      I think Harry would be amazing at Instagram. He could use it to promote his charity work.

      1. He was in Botswana working with Wilderness conservation project.

         1. I did not know that.

      2. Well, it’s true that it smells hypocrisy. On the other hand hunters are not animal killers in general. In my family there are many hunters and most of the time they don’t even shoot, but take care of the animals. My cousin I.e. gets up on 4am to control the fields for bambis before the harvest machines roll over it, he spends most of his free time feeding deer during winter, etc. This and many more tasks are the main “work” of a hunter. And when he kills an animal it’s because it’s ill or because there are too many of them. I know a lot of people don’t want to see it like this but hunting can be a form of conservation as well. Of course this doesn’t apply to the so called trophy hunters who kill for fun and only want some decoration for their walls. I will never understand those “hunters”.

         1. The DM reported he was hunting but was he actually hunting. No photos of him at Balmoral were posted. Just like how DM always reports on Harry stumbling out of club at 3am which we know is not always true. I agree Harry needs a public Instagram. He needs to handle his own media or have a team that works for him only.

            1. The press also reported William as hunting the weekend prior to Harry but no photos so was William actually hunting?

            2. There were pictures of William driving the gun truck. None of Harry the next weekend.

         2. agreed. Deer and other animal populations need to be managed for the health and success of the herd. It is managed by the gov’t by the sale of ‘tags’ for certain animals ie does or bucks, on the advice of conservation scientists. It is not in anyway hypocritical.

      3. Hunting is just the British upper class lifestlye. It is also a huge part of ‘normal’ everyday life in rural areas. Younger people from urban areas usually don’t understand this trend. My father is a hunter, many men I know go hunting and fishing, too. And shooting elephants where there are not many left and which is illegal is something totally different than shooting a deer of which the population is not endangered and too many deer van do great damage to forests. So this is not hypocritical for those of you not familiar with hunting 🙂

         1. The British public abhor hunting even where it’s a case of culling deer.

            Huge strides have been made in banning most of it as well as encouraging commercial pheasant hunts to use clay instead of real birds.

            Where deer are culled eg in Richmond park in London, it’s done discreetly by park rangers, not a free for all.

            In the countryside, only pheasant shooting is acceptable and only in a discreet way, no showing off to the general public. We’ve banned fox hunting even though they are pests.

            People get round it by going hunting in Europe or to Africa for trophy hunting, but that is always met with absolute disapproval no matter the hunter.

3. Wow, how incredibly fortunate he is to come into such unbelievably close contact with such majestic animals and to learn from some the best in the field.
   I’m glad he’s kind of doing his bit to explain/pass on some of the things he learnt by narrating that video and captioning those pictures. I’m just curious as to why they’ve only just released them now…
   KMR, I stand to be corrected but I think he might have spent 3 weeks on this specific project in Malawi and the rest of his time on other projects in other countries here in sub-Saharan Africa.

   1. My bad, Em. I thought KP said he would be working on this specific project only, but in their initial press release it says this project is one of the one’s he will be working with. So yeah maybe he spent time with others.

      Last year they didn’t release his Africa photos until December but that was to coincide with his royal tour to South Africa. So I don’t know why they chose right now to release this year’s photos.

      1. The footage was released by African Parks. Harry or KP likely had nothing to do with the timing.

4. If I remember correctly wasn’t he also there for a wedding and there was also some time spent for Sentebale. Honestly I wouldn’t begrudge him those extra 3 weeks. This was a period when most RFs take time off anyway. But this is my Harry bias talking so…

   1. Yes, he was in South Africa for a wedding on August 6.

      I would begrudge him those three weeks if he wasn’t doing work only because KP made it seem like he was working the entire time he was in Africa and if he was not then KP lied/mislead people. And if it were W&K and KP said they would be working the entire time they were there and only ended up working three weeks and took the other three weeks off, everyone would be losing their minds. Harry may have been working on other projects which have not been specified. I’m just saying that if he wasn’t, we should bring it up since we would go hard on W&K for that.

