Prince Harry Says His ‘Past Mistakes’ Still Shape Him as He Speaks Out Against Antisemitism in the U.K.
Prince Harry Says His ‘Past Mistakes’ Still Shape Him as He Speaks Out Against Antisemitism in the U.K.
Adam EnglandThu, May 14, 2026 at 2:18 PM UTC
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Prince Harry delivering a speech in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 23, 2026
Credit: Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty
Prince Harry has spoken out against a "deeply troubling" rise in antisemitism in the U.K. after a number of violent incidents in recent months
Writing in the New Statesman, the Duke of Sussex said, "Hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice"
He reflected on his own "past mistakes" — he wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party in 2005, aged 20 — and said the experience "informs my conviction"
Prince Harry has warned of a "deeply troubling" rise in antisemitism in the U.K., saying Jewish families, children and "ordinary people" are being made to feel unsafe following a series of recent violent incidents.
"That should alarm us, but also unite us," the Duke of Sussex, 41, wrote in the British magazine New Statesman. "Because hatred directed at people for who they are, or what they believe, is not protest. It is prejudice. Recent incidents... have brought this into sharp and deeply troubling focus."
There have been a number of attacks targeting the Jewish community in London in recent weeks, while an attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur last October killed two people and left others injured.
Floral tributes left near the scene of the Manchester synagogue attack in October 2025
Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty
Harry also acknowledged what he described as his "past mistakes" and "thoughtless actions," revisiting the fallout from wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party in 2005, when he was 20 years old. The decision sparked widespread criticism at the time, with politicians calling for him to make a personal apology.
"I am acutely aware of my own past mistakes – thoughtless actions for which I have apologised, taken responsibility and learned from," he wrote. "That experience informs my conviction that clarity matters now more than ever, at a time when confusion and the distortion of truth are doing real harm – even when speaking plainly is not without consequence. It requires responsibility from all of us."
In his Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan, he called the costume “one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” saying that he felt “ashamed afterwards” and wanted to learn from it. He also reflected on the backlash in his memoir, Spare, writing: "When I saw those photos, I recognized immediately that my brain had been shut off, that perhaps it had been shut off for some time. I wanted to go around Britain knocking on doors, explaining to people: I wasn’t thinking. I meant no harm. But it wouldn’t have made any difference. Judgment was swift, harsh."
The prince said he has often spoken about "the consequences of a world in which outrage outpaces humanity," and was concerned to see the same thing happening in his home country.
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"I have always believed that we have a responsibility to stand against injustice wherever we see it, and to do so in defence of our shared humanity," he said. "That belief does not change with geography, nor does it yield to discomfort. It is precisely why I feel compelled to speak now.
"At times like these, silence is not neutrality. Silence is absence."
Prince Harry delivering a speech in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 23, 2026
Credit: Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty
Harry also acknowledged the "deep and justified alarm" over conflict in the Middle East, including in Gaza and Lebanon, and said that, "for many, the instinct to speak out, to march, to demand accountability... is both human and necessary."
But he said that "legitimate protest against state actions" exists alongside "hostility towards Jewish communities at home," explaining, "Nothing, whether criticism of a government or the reality of violence and destruction, can ever justify hostility to people of faith."
Referencing the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and the "devastating loss of life among journalists" there, he said, "The onus falls squarely on the state — not an entire people. Such actions have nothing to do with Judaism."
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He wrote, "When anger is turned toward communities — whether Jewish, Muslim, or any other — it ceases to be a call for justice and becomes something far more corrosive.
"We cannot answer injustice with more injustice," the prince finished. "If we do, we don't end the cycle, we extend it. The only way to break it is to refuse to pass it on.
"That means being unequivocal: standing against antisemitism wherever it appears, while recognising that anti-Muslim hatred and all forms of racism draw from the same well of division. They must be confronted with the same resolve."
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
