Prince Harry shedding his British accent as he adopts American slang, claims specialists

Prince Harry could be losing his posh UK accent as he lives among the rich and famous in the US, linguistic experts say.

The 40-year-old Eton-educated ex-Royal Navy Apache chopper pilot appeared in a two-minute long sketch with country rapper Jelly Roll to promote the forthcoming Invictus Games. In it he pretended to get a tattoo and used the distinctly American term: “Screw it, let’s do it.’’

Calling the tattoo artist ‘dude’ the publicity-shy Duke then exclaimed “you put your name on my neck?” with his voice rising at the end of the sentence in a distinctly American way.

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“Are you serious?’’ he asked, with US-style hard ‘r’ sounds. He later appeared to suggest the tattoo could be put on his “ass” rather than the English ‘arse’.

One viewer wrote on X: “It sounds like Prince Harry is losing his British accent.’’

Linguistics expert Jennifer Dorman said the Royal had become increasingly Americanised since moving to the US with his 43-year-old California-born actress wife in 2020. In podcasts he peppered his speech with phrases including ‘awesome’, Jennifer said.

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Communication coach Anthony Shuster said the Duke could be trying to sound less poss by swapping t’s for d’s and addressing folk as “you guys in what I tend to think of as a Made In Chelsea accent”.

“He’s dropping his t’s,’’ Anthony said. “There’s a lot written about how posh kids try to sound less posh by dropping them. It’s become a hallmark of posh speech, just something that posh people do.’’

In the sketch Jelly Roll – who has been announced as the first headliner at the closing ceremony of the event next year – tells Harry: “Do you know, I could not believe it when they called me and told me Prince Harry wanted to get a tattoo today and he wanted me to give him his first tattoo?”

However, the duke appears to have heard nothing about the deal. “No, no, no, why are you wearing a glove?” Harry asks.

Jelly Roll replies: “We are giving you a tattoo about the Invictus Games.” The duke says he wanted to ask Jelly Roll “to do” the games, not to tattoo him.

Harry travelled solo to launch the programme for the event, due to be held in Vancouver and Whistler in February.

Harry, a former British Army captain, launched the Invictus Games in 2014 as an international sports tournament for injured and wounded service personnel and veterans.

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