      1. He was working on other projects in Botswana. Just like last year I don’t see the problem. This was published by African Parks not KP.

      2. It’s very common in Europe to take a few weeks off in August. I would guess most people wouldn’t begrudge a few weeks off at that time of year.

5. It’s great this information and photos were released. I’d love to see William do something similar, but I doubt he ever will.

   1. He could for a week or something, but if he left his wife and kids for six weeks I think people would be complaining about how awful of a parent and husband he is. I would love for William to get more hands on involved, but I don’t think this type of extended period of front line work is an option for William now. If he were single he could totally do it, but not now.

      1. I don’t think going somewhere to work on a project for a week or two would make anyone a bad parent. Many parents go on a holiday without their kids for a week or even two. I’m a single parent and my work involves quite a lot of traveling. When I’m away my kid is looked after by grandparents or aunties. We know William and Kate have holidayed without George, so leaving the kids doesn’t seem to be a problem. William could go for a week or two, but since he hasn’t showed such a hands on approach before, I don’t think the public would buy it now.

         1. I said a week or so would be fine, but if William left for six weeks like Harry did I think people would be upset. People were upset when he left for a weekend to attend Jecca’s wedding instead of staying with his family for Easter. People were upset when W&K left George for a week to go to the Maldives. I think if William left for six weeks people would be upset. It’s more a PR thing than anything. I used to spend three months in the summer with my grandparents and away from my mother. So the kids would be fine. It’s the PR that would make William look bad for leaving for six weeks.

            1. Honestly I don’t think he cares about what people think about his actions. If he wanted, he’d go. But I don’t think he is such a hands on person as his brother is. He’d have demonstrated such approach earlier if he was. And if he was more active and approachable as a person, people would not mind him participating in projects and being away from home for a longer period of time. CP Frederik was gone for several weeks during the Olympics and I don’t think anyone called him a bad father. It’s just that people are used to him being active in that way and as a member of the Olympic Committee he did his duty. But of course this is just my opinion.

            2. I don’t think he cares what people say in terms of taking any sort of criticism to heart, but I do think he cares in terms of people saying negative things about him. He considers the press and public negatively criticizing him to be cyberbullying.

               I also don’t think he truly cares about wildlife conservation. It’s just a passing thing for him; not something he’s truly passionate about. He barely does anything for wildlife conservation.

            3. I do think the one cause that William shows any passion for is wildlife conservation, but I think it is mainly fueled by his love for Jecca Craig’s family. I think doing conservation work in Africa–for both William and Harry and most of their entire social set–has a rather romantic cast to it for them, kind of living a fantasy, a working safari holiday.

            4. I agree about Africa being like a fantasy for them. Like an old school exotic fantasy where the British elite would go on safari, and the men would hunt lions while the women had tea in their giant dresses.

         2. I doubt too that conservation is a real passion for William. When Harry mentioned he was proud of William hosting some event related to conservation it struck me that I don’t remember hearing William comment on Harry’s hands on involvement anywhere. If he was really passionate about this I think he would be thrilled with what his brother has done.

            1. Has William ever referenced any of Harry’s work if it didn’t involve him as well?

            2. I think it’s sad that William doesn’t seem capable of supporting Harry’s causes. He didn’t even go to the garden show when it was for his charity. I don’t know if it’s jealousy, self-centeredness, or overall lackadaisical can’t give a care about anything attitude but it’s disappointing. They seemed close at one time but don’t appear to now. William has seemed to isolate himself from most of his family.
               I love seeing Peter and his family out supporting Zara and her equestrian trials. And love the no nonsense Anne loving her grandkids!

6. I am enthralled with Prince Harry. *Sigh* As a ginger a couple years younger than Princess Diana, I would have loved to have a son who was just like him. What good work he is doing, and one can see the dedication to the elephants in this video. Harry is warm and genuine, and that will stand him in very good stead as the years go on. (Yea, King Henry).

