In today's issue

Harry won’t file complaint over naked photos

Palace officials say the prince is busy in Afghanistan and will not pursue a complaint relating to his private life

By Christie D’Zurilla, Los Angeles Times
Published: 11:25 September 29, 2012

Image Credit: REUTERS
Britain's Prince Harry gestures after passing the Apache helicopter flight line at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, in this file picture taken September 7, 2012. Afghanistan's Taliban claimed responsibility on September 15, 2012, for an attack on Camp Bastion, which U.S. officials said killed two American Marines, saying it was in response to a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad. Britain's Prince Harry was at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack, but was unharmed. REUTERS/John Stillwell/Pool/Files (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS ROYALS)

Prince Harry and the royals won’t be filing an official complaint regarding those naked Las Vegas photos that were published in Britain’s Sun the week after appearing online around the world via TMZ. Seems work comes first.

“Prince Harry is currently focused entirely on his deployment in Afghanistan, so to pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction,” said a statement from St. James’ Palace obtained by the BBC and other outlets.

The royal family, through the Press Complaints Commission, had warned UK media that publication of the photos would constitute an invasion of privacy — a warning the Sun ignored. So it looks as if the Sun got lucky.

Still, said the palace, “We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” The prince was photographed au naturel — no full frontal — via cellphone after a game of strip billiards. In contrast to the Harry decision, the palace is pursuing legal action against a French magazine over photos of a topless Catherine, Duchess of York and Harry’s sister-in-law, that surfaced earlier this month. Those shots were taken from about a half-mile away from the private Provence, France, home where Prince William and his wife were vacationing. Harry, who flies Apache helicopters, started his second tour of duty in Afghanistan the first week of September. A week after he was deployed to Britain’s Camp Bastion in the southern part of the country, the base’s perimeter was breached by Taliban fighters wearing US Army uniforms.

According to the British defence secretary, Capt. Harry Wales received a bit of extra security once the four-hour firefight started.

“He is serving there as an ordinary officer but clearly there are additional security arrangements in place that recognise that he could be a target himself specifically as a result of who he is,” Phillip Hammond told the BBC on Sept. 17. Indeed, after the attack, a Taliban spokesman reiterated the group’s desire to kill or capture the third in line to the UK throne, according to LA Times correspondent Laura King, as well as stating that the action was in retaliation for a film insulting Islam.

“There are many other foreign bases ... but we stormed this one because of Prince Harry’s presence there,” the spokesman said in a video.

Two US Marines were killed in the attack and aircraft and hangars were damaged.