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Dominic West has explained why he no longer speaks to Prince Harry despite the pair becoming friendly during a charity trek in 2013.
Nine years before the British actor, 54, accepted the role of Harry’s father, Charles, on Netflix drama The Crown, he went on an expedition to the South Pole with the royal. However, soon after getting home, Harry, 39, seemingly shut off contact with West due to comments he made at a press conference discussing their antics on the trip.
While speaking to reporters, West praised Harry, calling him “a great guy”, but he then proceeded to share details regarding how they celebrated reaching the South Pole, which promped the fallout.
West, who recently admitted he agonised over his decision to sign up to The Crown, said that, during the trip, Harry made “eye-wateringly rude jokes” and drank champagne out of a prosthetic leg.
“There was a lot of liquor drunk,” he told reporters, adding: “We all drank champagne out of Duncan’s favourite prosthetic legs.” Duncan Slater is a double amputee, injured in Afghanistan in 2009, who joined them on the trek. West continued: “He told some eye-wateringly rude jokes, which for a non-soldier like me was pretty shocking.”
The actor addressed these comments when asked by Times Radio if he keeps in touch with Harry. Laughing at the question, he said: “We sort of [lost touch as] I said too much in a press conference, and so we didn’t speak after that. I think I was asked what we did to celebrate when we got there and probably said too much.”
Also speaking about the expedition at the press conference, which occurred in 2014, Slater said: “Harry was a real team player. There was always something to do and he was always instigating it. There were so many wind-ups. He probably spread himself quite thin. He would spend time with each team every day.
“He was always making sure he mixed, bringing everyone to the fore. It was very nice as he was as tired as everybody else.”
During the same Times Radio interview, West’s Crown co-star Jonathan Pryce, who plays Prince Philip, revealed Princess Anne watches the show – and said he apologised to her for agreeing to play her father.
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“When I was made a knight and went to Windsor, and it was Princess Anne who dubbed me, and I was in the middle of playing her father, there’d been intimations that she’d seen some of it,” Pryce recalled.
Dominic West plays Charles in ‘The Crown’, and years before went on a South Pole expedition with Harry
(Netflix)
“And so she put the sword lightly on the shoulder, and I stood up and I said – thinking she was thinking, you know – I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to say to you… um… sorry?’ And she said, ‘Why? It’s done now.’”
Pryce added: “Now, whether she meant I was saying sorry for being here tonight, or sorry for, y’know, you’ve played my father and it’s done the way you’ve done it, whatever. It was quite an amusing moment, for me at least.”
The Crown is available to stream on Netflix.
