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Prince Harry criticizes First Amendment

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News Desk

Updated on June 3, 2021

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The Duke appeared to criticize the first amendment – the right to free speech – while chatting to actor Dax Shepherd and producer Monica Padman, saying: “I’ve got so much I want to say about the First Amendment as I sort of understand it, but it is bonkers.”

According to MSN and Fox News, during the interview, the Duke of Sussex expressed surprise at the attention he received from photographers while staying at film director Tyler Perry’s Beverly Hills estate.

Mr. Shepard, an American actor, noted that the First Amendment preserves press freedom, “and in some ways, it should,” since it is critical to democracy.

“What is our human right as an individual and as a family?” he asked. “There’s no public interest in you taking your kids for a walk down the beach. … News should stay as news. What has happened in today’s world is the news has been hijacked and used to commercially benefit a small group of people.

“I don’t want to start, sort of, going down the First Amendment route because that’s a huge subject and one in which I don’t understand because I’ve only been here for a short period of time,” he continued. “But you can find a loophole in anything. And you can capitalize or exploit what’s not said rather than uphold what is said.

Harry’s remarks sparked outrage on social media.

“Nice that he can say that,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, tweeted, “Well I just doubled the size of my Independence Day party.”

Candace Owens, a Republican political activist, tweeted, “Sunday riddle: How many more Hollywood-style interviews will Prince Harry and Meghan Markle give before they finally achieve the privacy they claim to be so desperate for?”

Jack Posobiec, an online celebrity and right-wing activist tweeted, “Prince Harry is attacking America’s First Amendment. Tells you everything you need to know.”

Nigel Farage, a Brexit campaigner in the United Kingdom, tweeted, “For Prince Harry to condemn the USA’s First Amendment shows he has lost the plot. Soon he will not be wanted on either side of the pond.”

Some defended him on social media, with one person saying, “I don’t care for Prince Harry, not after what he did and is continuing to do, but I see his point a little.

“A lot of cyber bullies, instigators and slanderous fakes take advantage of the free speech rule when it was intended to protect the dignity of expressions, press, etc.”

According to The Independent and MSN, some royal staff in the United Kingdom even advocated for Harry and his wife Meghan Markle to be stripped of their titles after hearing Harry’s statements on the podcast. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Friday, royal writer Katie Nicholl stated that hearing Harry’s statements in the podcast interview left the royal family “distressed and angry.”

In January 2020, Prince Harry and his wife, American actress Meghan Markle, announced that they will relinquish their positions as senior members of the royal family and go to California.

On the podcast, Harry, who is the father to two-year-old Archie and is expecting a baby girl with wife Meghan, also stated that he wants to “break the cycle” of his royal upbringing’s “pain and suffering” as he raises his own children.

The duke compared being a member of the Royal Family to “a mixture between The Truman Show and being in a zoo”