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DUKE DUPED
PRINCE Harry spoke openly of his agony over Megxit in a call from hoaxers posing as activist Greta Thunberg.
He also claimed that President Donald Trump had “blood on his hands” in the chat with Russian pranksters.
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The Duke of Sussex was duped into saying he was “completely separate” from most of the Royal Family in calls recorded by the pranksters.
And he joked: “I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it’s made up to be.”
Two notorious Russian jokers fooled him into believing he was talking to 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and her dad.
Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov — AKA Vovan and Lexus — twice spoke to Harry, 35, on the landline at his luxury bolthole on Vancouver Island, Canada.
Sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one
Prince Harry
The conversations were on New Year’s Eve and January 22.
One of the calls was recorded and published on YouTube and Facebook on Monday night by the hoaxers with an animated cartoon of Harry and Greta.
In both calls Harry opened up to the fake Greta about the tension at the heart of the Royal Family.
In one, he says: “You can call me whatever you want — Harry is fine.” He then speaks about how hard it was for him and Meghan, 38, to quit Britain.
He says: “Um, it’s, that’s probably a conversation for another time, there’s lots of layers to it and lots of pieces to the puzzle.
“But sometimes the right decision isn’t always the easy one.
I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it’s made out to be!
Prince Harry
“And this decision certainly wasn’t the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son.
“And I think there’s a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first.
“But, yeah, it’s a tricky one, but we will start a new life.”
Asked by the prankster playing Greta’s dad Svante if normal life was worse than royal life, Harry replies: “Oh no, I think it’s much better (chuckles).
WHAT HARRY TOLD HOAXERS
ON TRUMP
'The mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry is so big in America, he has blood on his hands. But Trump will want to meet you to make him look better but he won't want to have a discussion about climate change with you because you will outsmart him.'
ON MEGXIT
'I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it's made out to be! But sometimes the right decision isn't always the easy one. And this decision certainly wasn't the easy one but it was the right decision for our family, the right decision to be able to protect my son. And I think there's a hell of a lot of people around the world that can identify and respect us for putting our family first.'
ON CLIMATE
'Unfortunately, the world is being led by some very sick people, so people like yourselves and (the) younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference. People need to be woken up and the only way to wake people up from what effectively is a consciousness crisis is, I think, you need to be doing extreme things. What you need to do is make real big changes that actually shock people, and it's that shock factor that wakes people up.'
ON PRINCE ANDREW
'I have very little to say on that. But whatever he has done or hasn't done, is completely separate from me and my wife. We operate in a way of inclusivity and we are focusing on community. And so we are completely separate from the majority of my family.'
ON BORIS
'I think he is a good man, so you are one of few people who can reach into his soul and get him to feel and believe in you. But you have to understand that because he has been around for so long like all of these other people, they are already set in their ways. They believe what they want to believe, they believe what they have been told. So that is what you're up against, up against changing habits, as you know.'
ON THE ELECTION
'The fact that our choice was between those two individuals in my mind, I think, probably creates more of an observation that the system itself might be broken. There's a lot that the leaders of today can learn and can listen to people like yourself.'
ON PRIVATE JETS
'Unfortunately there is very few alternatives. We have to fly on commercial planes all over the world. Nowhere near as much as most people who do it for a night or weekends. Certainly for my family, to protect my family, from these people, as you can well understand. I have to put protections and safety of my family first and these people are never-ending.'
ON HIMSELF
'I was in the military for ten years so I'm more normal than my family would like to believe. But certainly being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not have been able to do. And seeing as everyone under the age of 35 or 36, seems to be carrying out an activist's role, gives us the opportunity to try and make more of a difference without being criticised.'
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“You forget, I was in the military for ten years so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe.
“But certainly being in a different position now gives us the ability to say things and do things that we might not have been able to do.
“And seeing as everyone under the age of 35 or 36, seems to be carrying out an activist’s role, gives us the opportunity to try and make more of a difference without being criticised (chuckles).
The hoaxers joke about “Greta” reading about the royals and Harry replies: “I can assure you, marrying a Prince or Princess is not all it’s made out to be!”
They ask about reports of Harry being “stripped” of his royal titles by the Queen after he and Meghan decided to step back.
I was in the military for ten years so I’m more normal than my family would like to believe
Prince Harry
Harry replies: “No, no, again you mustn’t believe what you read, no one has stripped us of our titles.
“Because of a technicality within the family, if we are earning money separately from within the family structure, then we obviously have been asked not to use our titles in order to make money, which we would never do.
“But the press managed to jump on that to make it look like we had been stripped.”
Asked about the scandal involving his uncle Prince Andrew’s friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Harry says: “I have very little to say on that.
“But whatever he has done or hasn’t done, is completely separate from me and my wife. We operate in a way of inclusivity and we are focusing on community. And so we are completely separate from the majority of my family.”
Harry on Trump
THE hoaxers’ second phone call to Harry came after President Donald Trump had refused to be pictured with the real Greta at a summit.
Told on the tape by the hoax “Greta” that Mr Trump had run away from her, Harry replied: “What a surprise.
“But Trump will want to meet you to make him look better but he won’t want to have a discussion about climate change with you because you will outsmart him.
