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Prince Harry has apparently been tricked into speaking about "Megxit", Donald Trump, and the royal's bitter battle with the tabloid press by Russian hoaxers posing as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and her father, it has been reported.
The Duke of Sussex also spoke about British prime minister Boris Johnson in two phone calls, said to have been made by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, to his rented Vancouver Island mansion on New Year's Eve and January 22nd, The Sun said.
The royal, seemingly duped into thinking he was talking to Thunberg and her father, Svante, reportedly spoke of a “bullying” tabloid media trying to “sink” him and his wife, Meghan.
In reports of the conversations, Harry said Mr Trump had “blood on his hands” in relation to the climate crisis; that the British political system was “broken”, and that his decade serving in the military had made him “more normal than my family would like to believe”.
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A spokeswoman for the Sussexes declined to comment when asked if there was any doubt the voice was that of Harry.
The fact the hoaxers, known as Vovan and Lexus, appear to have got through to the royal on his Canadian landline has raised questions over the security and screening measures in place for Harry and Meghan as they step down as working royals to become financially independent.
The couple have a 15-strong team of staff based at Buckingham Palace, but it will be disbanded when the couple transition to their new lives on March 31st, with some staff being made redundant and others redeployed in other royal households. No details about any staff in Canada have been made public.
The right to the audio recordings had been “transferred” to British media, the hoaxers said in response to a Guardian inquiry, in which they confirmed The Sun’s report.
‘Megxit’ move
In the audio, excerpts of which have been published by The Sun, a person, reportedly Harry, says of the decision to stand down as a senior royal: “Sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one. And this decision certainly wasn’t the easy one, but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son. And I think there’s a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first.”
On Mr Trump, he says: "I think the mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry so big in America, he has blood on his hands." He says he is confident "things will change" on the climate agenda within 10 years: "But we can't wait five to 10 years, so I think if Donald Trump can become president of the United States of America, then anything's possible, right?"
He continues: “You forget, I was in the military for 10 years so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe.”
And he adds: “But certainly, being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not have been able to do.”
On Meghan, he tells the hoaxers: “I can assure you, marrying a prince or princess is not all it’s made up to be.”
On Prince Andrew, who has stepped back from public duties over his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he says: "I have very little to say on that. But whatever he has done or hasn't done, is completely separate from me and my wife."
He speaks of Mr Johnson being a “good man”, and tells the person posing as Thunberg: “So you are one of the few people who can reach into his soul and get him to feel and believe in you. But you have to understand that because he has been around for so long like all of these other people, they are already set in their ways.”
During the conversations, he remarks that the “world is a troubled place” and that it is “being led by some very sick people”. People need to be woken up, he says, “because at the end of the day we are all the frog that has been put in cold water and brought to the boil without realising”.
Relationship with media
Of his relationship with the media, the voice says: “What I’ve always believed, one of the strongest ways to change mindset and be able to raise consciousness and be able to create self-awareness among people, is to challenge the media and say you have a responsibility and you are accountable for everything you are feeding people because you are brainwashing people, so this is far bigger than just us.”
In separate quotes, published by Mail Online, Harry reportedly says he has been “part of a family and part of a country that is scared of the tabloid media because they have so much power and influence and no morals.
“From the moment that I found a wife that was strong enough to be able to stand up for what we believe in together, [that] has basically scared them so much that they’ve now come out incredibly angry, they’ve come out fighting, and all they will try and do now is try and destroy our reputation and try and, you know, sink us.”
He adds: “It hasn’t been very nice. It’s been horrible, but we will come out of it stronger people.”
Kuznetsov and Stolyarov have previously targeted Elton John, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and US senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. – Guardian