   1. May I ask where the term “ginger” started in regard to people with red hair? I actually hate it. I have reddish hair and I truly despise when people say, “Hey, Red,” here in the States. Sometimes, I think the use of “ginger” is an affectionate term, but I have also read that Prince Charles was saddened when Harry was born with red hair and that many people don’t like redheads, either Go, figure.

      1. Ginger is a british slang for red-haired people dating back to the 16th century.

         Ginger root in it’s original form was a reddish yellow colour.

         Somewhere, the colour of the ginger began to be used as a nickname for red hair.

         It’s unclear whether it started as an insult or not.

         It’s not an insult in the proper sense of the word, but it can be used as a perjorative as well as an identifier.

7. I’m really conflicted about Harry at the moment. I really like that he’s doing this conservation work and his passion shows. But on the other hand, you hear these stories about him going hunting, and you start thinking, do you actually mean what you say about protecting wildlife?

   I hope that he went to Sentebale and didn’t take the rest of the 3 weeks off. Although he has stepped up his workload this year, I don’t think he really needs a holiday. It’s not like he’s been working 5 days a week in a full time position.

   1. I don’t like hunting either, but sometimes it is necessary. My parents live in a rural-ish neighborhood. They are overrun with deer. They can’t grow flowers or bushes because the deer eat them all. They had a tall privacy hedge on one side of their property, and the leaves are all missing from the ground to about 5 feet high, so no more privacy. I’ve seen a herd of deer about 30 strong walk down the street. They have no preditors so they just multiply, then they eat everything and starve. People hit them with cars at night. It is sad, but hunters who hunt ethically (clean kill, minimal suffering) are needed here.

      1. Actually, there is a problem of a too big population of elephants. Not in total numbers but in the secured habitats are just so big to provide space and food for so many. As horrible as it is.

      2. I agree with that JET Texas but we don’t know what they were actually hunting on the trip

8. He was in Botswana working on a different project. Remember he also met the President of Botswana at the end of his trip. KP always said that he will work on different projects in different countries. In Botswana he was working with Rhinos, the same project as in 2015.

   1. Yes and Sentebale is not only in Lesotho but will be also in Botswana.

9. Great photos and captions, and I really like his longer statement too, very well thought out.

   Elephants are one of my favorite animals. I went to a rescue camp in Thailand and it was one of the best experiences. They are incredibly smart, family oriented, and can be very sweet natured and have good senses of humor.

10. I agree that Harry has amazing fortune to be able to be close to these magnificent creatures and help them as humanity continues to encroach on their space. It saddens me greatly that wildlife suffers as human poplulations grow and infringe on the animals’ habitats. So, good for Harry!

    I do find it odd, as others have said, that he continues to hunt other animals, however. I hate hunting. Always have, always will!

    I hope Harry, if indeed he is hunting at home, will change his mind and have an ah ha moment.

    He does amaze me, though. Every time I see him in action, working hard on a cause that is meaningful to the world, I just am so very impressed. I know he and William are two different people and one should not compare them, but I do.

11. I’m so happy with his statement. It is so unlike the usual lack of acknowledgement about the human impact on wildlife and the automatic solution being culling to solve the problem.

    1. I thought so too. You can see that he actually has knowledge on conversation.

12. Proof that he actually does the work and doesn’t just give lip service. The thing that held me in awe was the photo of the line of full grown men trying to slow that young male down. They were tiny compared to him. They are all very fortunate that these animals are relatively gentle beings or as he said in the video their transportation equipment would have been destroyed. Not to mention a few of them could have been badly hurt.

    Keep up the great work Harry!!

13. I’ll say it. All I see is a bunch of white men trying to “control” nature/environment in a country/culture that is not known for its white men.

    Do you not find it odd when the RF “help” out in countries that are not their own? Have they solved all the problems in the UK? Helped out all the people and animals there?

