Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley has defended Prince Harry and insisted he wasn’t “boasting” about killing 25 Taliban troopers.
In the Duke of Sussex’s autobiography, Spare, the 38-year-old discussed the number of Taliban fighters he personally killed during his military service.
He explained that in the heat of combat he did not think of the 25 as “people” but as “chess pieces” that had been taken off the board.
During Wednesday’s episode of the ITV morning stalwart, Richard Madeley came to the royal’s defence, but argued that he should have been more “careful” about what he shared.
He told co-host Susanna Reid: “If you read the full extract in the book when he talks about what happened in Afghanistan, it’s clear he’s not boasting.
“He’s trying to make sense of it and give us an idea about why he’s processed the fact that he thinks he’s killed 25 human beings.”
Madeley then weighed in on Prince Harry’s “chess” analogy, saying: “The thing is if you talk like that, and even in the fullest content it makes logical sense, if you talk like that and go into those areas people are going to pluck out headlines, you’ve got to be so careful with what you go into and what you approach.”
The presenter’s comments come as the Duke of Sussex’s autobiography became the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, with 400,000 copies snapped up so far across hardback, ebook and audio formats on its first day of publication, its publisher has said.
Bookshops in the UK opened early on Tuesday to offer Harry’s book - but queues were sparse after leaks ahead of the publication, with industry experts predicting Spare would be one of the best-selling pre-order titles of the past decade.
