We get it, Prince Harry. You’re charming. You’re Prince Charming and, worst of all, none of us saw it coming. Throwing back to the nineties when you and your brother had posters and features in all of the different variations of Tiger Beat, do you think any of us would have guessed that you’d turn out to be the super hot one? We didn’t. We all put our money on Wills because he was the one that vaguely resembled Devon Sawa and you looked like Opie Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show. Then you got older and tried to pull off that whole Nazi costume thing (I still can’t believe that no one told you that was a bad idea) and we wrote you off even further.
But take a look at you now! Handsome, athletic, a bit of a party boy and, as it turns out, an advocate for gay rights. Be still our commoner hearts and give us a second to dig your old Tiger Beat posters out of the trash.
James Wharton, a Lance Corporal in the British Army who recently wrote a book about his decade long military career, caused a positive stir this weekend when discussing the period of time that he served alongside the Ginger Prince of our Hearts. Lance Corporal Wharton, who is an out gay man, detailed the time he went to Harry — who was then serving as Wharton’s tank commander — after an incident in which their fellow soldiers were verbally attacking Wharton and threatening physical violence because of his sexuality.
“I told him, ‘I think I’m going to be murdered by the infantry.’ I climbed into the turret and talked Harry through exactly what had happened. He had a complete look of bewilderment on his face,” Lance Corporal Wharton says in the Daily Mail. “I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my eyes. He said, ‘Right I’m going to sort this shit out once and for all.’”
According to Wharton, Harry then confronted the offending soldiers and warned severe discipline unless they stopped their threats. Lance Corporal Wharton’s harassment ended immediately after.
Of course, our Harry (is it too soon to call him ours? Yes? No? I’m going with no) was only doing what any decent human being should do. Unfortunately, based on what Lance Corporal Wharton wrote in his book, homophobia was a persisting problem for him until the prince’s arrival.
Reportedly, the two became friends and from that we now have this awesome anecdote:
‘Harry happened to mention that he and his brother had been told they were gay icons. I laughed and told him that I didn’t think that was the case. He became really adamant saying, “What? What? We are! Our press people told us.”
‘Harry then asked if he couldn’t be a gay icon because he was ginger. It was all very funny.’
Aw, Harry. Gay icon, ginger, whatever. You’re still our favorite prince.
Sorry. SECOND favorite.
Image via Getty.
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