    1. So is it your belief that only poc can go to Africa to volunteer? What about dr’s/nurses without borders? Can only black nurses/dr’s go to help? Do the elephants care what color their helpers are? I don’t know much about Malawi but I do know Botswana has realized that there is a profit in conservation. I’ve been looking at safaris and most start at $10,000! They employee soldiers to help with poachers. Elephants have a sense of countries that are “safe” and those that aren’t and have been seen making their way to Botswana. #s have been released that state the #of elephants are even less then originally thought.=(
       Who goes to Great Britain and says I hope I can see —– wildlife! People usually go for cultural and other reasons.
       Yes, it’s great to think locally but one also needs to expand one’s horizon and help globally as well. Yes, hunger, homelessness,education are all real problems but so is wildlife conservation. For some people, their compassion is more towards those that are animals and not humans. Luckily, it takes all kind
       I’m hoping one day, that I’ll be able to go Africa and see these majestic animals in person. I don’t care the color of the person who is trying to help save them, only that they are trying to help and that they’ll still be around when I get around to it. I don’t see this as a case of the white man trying to tell a predominately white country how to do their job. Help is help

       1. @ LadyBlueRibbon and Sarah:

          I want to preface my response with this: As a white woman living in the United States, talking about race is a tricky issue due to the history of racism in this country. I am going to try to explain my point of view on the ideas that both of you have stated. I hopefully won’t offend anyone as that is not my intention at all. If I say something wrong, please let me know in a courteous way so that I can learn and change. Here it goes:

          I can see both sides. Because on the one hand I think we can and should be able to help people even if they don’t look like us, but on the other hand I understand there is a lot of history behind the “white savior” idea.

          For me, as a white woman, I’m going to look at it from my point of view in order to come to a conclusion about the thought process. As women, we want and need male allies, but what happens and why people get so annoyed at “mansplaining” is because men try to come into our community as women and tell us how to fix ourselves. That gets a lot of people’s backs up because of the history behind male oppression. What men should do to try to be good allies is ask women what the problems are and ask how they can help us with our goals to fix those problems, or ask how they can help us come up with goals to fix those problems if we do not have goals yet.

          So I would apply that same logic to white people helping people of color. So, instead of going into communities and telling people how to fix their problems, we should ask people in those communities what their problems are and how we can either help them achieve the solutions they’ve already come up with or help them come up with solutions to help them help themselves.

          Basically, we need to help people help themselves rather than trying to go in and fix people based on what we think it right. Because we want to help people empower themselves, rather than oppressing them just in a different way. Even though the “white savior” is helping people, it’s still oppressing them in a way because those people are still not empowered and they are still not being treated equally socially, economically, etc. We need to be an ally, not a savior. At least that’s how I see it. I hope that explanation makes sense and isn’t offensive.

          1. Your thoughts were well articulated KMR. There is a complacency in not challenging the conservation narrative — and you will often find, it is white men who are no longer able to “boss” around the people of the country who are now “bossing” around the wildlife of a country. No one challenged the fact that they drugged the animals and forced the animals to do “their” will. I don’t know any living thing that appreciates that “help”.

             1. This is probably not the place to have wildlife conservation talk but I will anyways.
                When there is wildlife vs human conflict, it’s always the wildlife coming out the loser. Did anyone ask the animals to be drugged and moved? No of course not but if they had a voice, I’m sure they would choose relocation over killing. It’s my understanding that this was the Malawi’s gov’t option to a non violent choice. In poorer countries, where people are just trying to survive, sometimes it’s hard to see the larger picture. I’ve also seen videos of locals trying to help elephants when needed…

          2. I agree that helping communities help themselves is the ideal solution but some of these countries are the poorest of the poor, war torn and can’t see past trying to find food for themselves.
             Is oprah’s school for girls more ideal because she is a poc vs say the bill and Melinda gates foundation and what they do for vaccinations, drinking water etc but they’re white so not so much? Or do you just f**k it all, and every man, woman and child for themselves of like nationality? Most beneficial help is helping countries see solutions to their problems but they don’t have the financial resources to do it themselves and need a little help. I’ve given to charities like the heifer project that provides livestock for a village/family. They can then use it as a source of income, food, whatever they need it to be. Is that me, a white woman trying to be a savior or is it me a human trying to help another human out? I’d like to think the latter

          3. Well said, KMR.

             There is such a history in Africa of the “romantic” white man’s safari that I think Harry should be very careful of the perception of his work with conservation. Unfortunately we know he has in the past shown a horrifying ignorance of history and perception.

