Filius Regi: The Fall of Prince Harry is a non-fiction book by Lela Chehade. The book dives deep into Prince Harry’s tragic arc, and the story of how, with the help of Meghan Markle, Harry used the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, to build his brand and avoid accountability. Filius Regi is available on Amazon in KDP and paperback. ----more---- First excerpt: The truth about "Prince Harry the soldier": he slept through the Camp Bastion attack. Harry’s other identity, considering his main one is “Diana’s boy”, is “Harry, the soldier”. After passing his A-levels,[1] Harry decided to join the military, a decision he’ll be hailed for despite the military being a typical career path for male spares in European monarchies. Even his now-disgraced uncle, Andrew of Jeffrey Epstein infamy,[2] had trained as a naval officer at Britannia Royal Naval College, become a pilot, and served in the Falklands War.[3] The military was the one place that could provide Harry with much-needed structure and discipline. In late 2003, he enrolled in a preparatory course in the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Assessment Center with the goal of starting the forty-four-week training course in May of 2005. In April of 2006, Harry graduated from Sandhurst with the rank of Second Lieutenant in Blues and Royals. In a lifetime of spin and image building, Harry’s desire, and his arguably selfish need, to serve on the front lines remains a fact. In early 2007, plans for his first deployment to Iraq were made. But following insurgents threatening to target British troops just to kill the “handsome prince”,[4] the Army canceled Harry’s deployment.[5] Harry’s reaction showcased that he was not ready to serve; he’d reportedly thrown a tantrum, pointing out the unfairness of having “dragged my sorry arse in Sandhurst for a year” and then not being allowed to "get out on operations”.[6] Serving isn’t a reward for completing military training. Serving in the military is not self-serving; it should never be considered an opportunity for a person, regardless of their background, to prove themselves. Being on the front lines stops being serving when it starts endangering fellow soldiers’ lives – something both The Queen and Charles acknowledged.[7] One serves not where and when one wants, but where one is needed and won’t cause harm to the cause one is serving. This incident highlights two uncomfortable truths: on the front lines, Harry was a liability, and the British Army was aware of it. And yet, months later, the Ministry of Defense gave in to Harry’s ravenous need for validation and deployed him to Afghanistan. On the fourteenth of December 2007, Harry was secretly flown to Afghanistan amid a media blackout deal, coordinated between the British Ministry of Defense and the major UK news outlets.[8] There, he was stationed at a British-controlled base in Helmand Province, which was part of a wider, NATO-led, multinational combat environment. Harry’s unit frequently coordinated with Gurkha soldiers, Afghan National Army troops, and coalition allies from NATO member states. Ten weeks later, on the twenty-eighth of February 2008, the Drudge Report, of Monica Lewinsky infamy, broke the news of Harry’s presence in Afghanistan.[9] The Ministry of Defense, terrified and rightfully so that Taliban fighters would actively target Harry’s unit, ordered the prince’s immediate extraction.[10] A lot could be said about the Drudge Report endangering a coalition unit on active duty for clicks and clout,[11] but would it be fair to hold such a publication to higher standards than the British Ministry of Defense? Indeed, the real issue was always why the need for secrecy wasn't a deterrent for the deployment. Why was one man’s need for validation deemed more important than the lives of the troops? The military tour was over; the media tour began. A whole campaign hailing the hero prince was rolled out: Harry gave interviews, footage of his tour was released to the public, and he was widely praised as brave and humble. Harry came out of this experience more confident than ever, viewing himself as a real soldier whose life was ruined, once again, by the British media instead of by a right-wing American publication. He joined the Army Air Corps and started his pilot training in January 2009. By August 2012, it was time for another Harry scandal, and this time it involved the crown jewels, the ones that should never be on public display. On the twenty-second, TMZ published photos of a completely naked Harry cupping his groin in a Vegas hotel suite during a game of strip billiards.