“Whether you have an option to meet President Trump or an option to meet Boris Johnson, I think I would always.
“It’s far more important to have an open dialogue and have conversation with these people than not."
He also said: "The mere fact that Donald Trump is pushing the coal industry is so big in America, he has blood on his hands."
Harry on Boris
HARRY urged the hoaxer to “look into the soul” of PM Boris Johnson.
He said: “I think he is a good man, so you are one of few people who can reach into his soul and get him to feel and believe in you.
“But you have to understand that because he has been around for so long like all of these other people, they are already set in their ways.
“They believe what they want to believe, they believe what they have been told.
“What you are now saying to them is not only inconvenient but is completely against everything they have ever believed.
“So that is what you’re up against, up against changing habits, as you know.”
Harry revealed he and Meghan have given up on their dream of creating a foundation to help with their climate change and humanitarian work.
He says: “I think at the moment, my wife and I, we were being directed towards starting a foundation but we actually decided there is probably enough foundations out there doing amazing work.
“And there’s a hell of a lot of money being passed around the world and there are so many problems but we thought we’d just take a moment and see if there was some form of other organisation or different entity we could create that could bring people together, rather than us just starting a foundation. We don’t think the world needs necessarily another foundation from us.
“So we are just taking a little bit more time to think about how we can use our platform and how we can use our voice to try and encourage real change and real difference as opposed to, you know, small incremental changes.
“As we all know, the world’s problems seem to be getting bigger and seem to be happening far quicker . . . I think the solutions are far quicker to enable as well, but there needs to be a real shift in mindset. We try and do our best.
“I’ve spent many, many years being criticised by the media for doing all sorts of things and trying to change the way we think, um, and I can sympathise but at the same time applaud the work that all of you are doing because it’s not an easy time and the world is a troubled place and can be very easy to give up and I think what you guys are doing absolutely remarkable.
“Unfortunately the world is being led by some very sick people, so people like yourselves and younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference.”
Asked by the fake “Greta” about the pressure of dealing with the media, he said: “The best advice I can give on that is to be able to see through the fear.
“What they don’t understand is the battle we are fighting against them is far more than just us.
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Elton and Bernie hoodwinked by hoaxers
PRINCE Harry’s hoaxers have been hoodwinking the great and good with bogus calls for years and count Elton John and Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix among their many victims.
Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov — aka Vovan and Lexus — have also duped US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Russians post their phone chats online to their YouTube channel vovan222prank.
Last month, they convinced Sanders he was chatting to Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg.
They promised him she could arrange for Kanye West and Billie Eilish to perform a “cool rap” for his Democrat campaign.
Delighted Sanders replied: “They would be willing to do something on the internet?”
In 2015, they had Elton believing he was chatting to Vladimir Putin about laws on gay rights in Russia.
The singer, believing he was talking through an interpreter, said it was “a great privilege to . . . speak to one of the most influential people in the whole world”.
President Putin did call Elton to clear up the gaffe.
In another audio, the pair tricked US congresswoman Maxine Waters into believing she was helping to support people in need on the fictional island of Chunga-Changa.
The pranksters deny claims they are “Putin Puppets” who target Western celebrities and politicians to make them look stupid.
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“So I think one of the, what I’ve always believed, one of the strongest ways to change mindset and be able to raise consciousness and be able to create self-awareness among people, is to challenge the media and say you have a responsibility and you are accountable for everything you are feeding people because you are brainwashing people, so this is far bigger than just us.”
Last night a spokesman for Harry refused to comment.
But royal sources insisted it was “completely natural” for him to want to talk to Greta and share his thoughts on climate change.
Queen in call with bogus PM
BOTH the Queen and Princess Diana were targeted by cruel phone hoaxers.
Montreal radio host Pierre Brassard got through to Her Majesty in 1995 after officials believed he was Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
The Queen spoke to Brassard for 17 minutes about various subjects from her Halloween plans to the Quebec referendum.
A year later Princess Diana was hoaxed by broadcaster Victor Lewis-Smith who posed as Prof Stephen Hawking.
He amazingly got through the Buckingham Palace switchboard after pretending to be the famous theoretical physicist’s PR man.
Lewis-Smith then used electronic voice technology to imitate Hawking.
The conversation included banter about Prince Charles, Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton, and Diana even used the F-word during the 18-minute chat.
When asked about “Wills’s” welfare, Diana says: “Oh, he’s doing very well at Eton.”
The cheeky fake Hawking replied: “No. I meant Will Carling”, who the Princess was alleged to be having an affair with.
Con 'favour'
By Dan Wootton, Executive Editor
PRINCE Harry’s ego is probably a little bit bruised today.
But he needs to remember being pranked is a royal tradition that saw his grandmother and his late mother caught out by hoaxers too.
Indeed, the Russian pair might have just done the Duke a favour by releasing this call with “Greta”.
It provides the most fascinating insight into Harry’s mind during Megxit.
And the idea that his wife is somehow pulling the strings behind the scenes is blown out of the water.
It’s Harry who wants to change the world by taking on the US president, the establishment, the media, his family and our political system.
The next year is going to be very interesting.
Prince Edward praised for friendly chat with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry as Kate and William took their seats
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