       2. I understand that you don’t see the irony in that it will cost you $10,000 to see a wild animal because they’ve herded them all to private lands where they control the profit. That they drugged them and forced them to move against their own natural will.

          Wildlife for the Rich? Get the picture?

          1. I actually see your point. Don’t know if you’ve seen Savior Barbie on instagram, but it’s a satirical take on what you’re saying. However, if paying $10,000 to see an elephant is the price to pay for saving them, I will pay it. Same for rhinos, lions, and any other animal hunted for vanity items.

             1. What bluhare said.

                And hurrah for Slum Barbies!!!

                On a serious note, moving them is much. MUCH better than killing them to make room for more humans.

                Or William’s solution to trophy hunt the old ones thus losing valuable herd knowledge.

          2. I pay a fee when I go to a us nat’l park as well.
             Most of what I’ve looked at are African nat’l parks/preserves.
             That $$ is going towards employment opportunities, guides, security etc, going towards African preservation/nat’l parks, to help people realize that poaching isn’t financially viable but preservation is. I’m sure there are cheaper ones but these are ones that I know do the most good.
             Wildlife for the rich? I could/have see (n) all those animals in a zoo for free/cheap but that makes me sad. I much prefer to see them in their natural element and like that my money is going towards a way to preserve them.
             You should champion it as your argument seems to be that black Africans need to help themselves and in Botswana this is away that they have.

             1. Done ethically, the safari thing on a preservation not only protects the animals but it provides jobs to the local communities, right? I think that’s a good thing.

             2. You aren’t seeing the animal in its natural habitat, if it has been drugged and moved against its will. You are visiting manufactured zoos. You just can’t see the cages.

                I think we are seeing a modern version of feudalism — every job opportunity you describe is the opportunity to work for the lord of the land – who has control of the resources. It’s like someone figured out… you know how we can make lots of money? Put all the elephants in one place where we have control. And lets hire an army to secure it.

                I’m starting to realize why Prince William talks about doing this “important work” for the benefit of his children. They are going to be some of the few that gets to see them.

             3. I hadn’t thought of it like that; that’s a good point. I know this blog is not the place for this type of discussion, but because I’m interested I have two counterpoints:

                Counterpoint: The animals are still in more of a natural habitat than a zoo on another continent. Isn’t saving these animals by moving them to a preservation, that yes is enclosed but is safe, better than them being killed by poachers or humans who are expanding into their natural habitat?

                Another counterpoint: Aren’t most jobs in most fields in a way working for the “lord of the land” who controls the resources (money)?

                Re William talking about saving the animals for his kids… Yeah, of course he means so they can go on safari and see them. That’s why him using that as his big selling point is so stupid because no one cares if his kids get to go on safari. He needs to give other reasons for people to care.

             4. This will be the last I have to say since we clearly have very different views.
                In the technical sense of the word, yes, it actually it’s natural habitat. It wasn’t drugged then taken to another country. The other option is killing when they come into conflict with encroaching human populations. I’ll take the moving any day.
                Are the Yellowstone wolves not in their natural habitat because they were technically reintroduced because man hunted them to near extinction? They are in my opinion. In the US nat’l parks the animals are not made to stay there. They can leave the park and thus issues when the wolves left the park and killed some ranchers wildlife.
                As for working for the “lord of the land” yes, one of the places included in the safari is a private preserve but two are national parks. As I haven’t been so only assuming, are us park rangers working for the ” lord of the land” too? Maybe I. The technical sense as they work for the DOI and thus the president.
                However you look at it, the preserves and parks are giving people meaningful employment and protecting the wildlife at the same time.
                As for William and Harry going to Africa all the time. Is that a terrible thing that they found a place they love to be? I love Alaska and go every year (sometimes more if I can fit it in)
                “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out til sundown, for going out, I found, was really go in.” John Muir
                May you enjoy nature your way and I’ll enjoy it mine=)

    2. LadyBlueRibbon, something about these photos triggered that in me, too.

       Very White Man’s Burden.