[12] The world exploded. Somehow, the one incident that could have been, and should have been, labeled a youthful indiscretion and addressed in a short statement, then forgotten, became an international scandal. On the seventh of September, the British Ministry of Defense issued a public statement confirming that Captain Wales had flown into Camp Bastion to begin a four-month tour as an Apache co-pilot gunner.[13] The media’s tone immediately shifted from “drunken naked party prince” to “combat veteran royal risking his life for Queen and Country”.[14] Whether the deployment was planned before the publication of Harry’s naked pictures or concocted in the days after it in yet another effort to save Harry’s reputation, there is no way to know for a fact. And with no hard evidence to back either one of the theories, one can draw one’s own informed conclusion. A powerful argument for a deployment for optics can be made. Harry’s deployment plans to Iraq were canceled when it became clear that his presence would put the troops at risk. His first deployment to Afghanistan ended when the Drudge Report exposed his presence in Helmand Province. The British Ministry of Defense had then said: “This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier”.[15] This statement clearly indicates that the concerned authorities believed the disclosure of Harry’s presence in an active combat zone posed a threat to the lives of the serving troops. And still, seventeen days after TMZ first published the prince’s naked pictures, the Ministry of Defense was volunteering information about Harry’s presence in an active war zone. Also, the seventh of September 2012 – when the deployment was announced – was the day after the fifteenth anniversary of Diana’s funeral and of the image of twelve-year-old Harry walking behind his mother’s coffin. On that morning, the British public was emotionally raw, primed to accept the news of Harry’s deployment as heroic without questioning the timing or the reasons it was being announced this time, rather than being kept a secret. “Safe House”[16] On the tenth, a Taliban spokesperson warned Reuters that they were using all their strength to get rid of Harry[17] and had “informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him.”[18] These threats were not publicly acknowledged by the British Ministry of Defense. And Harry, a declared target of the Taliban whose simple presence endangered the lives of fellow soldiers, was not extracted. Tragedy struck on the night of the fourteenth of September. Camp Bastion was attacked by fifteen Taliban insurgents, dressed in U.S. Army uniforms, who breached the eastern perimeter fence.[19] During the attack, two U.S. Marines were killed, seventeen UK and American personnel were wounded, six aircraft were destroyed, and support infrastructure was obliterated.[20] The material losses were deemed the worst incurred in a single day since the Vietnam War.[21] Throughout it all, Prince Harry slept.[22] Questions about Harry’s security and his whereabouts during the attacks were immediately raised. British Secretary of State for Defense Philippe Hammond declared that, while Harry faced the same risk in combat as any Apache helicopter pilot, he benefited from “additional security arrangements”.[23] These arrangements were enacted “once we knew on Friday night that the perimeter at Bastion had been breached”,[24] and Harry was moved to a secure position under effective guard.[25] American General Sturdevant confirmed that Harry had “a place identified as a safe house in case the base came under attack”.[26] [1] Miranda Pell “A-Levels Results of Royal Family Including William, Harry, Kate, Meghan”, Chronicle Live, August 14, 2025. [2] Max Mada, “Prince Andrew ‘Spent Weeks’ at Epstein Home – Witness”, BBC News, January 6, 2014. [3] Mathew Moore, “Prince Harry Will Not Be Deployed to Iraq”, The Telegraph, May 16, 2007. [4] Ibid. [5] Moore, “Prince Harry Will Not Be Deployed to Iraq”. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid. [8] Bob Satchwell, “Why We Agreed on a Media Blackout on Harry”, The Guardian, February 29, 2008. [9] “Prince’s Deployment Kept Secret by Media”, CBS News, February 29, 2008. [10] D’arcy Dorna, “Defense Chief Says Prince Harry Being Withdrawn from Afghanistan for Security Reasons”, Record Online. [11] Ben Dowell, “NoW’s Wallis Attacks Drudge Over Harry”, The Guardian, February 29, 2009. [12] “Prince Harry Naked Photos During Vegas Rager”, TMZ, August 22, 2012. [13] Max Foster and Laura Smith-Spark, “UK’s Prince Harry Deployed to Afghanistan”, CNN, September 7, 2012. [14] “Prince Harry Deployed to Afghanistan”, BBC News, September 7, 2012. [15] Haroon Saddique, “Prince Harry to Be Recalled from Afghanistan”, The Guardian, February 29, 2008. [16] Jonathan Owen, “Prince Harry Slept Through Entire Camp Bastion Attack”, Independent, October 4, 2024. [17] “Afghan Taliban Threaten to Kidnap and Kill Prince Harry
