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Harry has to choose what sort of Prince he aspires to be

Prince Harry (left) with William (image: Scrape TV)


Friday 24th August 2012 will be remembered for its bizarre, yet history-making news stories. We started the day with Prince Harry's nudity photos in the daily edition of The Sun newspaper. The third heir to the British throne may have regretted bringing some girls to his Las Vegas hotel room after they leaked images of him with no clothes on the internet for the whole world to see. It isn't the sophisticated representations the globe is used to seeing a royal family member doing but they obviously haven't heard of Harry's wild party-animal past.

However, this story has questioned the responsibility The Sun paper has taken in order publish these photos to people across Britain who have yet to see the images. Former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott was particularly upset by the controversial newspaper's actions saying that self-regulation in newspapers has "died". Furthermore, the Press Complaints Commission has received almost 1,000 complaints over the paper's decision, although it has been said that none of the people who've complained are affiliated with Prince Harry.

The reaction from some people over this story doesn't surprise me. Nobody wants to see anyone body exploited in such a way, particularly if it was a Prince who was proudly representing Britain and his family in the closing ceremony of a very successful Olympic Games - and with the Paralympics in a few days away, the focus of that tournament has been lesser because of the royal.

This story has also put the reputation of the royal family in question. We have seen Harry's brother, William delicately representing UK in April 2011 marrying Kate (Catherine) Middleton, the woman the world has fallen in love with. Then we celebrated The Queen's Diamond Jubilee worldwide and there was a sense we were starting to like them again. They cannot do everything right but does the public "prefer" to see every royal family member to be sophisticated rather than see just one party until dawn? Britain has one of the most talked about royal families, having Prince Harry as the celebrity figure cannot be that bad, can it?

It leaves to be said that I despise those who put pictures like that online and The Sun shouldn't have stirred the story up even further. However, it gives a warning to Prince Harry as he needs to decide what sort of person he wants to be remembered. Does he want to be Prince William's shadow, a war veteran, or a party animal roaring for some attention? Whatever the case, Pippa Middleton will not be the solution.

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