       The fact that the young princes clearly feel entitled to Africa is a bit much. It will become a worse and worse look as they become older men.

14. I admire Harry for his work. Taking care of elephants shows how he is not afraid to go out into the field. Those elephants look very majestic and the fact that they are family orientated shows how sociable they are. Harry has achieved so much and good for him. William bagged his first deer at fourteen years old and to say that he wants to get rid of ivory etc makes him look like a hypocrite. I think William does care for animals and the goodwill is there. However, Harry does go the extra mile and help out. William doesn’t even research. I think if Harry distances himself from the trio and gets Instagram, word of mouth will be much kinder to him.

15. “What I Did On My Summer Vacation”. I had fun! Here’s my happy snaps.

    1. He needs a job. He is going to end yet another year without a job.

16. If William did this some comments on this site would be very different. He would be accused of being a bad father and husband, look at what happend when he went to that weekend wedding. He would be accused of wasting tax payers money and that he should do work in UK. He would be accused of wasting tax payers money with the bodyguards who where needed for this trip. he would be accused of taking a vacationtrip and release a few pictures to justify it. He would be accused of being a hypoc. because he shoots animals the weekend after he got home. Etc. Etc. Now he is accused of not being handson doing something like this.

    I like william, kate and harry but i am getting very uneasy with the reporting from commenters here and the press in general. It is only because harry comes across as a charming and likeable guy so the press builds him up. They did the same with william and kate. Now they are tearing william and kate down. The same will happen with harry down the line and then they will build william and kate up, its a circle. Why can’t the media just do some truthfull reporting on all of them. Everybody has two sides some pos. and some neg. and everybody makes misstakes.

    William and Kate get critised about every little thing. Some things jusitfied, some things unfairly but harry is skating by. Unbelievable.

    If william did this the headlines on the dm would be also very different. William going on a jolly and spends this many pounds on this vacation with his bodyguards. William going to save wildlife but he hunts the next weekend etc etc harry at the moment gets a headline a hero please.

    When william didn’t have a job he was lambasted in the press with one headline after the other. Harry doesn’t have a job for the last year only volunteering work. Nobody knows how much time he spends on that. Nobody bats a eyelid. I get that harry is charming and a likeable guy but the commenters and the press are a bit (much) hypocritcal.

    IMO

    1. “If William did this some comments on this site would be very different. He would be accused of being a bad father and husband, look at what happend when he went to that weekend wedding.”

       I literally said this up thread. There are also comments up thread by me and some others about how this is hypocritical of Harry since he still enjoys hunting and went on a hunting weekend shortly after he got back from Africa, and comparing it to how William is hypocritical in the same way because he enjoys hunting while trying to support wildlife conservation.

       I do think the comments toward Harry are different than what William would get because William is in a different position than Harry. William has a wife and two kids, while Harry is single. Harry can be gone for six weeks because he’s not leaving anyone to do so. But if William were gone for six weeks he’d be leaving his wife and two children for six weeks.

       BTW, I agree that there is a positive bias toward Harry. He gets passes that William and Kate would not. Like the job thing, the nude photos thing, etc.

       1. I don’t remember seeing Kate and William criticized about smallest things in media. On the contrary, I have stopped reading some mags as I can’t take those sugary articles in which everything they do and every move they make is praised in such a way that I was always wondering what was the point of writing something like that. But I guess this depends very much on the papers you read. On the other hand I would never criticize someone for attending a wedding without his wife and kids in tow or someone stripping naked in his private time. I simply don’t think such things are any of my business. But we are all different and I don’t intend to offend anyone, what I want from royals is them to fulfill their public role and this is where I think William and Kate fail.

