Prince Harry thought calling friend ‘Paki’ was ‘harmless’: ‘It was like Aussie’

Prince Harry is touching upon the time he was branded a racist over his viral video.

In 2009, the Duke of Sussex recalls how a clip of him referring to his Asian friend as ‘Paki’ created a havoc in the media.

He writes in memoir ‘Spare’: “Right at the turn of the new year, 2009, a video went viral. Me, as a cadet, three years earlier, sitting with other cadets. At an airport. Cyprus, perhaps? Or else maybe waiting to fly to Cyprus? The video was shot by me. Killing time before our flight, messing around, I panned the group, gave a running commentary on each lad, and when I came to my fellow cadet and good friend Ahmed Raza Kahn, a Pakistani, I said: Ah, our little Paki friend… I didn’t know that Paki was a slur.

Adding of his ‘unconscious bias’ Harry continues: “Growing up, I’d heard many people use that word and never saw anyone flinch or cringe, never suspected them of being racist. Neither did I know anything about unconscious bias. I was twenty-one, A awash in isolation and privilege, and if I thought anything about this word at all, I thought it was like Aussie. Harmless.”