Prince Harry Slammed for Taking a Selfie With 'Lunatic' Reality TV Star

Prince Harry recently attended the Living Legends of Aviation Awards, but critics didn't enjoy seeing his snapshot with Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe. Schaumburg-Lippe has starred in various reality television series, and royal experts think the Duke of Sussex's public proximity to him will only hurt his brand.

"It has not been great for Harry's reputation," Charlotte Griffiths said on GB News. "A lot of people have been saying that birds of a feather stick together."

Schaumburg-Lippe is known for using his title professionally in the U.S., and he even made a cameo on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

"This Mario-Max guy, he is flogging stuff on QVC, he is going on Celeb Big Brother and Harry is in a different league to that," the royal editor noted. "But people are saying are they so very different?"

Harry and Meghan Markle are working to establish themselves as respected producers in Hollywood, but their public tell-alls could put them in a position to be compared to a Bravo castmember instead of the likes of George and Amal Clooney.

"Harry went on Oprah, which is a form of reality TV," Griffiths continued. "He is flogging his private life in his book. He went around flogging his book and I think that this shows that it is only a hop, skip, and a jump from the top to the bottom."

"It's sort of it's the same thing, isn't it? Selling yourself, selling your royal connections," she added. "And it's just really unfortunate."

Initially, Harry RSVP'd alongside Meghan, but the Duchess of Sussex ended up skipping the gathering because one of their kids was under the weather.

"His PR team must be holding their head in their hands today," the writer explained. "I think this event was a particularly bad one."

"I get the impression Harry started to get a sense that it wasn't exactly an A-list event because he didn't go on the red carpet to arrive and he sort of snuck out the back door afterward," she added. "It was pretty low rent. There was John Travolta, but it wasn't packed with A-listers and Megan didn't go."

"She was looking after her kids. And she may have thought I'm taking one for the team here, but I I'd say she was dodging a bullet in the end," Griffiths speculated.

Although Harry left the U.K. in 2020, taking pics with controversial figures isn't a common occurrence for working royals.

“There would have been a team of people vetting him," Griffiths stated. “Royal family members very rarely take a selfie because of this exact thing. You get some lunatic who has now put the photo all over social media."

“He will dine out on it for the rest of his life, which is something we know Harry hates," she continued.

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OK! previously reported a source close to the Duke of Sussex claimed he was given the award due to his time as a military pilot.

"Harry's name was put forward because of his astonishing commitment to helping those in and out of the military, promoting awareness of the triumphs and travails of that life," a source told an outlet.

"But he stands tall as a philanthropist," the insider explained. "Any suggestion of this as a publicity stunt is a disgraceful and offensive suggestion."