          1. William got *a lot* of crap at least on here for leaving his family over Easter to go to Jecca’s wedding.

             And not criticizing Harry’s nude photos is my point. Harry didn’t get any crap for being stupid enough to trust the randoms he met in Vegas and didn’t even bother to take their phones but even now everyone still blames Kate for her nude photos.

             1. This is not a place to discuss religion, but as I spent a big part of my childhood in a culture where Easter wasn’t celebrated, I never understood why it was so bad he decided to attend the wedding at Easter. What comes to Kate’s nude pics, I don’t understand why someone would bother to take or even look at such pics. But I know I am in a minority here and it’s not a problem for me if people think differently. But if royals take care of their public duties and show they want to do meaningful things, it’s enough for me.

             2. I only ever celebrated Easter by hunting plastic eggs – it was never a religious holiday for me. But a good number of people were very upset that he skipped Easter and went to Jecca’s wedding instead.

                Re your thoughts on Kate’s nude photos: That’s certainly a different and welcome thought process. The majority of the comments on that recent thread were not so kind.

             3. The difference between Harry and Kate’s nudes is that Harry took responsibikity immediately. One or two friends put out statements saying it was such a betrayal of trust yadayadayada, BUT Harry apologised publicly. Twice. Immediately after it happened and later in the course of the documentary about his time in Afghanistan.

                He acknowledged the double edged sword of being a pricate public person and how he had to be aware at all times that the public persona was the most important part because tarnishing that part tarnished more than his private self.

                Due to his immediate mea culpa, the public was entirely on his side. I remember people calling into tv talkshows complaining about the breach of his privacy. Most of the army posed nude and posted the pictures on social media in solidarity. I think the facebook page opened for this purpose ended up with 2/3 of army posting pictures on it.

                Fast forward to WK. The gilt was already falling off. The media tried to play up the distance of the road vs the upper terrance they were on.

                It showed so little commonsense on their part. The photographer wasn’t their on one day. Pictures were taken on multiple days. I remember seeing pictures of Kate walking around in a light blue bikini purporting to be from mid-holiday. The news about the naked ones leaked days after they’d left.

                The terrace they were on was an upper terrace above a working kavender farm with a road running under the terrace. The upper terrace meant they were above the waterline of any shading trees, plus the road from which the pictures were taken was not a protected road meaning that there were huge gaps between the trees and the road was higher on the opposite hill such that it provided a similar eye level vantage point as their terrace.

                My first thought when i saw the pics of the road vs the terrace was one of security. The entire property was unsecure from thst vantage point and they were just as vunerable to snipers.

                My first thought was to blame security because they were sitting (or frolicking) on an open terrace, facing 2 roads one of which had a clear view of the terrace due to being raised above the protective tree level. If they wanted to sunbathe so badly, there was plenty of room all round the property, not that terrace.

                Then of course the stupidity of walking around naked in public when you are the no 1 target in the world for paps. As much as we are all free to be ourselves, we have to take responsibility for our actions. We don’t live in Utopia. If you walk around naked, chances are some pictures might be taken of you. If you MUST walk around naked because you myst exercise your self expression, take preventative measures, like a screen around the open side of the terrace.

                Then they sued, people lost jobs due to magazine closing due to pressure from the Palace. None of that endeared WK to the population.

             4. Grace,

                I doubt that most people care about the nude pics except for two reasons:
                1. They walk around in the buff for all their servants to see. It shows that they are indifferent to others and the fact that it might be offensive or just plain gross to have to encounter them with all their bits hanging out. This is certainly my issue. They don’t have the decency to keep their clothes on in front of strangers. This is not a nude beach or a sauna, etc. And they were crazy to put themselves at risk for photos such as these.
                It shows arrogance and entitlement.

