Opera House crowd was pretty wild about Prince Harry, His Royal Hotness
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Version 0 of 1. “You look a bit like Chelsea and he really had the hots for her,” a woman said kindly to a reporter. She, like the media, was waiting for Prince Harry as he farewelled Australia with a meet-and-greet at Sydney Opera House. Hundreds gathered to see Harry, in army uniform and beret, walk along the barricades saying hello, smiling and even posing for a selfie or two. A canny Sydney radio station handed out red and white signs with slogans such as “Harry for PM”, “Gingers Rule”, “His Royal Hotness”, and, of course, “Marry me, Harry”. Almost everyone, young and old, male and female, held one of the signs. Sharon Ford, 70 – the woman who complimented the reporter on her likeness to the prince’s former girlfriend Chelsea Davy – cancelled a doctor’s appointment when she heard Harry would be down at the harbour. She had seen his mother at the Melbourne races decades ago and saw his brother and the Duchess of Cambridge in the same spot only last year. “I’ve got a sign that says ‘Harry, marry me’,” she excitedly tells her friend over the phone. “I’ve also got one that says His Royal Hotness – not His Royal Highness, His Royal Hotness.” It was another woman who got the kiss though, a blonde wearing a plastic crown and sequinned dress embezzled with the Australian flag. Victoria McRae, 21, an ardent royalist who has made her affection for Harry known before, leant in for the kiss after asking Harry to marry her, and he let her plant one on him. On a crisp, blue-skied Sydney day the reliable, if not slightly unimaginative, backdrop of Sydney harbour was chosen for Harry’s farewell photo call. Later he headed to Government House with Mike Baird, the premier of New South Wales, and then to the Macquarie University Hospital to talk to staff and patients, including British veterans. The meet-and-greet was a farewell to Australia after a month-long military secondment, primarily on the west coast. It being 12.30pm on a Thursday there was a varied and surprisingly big crowd. People started lining up hours before he was due and there was the standard idle chitchat of a crowd forced to wait. “Where are you from?” “He’s so lovely.” “My cousin has visited near there!” When Harry finally arrived there was a subdued cheer through the crowd and he took his time talking to a group of school children, and then people in the crowd. It looked as though the school children told him that one of their (female) teachers likes him. In any case, Harry gestured to a woman and she shyly came down the stairs for a hug, which seemed to excite the children more than actually talking to the prince. He paused for a second in front of the media pen. “I’m not shaking your hands,” he said, half smiling. Ford’s friend, Ann Woods, gave Harry a plush koala and said it was for Princess Charlotte. “No, it’s mine. I’m not sharing,” he said, stroking it. The next woman he spoke to asked for a hug but he solemnly said he was not allowed to hug anyone. Many seemed to agree they like Harry because he’s “one of the lads”, a “lovely” man and “so normal”. The yelling became more urgent as Harry neared the end of his walk and spoke to a group of people who have disabilities. He defied his “no hugs” rule to embrace an older woman in a wheelchair. The end of the carefully choreographed and heavily guarded mingle-with-the-commoners neared. “Harry, Harry, over here,” a Scottish voice boomed, but the prince did not look over. He climbed the Opera House steps with Baird and posed by pretending not to pose and chatted to Baird in various ways to make sure the blue sky and the Opera House framed the pair just so. With that, his duties fulfilled, he was gone. The entourage who had kept infuriating camera operators by standing in the way of their shots were left to scurry behind. |