Prince Harry reveals 'the biggest mistake' of his life: 'So ashamed'

Prince Harry has revealed the "biggest mistake" of his life during the third episode of his Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, which was released on Thursday. During the episode, Harry touched on the moment he wore a Nazi uniform to a party in 2005, saying he was "ashamed" by the move.

The Duke of Sussex wore the costume, which included a swastika armband, to a "colonial and native" dress-up party. He ended up on the front page of The Sun with the headline reading, "Harry the Nazi."

Prince Harry, pictured here in 2005
Prince Harry, pictured here in 2005, has revealed what was the "biggest mistake" of his life, in the third episode of the Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries. Photo: Getty

Harry apologised for the outfit days later, saying, "I am very sorry if I caused any offence or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologise."

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Unsurprisingly, however, the mistake has followed him around ever since, with the Duke telling the Netflix cameras, "It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life."

"I felt so ashamed afterwards. All I wanted to do was make it right."

Prince Harry on the front cover of The Sun in a Nazi uniform
Harry spoke of the moment he wore a Nazi uniform to a party in 2005, saying he was "ashamed" by the move. Photo: Getty

He shared that he spoke to the then-Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and went to Berlin to speak to a Holocaust survivor to try and make amends.

"I could have got on and ignored it and made the same mistakes over and over in my life, but I learnt from that," he said.

The BBC reported at the time that Mr Sacks said that while Harry's costume was in poor taste, "I note that Prince Harry has recognised this."

Meghan and Harry accuse media of 'destroying' them with racist attacks

Prince Harry sits with his head in his hands with a pregnant Meghan Markle
Prince Harry shared that the royal family questioned why Meghan should be "protected" following countless racist headlines and stalking by paparazzi. Photo: Netflix

It comes as both Meghan and Harry accused the media of "destroying" them with racist attacks in the same episode of the docuseries.

Prince Harry shared that the royal family questioned why Meghan should be "protected" following countless racist headlines and stalking by paparazzi when the news of their relationship first broke.

Harry shared that the advice he received from the palace was, "Don't say anything."

"So, it was almost like a rite of passage, and some of the members of the royal family were like: 'My wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?'" he said.

"I said: 'The difference here is the race element.'"

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Headlines from newspapers and websites flashed on screen, including an infamous Daily Mail headline that read: "Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton."

Meghan responded to the headline, saying, "Firstly, I’m not from Compton, I’ve never lived in Compton, so it’s factually incorrect. But why do you have to make a dig at Compton?"

Harry added, "My son, my daughter, my children are mixed race, and I’m really proud of that. When my kids grow up, and they look back at this moment, and they turn to me and say, ‘What did you do in this moment?’, I want to be able to give them an answer."

Meghan shared that she hoped the media coverage might improve after the wedding, saying, "But truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they were still going to find a way to destroy me."

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