Prince Harry’s 26th birthday last month was expected to be a milestone of royal significance. It may not have been entirely coincidental that in the same week, he also piloted solo a £35 million RAF Apache helicopter for the first time.
The symbolism was obvious: at last, this immensely likeable young man was showing the world just how responsible and mature he can be.
But in the days since his birthday, he has revelled in at least two alcohol-fuelled nights out which have raged on until 5am.
Last Saturday, he staggered out of Raffles nightclub in central London looking bleary-eyed and dishevelled in a tuxedo at the end of an evening which began with a dinner for Olympic champions at the Grosvenor House Hotel. There, he is reported to have been taken with a young brunette who was cheerfully informed by his cousin Zara Phillips that he is very much single.
A few days earlier, he indulged in a drinking session that lasted well over eight hours, during which he knocked back beers and smoked until 5am, surrounded by pretty, well-born female admirers at a fancy dress charity party in Dulwich, South-East London.
Dressed as a lumberjack in red check shirt and braces, he was also inhaling what clubbers call ‘hippy crack’ (nitrous oxide, or laughing gas) from filled balloons being sold at £1.50 each.
Breathing the gas gives a two-minute ‘high’ — a ‘head-rush’, according to one of the partygoers — and, when combined with alcohol, people have been known to pass out.
Read more: dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic … z11AIxND3l
