Prince Harry Opens Up About Naked Photos , Killing Taliban , Media Mistreatment

Prince Harry opens up in a series of new, rare interviews about his infamous naked photos, the experience of killing insurgents in Afghanistan, and his frustrations with the media.

The royal spoke with reporters while winding down his often harrowing four-month combat deployment to Camp Bastion, where he served as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner.

On the topic of his nude romp in Las Vegas last summer, Harry says, "I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down."

"But at the end of the day, I was in a private area and there should be a certain amount of privacy that one should expect," he explains. "It was probably a classic example of me probably being too much army, and not enough prince. It’s a simple case of that."

The rationale is rooted in what Harry says are the three different versions of himself, which he describes as the "three mes."

"One in the army, one socially in my own private time, and then one with the family and stuff like that. So there is a switch and I flick it when necessary," explains Harry.

He was not happy about media coverage of his private partying.

"The newspapers knew that I was going away to Afghanistan, yet still published the photos," says the prince. "So the way I was treated by them I don’t think is acceptable."

Partly because of his suspicion of the media, Harry reads about himself in the press.

He explains, "If there’s a story and something has been written about me, I want to know what’s being said, but all it does is upset me and anger me that people get away with writing the stuff they do."

Harry says his father, Prince Charles, tells him not to read it because it’s "rubbish."

But the royal seems to be most comfortable with his military role, enjoying the camaraderie with his fellow soldiers and telling the journalists, "It’s a chance to be away from you guys. A chance to be away from everyone."

"My father’s always trying to remind me about who I am and stuff like that. But it’s very easy to forget about who I am when I am in the army," says Harry. "Everyone’s wearing the same uniform and doing the same kind of thing. I get on well with the lads and I enjoy my job. It really is as simple as that."

But serving aboard a high-tech helicopter is not all fun and games.

Harry acknowledges that he’s personally had to shoot at Taliban insurgents during his stint.

"If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game, I suppose," remarks the prince. "Take a life to save a life… Everyone’s fired a certain amount."