Prince Harry says the comments he made about his time in Afghanistan have been taken "out of context".
Prince Harry attempts to clarify Afghan comments
The 38-year-old royal - who served in the British Army for a decade - wrote in his new memoir, 'Spare', that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during a tour in Afghanistan and even likened the Taliban fighters to "chess pieces removed from the board" but has now branded the media coverage of the story as a "dangerous lie."
He said: "Without doubt, the most dangerous lie that they have told is that I somehow boasted about the number of people that I killed in Afghanistan. I would say that if I heard anybody else or heard anyone boasting about that kind of thing, I would be angry. But it’s a lie and hopefully now that the book is out, people will be able to see the context. It’s really troubling and very disturbing that they can get away with it because they had the context. It wasn’t like here’s just one line. They had the whole section. They ripped it away and just said, here it is, he’s boasting on this … and that’s dangerous. And my words are not dangerous but the spin of my words are very dangerous."
The Duke of Sussex - who tied the knot with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in 2018 and later fled from royal duties to move to the US with her in 2020 - went on to explain that he merely wanted to "reduce the number of suicides" with the comment.
Speaking on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert', he added: "My whole goal and my attempt with sharing that detail is to reduce the number of suicides!"
Harry - who undertook two tours of the country -initially wrote: "It seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number [of people killed]. So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me."
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