Prince Harry was known for being a cheeky kid, and one royal bodyguard recalled the young royal leaving him “aghast” after giving him the slip.
Royal expert Charles Ray shared the hilarious story about bodyguard Ken Wharfe, a former royal staffer responsible for looking after Harry and his older brother, Prince William, in the late 80s, before becoming Princess Diana‘s bodyguard between 1988 and 1993.
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“I remember Ken Wharfe, the royal protection officer, [said] Harry would come up to him at various times and he’d say, ‘Oh, can I be a policeman today?’ And he’d actually give him a radio, and so they would talk to each other when they were at Kensington Palace,” Ray began on The Sun‘s “Royal Exclusive” podcast, per The Express.
He continued, “And actually one [day], Ken sort of decided, ‘Actually, I’d better check in where he is.’ And he was actually across the road. He was slightly older than five or seven, and he had actually gone out of the gates and across the road to a record shop. Ken was aghast at this and had to go and get him.”
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Wharfe has publicly recounted the story of Harry ditching the palace grounds and admitted he was worried about getting fired for losing track of the Duke of Sussex.
The security guard told GB News that he would think of tasks for Harry to do when boredom struck, like sending him to talk to the chauffeur in the garage, the chef, or the florist on the palace grounds. However, that was how Harry was able to sneak off by himself.
“In the end, he said, ‘Can I go down and see Aunt Jane?'” Wharfe said about Harry wanting to visit Lady Jane Fellowes, Princess Diana’s sister, who lived just outside Kensington Palace. Wharfe allowed him to go as long as he checked in on his way back.
Wharfe continued, “About 20 minutes later, I rang Jane and said, ‘Have you sent Harry back yet?’ She said, ‘I sent him back ten minutes ago.’”
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Although Harry had spells of boredom just like any kid, his upbringing was anything but normal with his parents, Princess Diana and now-King Charles, in Kensington Palace. He reflected on some early memories during a virtual book event to promote his 2023 memoir Spare. Harry joined Dr. Gabor Maté to answer reader-submitted questions.
“As a royal child, did you get to roam the castles freely, and did you find any trap doors?” Maté asked on an attendee’s behalf.
Harry laughed and replied, “That’s the assumption that there were trap doors all over castles. As kids, it was an adventure, running around that kind of a place. What an experience.”
“Not so many trap doors, lots of fun things to investigate, but I guess, it’s weird. When you’re brought up as a child in that environment, you think that is normal, but it’s not. It’s anything but normal,” Harry explained. “So no, some secret doorways and some secret cupboards. None so sophisticated as you pull a book and then all of the sudden a thing opens. I probably would have gotten stuck in there.”