Prince Harry’s PR team were left with their “heads in their hands” after the Duke of Sussex posed with a “lunatic” at the Living Legends of Aviation Awards, according to a royal commentator.
The Duke took time for a selfie with Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe, who claims to be a distant cousin of the British Royal Family.
His royal connections have been thrown into question with the head of the family, Prince Alexander of Schaumburg-Lippe, accusing him of “harvesting our name for personal gain”.
Speaking on GB News, the Mail on Sunday’s Editor-at-Large Charlotte Griffiths branded Harry’s appearance at the event “sad”.
Charlotte Griffiths spoke on GB News
GETTY / GB NEWS
“It was pretty low-rent”, she said of the award ceremony.
“It wasn’t packed with A-listers, and Meghan didn’t go. She was looking after her kids and she may have dozed a bullet in the end.
Prince Harry (left) and German royal Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe (right)Twitter/Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe“Harry has got his amazing Hollywood PR team around him, I just don’t know what happened in the build-ip to this but they appeared to realise that it might not be the best event in the whole world because of the way her went about his appearance.
“It was quite low-key, but he did manage to get snapped with this guy and it’s a bit sad really.”
Griffiths went on to claim the photo would not have been taken had Harry not departed frontline royal duties.
“There would have been a team of people vetting him”, she said.
“Royal Family members very rarely take selfie because of this exact thing. You get some lunatic who has now put the photo all over social media.
“He will dine out on it for the rest of his life, which is something we know Harry hates.”
Harry, 39, appeared for the awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, California.
The award, made at the recommendation of John Travolta, recognises Prince Harry's role as an Apache helicopter pilot in two tours of Afghanistan in 2007 and 2012.