Right-wing political commentator Meghan McCain has criticized Prince Harry on Twitter, calling his description of his frozen penis after a 2011 visit to the North Pole and his use of Princess Diana’s lip cream as an attempted cure “Oedipus from Hell” in his book Spare a Story.”
McCain has been a vocal critic of both Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, and previously called the prince’s 2022 United Nations speech “wildly offensive” to the American people after denouncing the “revocation of constitutional rights” in the States compared to the war in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, McCain took to Twitter to vent her frustration at the prince’s revelation of his frozen penis, which has become a talking point for comedians including Jimmy Kimmel and Chelsea Handler. McCain said if a woman made similar statements, they would not be taken seriously.
Prince Harry photographed on October 25, 2018. And (inset) Meghan McCain photographed on March 21, 2015. McCain has criticized Harry’s account of penile frostbite in his memoir.
Chris Jackson-Pool/Getty Images/Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
“I can’t express how disgusting and disgusting I found this Oedipus from Hell story Prince Harry revealed about his penis and his mother’s face cream,” she wrote in response to a skit on the subject in Jimmy Kimmel’s Monday night show.
“People walk by how vulgar and graphic it is — no woman could tell stories like that about her genitals and be taken seriously.”
In his memoir Spare, Harry told the story of his frostbite, which had made his experience on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding day uncomfortable.
“My penis went from extremely sensitive to borderline traumatized. Last place I wanted to be was Frostnipistan,” he wrote of his experience after returning to Britain from the North Pole, where he suffered frostbite on his ears and penis.
I can’t express how disgusting and disgusting I found this Oedipus from Hell story Prince Harry revealed about his penis and his mother’s face cream.
People pass by how vulgar and graphic it is – no woman could tell such stories about her genitals and be taken seriously https://t.co/zu1F2VuZLk
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 17, 2023
“I had tried a few home remedies, including one recommended by a friend. She had urged me to apply Elizabeth Arden cream. My mother put it on her lips.
“‘It’s working, Harry. Trust me.’ I found a tube and as soon as I opened it the smell transported me back in time, like my mother was right in the room.
“Then I took a little of that and applied it… down there. ‘Weird’ doesn’t really do justice to the feeling.”
Prince Harry photographed during his expedition to the North Pole on March 31, 2011. The prince describes in his memoirs how he was left with frostbite after the trip.
David Cheskin/WPA-Pool/Getty Images
The surreal connection to Princess Diana, who features prominently in Harry’s memoir, as well as his journey to process the grief he felt after her death when he was just 12, has seen him ridiculed online and by comedians.
An audiobook clip of the story has captured the imaginations of TikTokers, with content creators doing viral dances to it and others editing it with pop songs.
At the 28th Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday, Chelsea Handler included the anecdote in her opening monologue, saying, “Dahmer (True Crime Series) became the third most watched series on Netflix with a combined watch time of 1 billion hours. Apparently that’s the same amount of time it will take us to listen to Prince Harry talk about his frozen penis. That is enough.”
Some have also questioned whether Harry – with the revelations – inadvertently reversed his renaming over the years – from a class clown personality to a social justice advocate.
In a similar response to Kimmel’s skit Monday night, which appeared to target both Harry and Princess Diana, royal journalist Richard Palmer tweeted: “Prince Harry’s decision to write a memoir was a commercial success, provoked controversy around the world and further alienated him from many Britons. But could it be that the lasting legacy of this project is that it has made him an international laughing stock?”
Newsweek has reached out to Prince Harry officials for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
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