                2. The pics prove that they lied to justify skipping the Paralympics, of which they were patrons. They lied that they were working to prepare for a trip. Instead, they buggered off to soak up some rays in the buff. It’s the lie which is so egregious- it speaks to character, the indifference to duty and their position,, and to the fact that the Paralympics were beneath their interest (unlike the sexy Olympics).

                With the advent of the quirky internet, most of us have happened upon naked pics of strangers, even seen naked strangers on some beach with varying reactions. Let’s keep this in context and what it really means.

             5. I think the nude photos thing is both a societal double standard — men v. women — but also the reaction of the Royals. William went immediately angry and suing, etc. and they wanted the public to join in in their indigence. And, to be fair, a lot of the general public is on W/K’s side about it. And look — it’s a terrible thing. The pictures and their behavior are a little much — I don’t really know why she had to drop her bottoms on a balcony to have her husband rub sunscreen there — but it’s still an invasion of privacy. You can still understand their reaction. However, they overreached, and full-circled into this idea that everyone must be as indignant as them, and Kate is a virginal innocent, etc. So people started examining her behavior. The tabloids blasted Harry when it first happened. But he basically brushed it off and apologized and that was it. Hard to make mincemeat over that. Plus, you had the RPOs to blame it on.

                tl;dr Taking photos of someone naked and publishing them is unseemly; the person is going to be angry; people are always going to criticize that person and believe it would never happen to them; if you give the press four years’ worth of copy about it, they will write it.

    2. I like Harry for many reasons, but I’m also one of the ones who will not praise him for this particular work, even for all the good that it did. To me, it’s simply ecotourism, a holiday of the sort that I and many others would love to take but can’t afford. Like MavenTheFirst said above, “What I did on my summer vacation…” I doubt that Harry had to make any great or even small sacrifices to participate, and I wonder if the cost for this “working safari” came from his own funds or if the Royal Foundation covered it.

       1. KP said when he left that the cost was being covered privately.

          1. I wonder by whom. KP’s statement is predictably ambiguous. It’s not like they said that he paid for it himself. I wonder if the foundation paid for it. Did he use the Duke of Westminster’s jet?

             We know taxpayers paid for security. I wonder how much that cost. I also wonder if he needs more security outside the UK. I wonder if someone got a tax write off as it resembles a ‘working’ holiday.

             I agree with above. Harry sacrificed nothing.

    3. Good points.

       Harry is charming and relatable like his mother, so I think he gets away with more.

       But there are always comments on this site (including mine) that cast a gimlet eye on Harry’s usefulness. He seems to spend a lot of time out of country working for various charities but I don’t see him consistently patronising a handful of favoured charities in the UK. I know more about his wandering the exotic world and little about him wandering the UK and calling it ‘work’. I cast a side eye on someone who can help rebuild a village in lovely, exotic Nepal but can’t help out after a flood in the cold and clammy UK. Not to say he has not done some worthwhile things especially compared to his slacker brother, but that’s a low bar indeed.

       I see no consistency and constancy when it comes to the UK. Patronising sports and playing polo for charity simply doesn’t cut it. Nor does showing up ‘secretly’ or otherwise at hospitals. I also wonder what he does with most of his time because as you noted, he doesn’t have a job.

       And he indulges in blood sports, slaughtering hundreds of birds and defenceless animals. When he can’t get his fix in the UK he buggers off to Spain. IMO Harry is a typical trust fund aristo with a great personality and even better PR. He’s found a niche where he can largely have fun and it still makes him look good. He lives a soft life and has sacrificed very little. I also doubt that he largely uses his own money for his personal jaunts. I sometimes wonder how much charities subsidise him in hopes of great PR.

       1. Maven, Love the phrase”gimlet eye.” I feel the same way about Harry. Yeah, he’s adorable so he does get less criticism. But I just don’t see any of the royals really earning the millions bestowed upon them by the tax payers.

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