Prince Harry is seeming ever more vulnerable, but it is hard to see who will be able to tell him to stop causing himself harm that he might regret for the rest of his life

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News Letter editorial on Monday January 9 2022:

Only three days ago this column was, like people around the world, worrying about Harry’s wellbeing.

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After his revelation of his brother, Prince William, allegedly attacking him and his excruciating description of how he lost his virginity, we wrote: “With Harry now seeming deeply troubled, this is becoming a poignant, almost tragic, episode.”

It was hard to imagine things getting worse but already they have done. Prince Harry has now talked about being responsible for 25 ‘kills’ in Afghanistan, sparking dismay and anger in the army. Dismay because the military does not talk that way. World war veterans who have spoken to this paper over the decades have almost never talked about people they killed, if any.

Anger because such a breach of etiquette, and decency, puts people in danger, from Afghan veterans to Harry’s family – and the royals. Thoughtful soldiers know they might have to kill at any moment, and that they might be killed. War is a horror, and it is beyond tasteless to talk about people whose life you end. Muslim fanatics will plot their revenge for such claims.

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Tonight Harry gave yet another interview (to Tom Bradby, who has found out what other journalists knew instinctively, that you can’t easily be friends with your story). This saga has moved beyond the self-pity of Harry and Meghan, who have every privilege conceivable. It is beyond even the staggering hypocrisy of their complaints about privacy while divulging hideous detail about their loved one’s.

It now is about Harry’s welfare. His wife is unlikely to tell him to stop causing irreparable damage to himself (and the family he plainly still loves), damage he might bitterly regret in future. So who will? He seems ever more fragile, but there are people who will make themselves, him and his wife ever richer by encouraging him to keep talking so freely.