Prince Harry needs to 'shut up', says former Royal Marine he praised in memoir

A former Royal Marine who is mentioned in the Duke of Sussex’s memoir has criticised the revelations the Prince made about his military service, saying “I don’t have to support everything he does”.

Ben McBean, the double amputee who inspired Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, was critical of the Duke last week when he revealed his kill count in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, it emerged that Mr McBean is praised by the Duke in the book, but the veteran has made clear that it had not changed his opinion.

Attaching a passage from Spare that recounts Mr McBean’s bravery and recovery after losing an arm and leg in a roadside bomb blast during the war, the veteran tweeted:

The Duke wrote in Spare that he watched Mr McBean, who he calls Ben, successfully climbing a wall the day after he received his prosthetic leg in a physical rehabilitation centre.

He wrote: “I was astounded. I’d never been so proud - to be British, to be a soldier, to be his brother in arms.

“I told him so. I told him I wanted to buy him a beer for getting to the top of that wall. No, no, a crate of beer.”

He adds that he would be “waiting at the finish line” if Mr McBean ever completed a marathon, something he indicated he wanted to do.

The pair met when they were evacuated from Afghanistan on the same flight in 2008, something that Prince Harry recounts in his memoir.

Mr McBean has previously talked about the support he received from Prince Harry during his recovery, saying that he "often writes me notes of support" and "bought me a whole crate of beer".

'I think he's completely naive'

Last week, Mr McBean, from Plymouth, Devon, spoke publicly about the Duke’s claims in Spare that he killed 25 Taliban insurgents during his second tour in Afghanistan, where he flew on six missions.

The veteran, who Prince Harry has described as a “real hero”, tweeted that while he loved the Duke, he needed to “shut up” and that if good people were around him, they would have “told him to stop”.

Others in the military community also hit out at Prince Harry’s claims, with one Iraq war hero accusing him of “betraying” the military as well as his family.

Col Tim Collins, who gave an inspirational battle speech on the eve of the 2003 Iraq invasion, said: “I think he's completely naive. There's no understanding of what he's doing and what he has done.

“The military has always embraced him into the family no matter what had gone on before. He's now betrayed that trust in the same way he's betrayed his birth family.”

Prince Harry has defended his decision to include the controversial kill count in his memoir, telling Stephen Colbert, the host of The Late Show, that "my whole goal, my attempt with sharing that detail, is to reduce the number of suicides".

He forcefully denied "boasting" about the number in the US chat show interview on Tuesday night, adding that it should be read in context.