Prince Harry has not actually written his best man’s speech yet, and with him in the Arctic at the moment it will not get written this week. But there is one thing of which Prince William can be certain: his younger brother says he is determined that it will make him lose his hair. Or rather, even more of it.
Just to make sure, Harry has even enlisted some help. The speech, for the wedding which Harry disclosed he thought would never happen, will mark a break with royal tradition when it is delivered with the help of two of William’s friends.
“It’s me and a couple of his friends,” Harry told the BBC. “Between the three of us we will make sure we dig him in the ribs a few times and embarrass him, make him lose some hair.” But even Harry knows he will have to pull his punches. “I will tell a few stories, but I think my grandmother will be there, so I’ll have to be selective,” he said.
“The speech will be like any normal best man’s speech. Between the three of us we will make sure people know the good times and the bad times that he’s had since he was a nipper.”
Harry, who is in Norway for a trek across the Arctic with a group of wounded servicemen, said that thoughts would inevitably turn to their late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. a. “Myself, my brother and my father, there will be all sorts of people and the rest of the family that will be no doubt be thinking about it. And I hope she would be very, very proud that the big day has come upon him.
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“We all thought that it was never going to happen for him. But it has happened, and I think everyone’s going to be very proud of him.”
Harry said that William would be only too happy if he could marry Kate Middleton without all the ceremony and fuss of a big royal wedding. “I think if he had his way he would love to have a small wedding with just his really close friends. But we are who we are.” He said that he was looking forward to welcoming Miss Middleton into the Royal Family, and that she would become the sister he never had.“A younger brother or younger sister would have been nicer, but to have a big sister is obviously very, very nice,” he said.
“I’ve got to know Kate pretty well, but now that she’s becoming part of the family, I’m really looking forward to getting her under my wing — or she’ll be taking me under her wing probably. She’s a fantastic girl. She really is.
“My brother’s very lucky, and she’s very lucky to have my brother. I think the two of them are a perfect match.”
The Prince, who last night slept in a tent amid temperatures that dropped to minus -30C (-22F), said that his brother had been under huge pressure, but had been right to wait before proposing.
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“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s not just a normal wedding. “It’s a really big decision for him to bring Kate into the family. It’s obviously a huge amount of pressure for him, with the public perception and everything like that. From his point of view, when you read the papers and read the news and listen to everybody for weeks and months ... everybody’s putting so much pressure on you.
“Obviously, maybe he would have been engaged maybe a year or two years ago, but there was no reason for him to do that. I think he’s done the right thing. He’s waited, and he’s done it when he feels right, and it’s a huge step.”
Harry was making his final preparations before the Walking With The Wounded charity expedition. While the team will aim to be reaching the Pole in around a month’s time, Harry will walk for the first five days across the frozen Arctic Ocean before flying back in time to make the wedding.
He said that his father, the Prince of Wales, was “over the moon” about the wedding, and he had been helping Miss Middleton with the preparations.
“He’s had a lot to do with the wedding, which is really really nice,” said Harry. “He’s so unbelievably busy, yet he’s managed to make time to help Kate out with the music and stuff like that — the processional music — which I think is fantastic.
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“He’s obsessed with his music ... and I think girls are all obsessed with music on their wedding days. So the two of them have been slaving away and getting everything right. It’s fantastic, it really is.”
However, many of the decisions were being made at the last minute, he said.
“It will be a mad rush, like everything is. It’s typically English.”