Dominic West claims that Prince Harry cut him off after their 2013 South Pole trek

Dominic West is still promoting the final season of The Crown, in which he plays Prince Charles (now King Charles). West was always a bad choice to play Charles, although he did have some moments where I thought he genuinely captured Charles’s self-centered pathos. During an interview recently, West was asked if he had gotten any advice from Prince Harry on how to play Charles. The question wasn’t some random thing – West actually knows Harry and they went together on the Walking with the Wounded trek to the South Pole in 2013. As it turns out, West and Harry had a falling out after the South Pole adventure, at least according to West.

Dominic West was asked about his relationship with Harry while appearing on Times Radio. West, 54, and Harry trekked the South Pole in 2013 for Walking With the Wounded, a UK charity benefiting injured veterans. When asked if Harry offered any advice for tackling the role of Charles, West explained the two are no longer on speaking terms.

“I said too much in a press conference and so we didn’t speak after that,” West said. “I think I was asked what we did to celebrate when we got there and probably said something too much.”

West previously described lively post-expedition celebrations, ABC News reported at the time of the excursion. “Most of us, Harry included, just went on a two-day bender with the Icelandic truck drivers who had brought some lethal home brew with them,” West said. “There was a lot of liqueur drunk.”

[From USA Today]

Given West’s penchant for indiscretion, I absolutely believe that West said too much about Harry in the post-trek media blitz and Harry likely cut off contact with him. In case you need that underlined and tabloidized, Richard Eden at the Mail had an update!

The Crown star Dominic West was such a firm friend of his fellow Old Etonian the Duke of Sussex that they trekked to the South Pole together in aid of the charity Walking for the Wounded. Now, however, West has confirmed that he has been cut off by Prince Harry.

Last year, a close friend of the actor told me that that he had fallen out with the Prince after West’s disclosures at a good-natured joint press conference following their expedition with injured servicemen and women, including double amputees. Among the anecdotes that West told was how they had toasted their victory over the elements by drinking champagne from one of their co-adventurers’ prosthetic legs.

‘Harry threw a s*** fit,’ West’s friend told me in May 2022. ‘He accused Dominic of invading his privacy. Dominic told him not to be ridiculous. They haven’t spoken since.’

Even more bizarrely, Harry, 39, is said to have since taken against anyone whom he suspects of being a friend of the actor’s, the source claimed.

At the press conference in 2014, West talked candidly about how the team had celebrated after completing their 208-mile trek in the previous year. ‘Two of the Aussie guys stripped naked and ran round the pole but most of us, Harry included, just went on a two-day bender with the Icelandic truck drivers who had brought some lethal home brew with them.’ He added: ‘There was a lot of liqueur drunk. We all drank champagne out of [one of the team’s] favourite prosthetic legs.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah… what Dominic West said at the time was not only indiscreet, it was probably off-message for the charity. The whole point of Walking with the Wounded was to raise money and awareness for veterans and that should have been front-and-center of the media coverage after the South Pole trip. Instead, West couldn’t shut up about how hard they partied and he made Harry sound like a drunken buffoon. Harry was probably justifiably pissed at Dominic and I wouldn’t be surprised if Harry really did cut him off. Oh well? I guess Eden thinks this makes Harry look bad. It doesn’t.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.