Prince Harry hated “woke up bullshit” before meeting Meghan Markle, a new book claims.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, is said to have not been a fan of “all that politically correct stuff” before meeting Meghan, 41, and enjoyed sharing jokes that “we’re no longer allowed to make.”
The claims of one of Harry’s ‘Eton contemporaries’ are made in a new biography, Gilded Youth by Tom Quinn, News Week reported.
The book reportedly quotes the unnamed classmate: “He was funny, a little cynical, and good company, because like the rest of us, he used to make jokes that we’re not allowed to make anymore.”
The claims come after the duke was accused of being awake as he has advocated for new causes in recent years.
The Duke of Sussex’s unnamed former colleague said young Harry was not a fan of what he described as “wake nonsense” and was not politically correct before meeting the Duchess of Sussex (the couple pictured in Dublin, 2018).
The former Etonian is said to have accused Harry of turning into a ‘Guardian-reading tree hugger’ after meeting Meghan, suggesting the former Suits actress was the person behind his transformation.
He said, “He rarely, if ever, talked about global warming. He was a Tim-Nice-but-Dim sort of character who liked to p***** with his Army and Eton buddies, shoot a little and fish and was otherwise unremarkable.”
Since stepping down as a senior member of the royal family, Harry has spoken out on a variety of causes and issues he rarely commented on before.
An ‘Eton contemporary’ of Prince Harry has reportedly told biographer Tom Quinn that the Duke of Sussex, now 38, used to make the jokes ‘that we are no longer allowed to make’. The Duke’s unnamed former colleague suggested Meghan Markle was the reason behind Harry’s transformation into a “Guardian-reading tree hugger,” as written in the new book Gilded Youth
His more recent attempts to address these issues have led some people to label the Duke awake.
Last year, royal expert Angela Levin claimed that Harry and Meghan were “trying to create an alternative awakened royal family.”
In his £100 million Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, the Duke discussed how he’s tackled his own unconscious biases in recent years and has since encouraged royals to do the same.
In an interview promoting his bombshell memoir Spare in January, Harry former NFL player Michael Strahan said the royal family needed to educate itself about unconscious biases if the monarchy was to modernize and survive.
Harry said he wanted the royals to survive, but that a better understanding of race would be “hugely beneficial” to them.
He added, “I think the same process I went through regarding my own unconscious biases would be immensely helpful to them.”
“It is not racism, but unconscious bias which, if not confronted, not acknowledged, if not learned and not allowed to grow from, can lead to racism. And as I understand it, we all want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”
Harry has also appeared on panels and in videos for new mental health platforms speaking about the importance of “peak mental fitness.”
Last July, he appeared in a video encouraging people to focus on “bending their minds” rather than fixing them to “unlock the greatness within them.”
In a film for the $4.7 billion mental health startup project BetterUp, he shared insight into how he maintains his own mental health.
“We all have greatness in us,” says the father-of-two at the beginning of the five-minute short film. “Mental fitness helps us unlock it. It’s an ongoing practice, one where you approach your mind as something to bend, not to fix.’
Another reason he’s committed to ending global warming in recent years, claiming that climate change and mental health are two of the biggest issues facing the world in a series on Apple TV.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey on The Me You Can’t See: A Path Forward, he said, “With kids growing up in today’s world, pretty depressing, right, depending on where you live, your homeland is either on fire, either houses or forests are razed to the ground under water.
“Climate change plays a really big part in this, as does social media, and we just don’t — well, I mean, I know a lot of people are doing their best to solve these problems — but that whole kind of analogy of having a mop the bathroom when the bath is too full, instead of just turning off the tap.’
Gilded Youth by Tom Quinn, published by Biteback, price: £15