Prince Harry took cocaine when he was 17 and killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan, it has been reported. The reports are the latest during a day of revelations from his soon-to-be published book, Spare.
According to Sky News, which says it has seen a copy of the book, Harry admits to taking cocaine as a teenager.
The broadcaster has reported that, on pages 112 and 113 of the book, he writes: "Of course I had been taking cocaine at that time. At someone's house, during a hunting weekend, I was offered a line, and since then I had consumed some more.
"It wasn't very fun, and it didn't make me feel especially happy as seemed to happen to others, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective. To feel. To be different.
"I was a seventeen-year-old willing to try almost anything that would alter the pre-established order. At least, that's what I was trying to convince myself of."
Sky News also reports that the Duke of Sussex confirms in the book that he killed 25 people during his time serving in Afghanistan. He spent 10 years in the Army and during that time completed two frontline tours in the war-torn country.
He wrote: "Most soldiers don't know exactly how many kills they have to their credit. Under battle conditions, you often fire indiscriminately. However, in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two tours of duty was recorded and time-stamped.
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"I could always tell exactly how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed essential for me not to be afraid of that figure. Among the many things I learned in the Armed Forces, one of the most important was to be accountable for my own actions."
He continues: "So my number: twenty-five. It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either.
"Naturally, I would have preferred not to have that figure on my military resume, or in my head, but I would also have preferred to live in a world without the Taliban, a world without war. However, even for a casual practitioner of wishful thinking like myself, there are realities that cannot be changed."
