Prince Harry was “completely unqualified” to speak at the United Nations headquarters in New York City earlier this week, according to a royal expert.
“Why did he speak at the UN? Because he’s Prince Harry,” British journalist Jonathan Sacerdoti told Us Weekly Thursday.
“Otherwise, without wishing to be too offensive, no one would be interested in a guy who was going through high school views on world affairs.”
The Duke of Sussex, 37, gave a keynote address Monday in honor of Nelson Mandela International Day, discussing the impact of the late apartheid activist and his own sentimental ties to Africa.
However, he also spoke about the spread of misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic, how climate change is “destroying our planet” and the impact of “rolling back constitutional rights here in the United States”.
While Sacerdoti was “certainly unimpressed” by the speech, “he can’t say” [he] was surprised.”
The broadcaster almost called the royal family a hypocrite, arguing that Harry selfishly uses the platform he stepped down from when it serves him.
“He is literally completely unqualified to tell people anything important, but instead he uses his position as someone in the British royal family to spread what he sees as an important message,” Sacerdoti said, noting that he “did not dispute whether it is an important message or not’, but ‘disputed’ by the messenger.
“If you want to use the status of being part of that royal family for what you see as charities and charities,” he added, “you have to obey their rules because that’s just kind of polite.”
The royal pundit was not alone in criticizing the address, as Republican pundit Meghan McCain wrote in a scathing Daily Mail that Harry “displayed a complete misunderstanding of the civilian life of the country he now lives in.”
During his speech, the Duke indirectly called the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade a “global attack on democracy and freedom,” which did not sit well with the conservative “View” alumnus.
“He’s lived here for 20 minutes, but he’s decided that’s what makes him an expert,” she wrote of the prince, who moved to California in March 2020 with his American wife Meghan Markle.
“The fact that one can disagree with the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling does not make it a threat to democracy. If Harry had ever voted in an American election, he might have known that,” McCain, 37, argued.
She concluded her tirade with a direct message to Harry: “This is not your homeland. In fact, my country has gone to war against yours, so that we never again have to be subjected to a royal lecture. … If it is so terrible here and our Constitution so terrible, then feel free to leave.”