Orf with his beard! The Queen orders Prince Harry to shave off his Antarctic whiskers
THE Queen has issued Prince Harry with a New Year order to shave off his beard. She made it clear to him that she “intensely dislikes” facial hair and expects him to remove it “sooner rather than later”.
The Sunday Express has been told that Harry promised to obey the royal command, but not until after his girlfriend Cressida Bonas had seen it.
Harry, 29, sprouted the beard last month while on his Walking With The Wounded charity trek to the South Pole.
He returned to Britain just in time for the festive celebrations at Sandringham but although his brother William and sister-in-law Kate said they loved his “Windsor whiskers” his grandmother was apparently not amused.
Harry has said beards are a royal tradition and told a well-wisher watching his family walk to church on Christmas morning that he intended to keep his. “The rest of the family liked it and were taking the mickey, especially his cousin Zara who dubbed him ‘Prince Hairy’,” said a royal insider.
“But the Queen soon let her displeasure be known. She doesn’t mind royal men growing beards when they are away in the Armed Forces or out in the wilds like Harry was in the Antarctic, but she expects them to be clean-shaven when they get home.
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Harry’s beard has been praised on social media websites, with female fans calling him “His Royal Hotness”. He was still sporting the beard on New Year’s Eve when he was spotted at the Crooked Billet pub in Stoke Row near Henley-on-Thames, enjoying lunch with friends.
A member of staff, who served him roast chicken and bacon mash with creamed leeks, said: “He still had the beard, he looked just like he does in the papers.”
Cressida, 24, is reportedly soaking up the sun on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Caribbean but it is not known if Harry will join her.
If he does not, the pair may go off on a brief skiing holiday before he returns to flying an Apache helicopter at Wattisham in Norfolk.
Friends insist it is too early to say whether Harry is planning to get engaged. One added: “They are taking it slowly and are not going to rush into anything just because the world wants another royal wedding.”