Prince Harry’s entourage made darts organisers follow strict rule for night on the beers
Prince Harry attended the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace back in 2014, and his security detail told organisers to follow a very strict rule throughout the evening
Barry Hearn has opened up about Prince Harry’s visit to Alexandra Palace to watch the World Darts Championship back in 2014.
The Duke of Sussex, now 40, brought some of his friends with him to Ally Pally, and, as a member of the Royal Family, a formal security detail too. Speaking on , the former PDC chief Hearn revealed that Harry’s entourage forced organisers to follow a strict rule during the prince’s visit.
He said he thoroughly enjoyed being in the Royal’s company, but ended up feeling a little sorry for him. “He [Harry] had just come out of the army and he’s obviously on a bit of a bender, I think,” Hearn said.
“He brought three mates along. They were great fun. And at one stage, the crowd started chanting. The rules were quite strict. We were allowed to put his face on the big screens just three times during the evening, just a flash.
“So he was having a proper night out with his mates, having a few pints, enjoying himself. And the crowd started chanting: ‘Harry, Harry, give us a wave’. And he looked at me and I saw a bit of inquisitiveness in his face – as if to say, ‘What do I do?’
“And I looked at him, and said: ‘If you stand up now and you wave back to these people, your street credibility is assured for life because you’ve identified with the normal man, the people that form the majority of this country’. And he looked at me and said: ‘I don’t think I’m allowed to’. And I thought that was quite sad.”
Hearn, 76, claimed in his autobiography that Harry and his pals downed “60 pints of lager” during the evening, and later invited him and his son, Eddie Hearn, to join them for an afterparty at a swanky London nightclub.
“They proceeded to consume dozens of pints of lager and merged in with the crowd rather well. Harry was like any ordinary bloke on a night out with his mates,” Hearn wrote. “Eddie and I joined them on a table of six and it was clear they were on a bender. I reckon 60 pints of lager went down and I didn’t have much of it.”
He added: “At the end, Harry said they were off to a nightclub and would we like to come? ‘Not us,’ I said. ‘You guys are too dangerous’.”
As the former chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), Hearn Sr played a pivotal role in the ascension of the organisation as the premier darts governing body globally. He was crucial in propelling the sport into the mainstream across Britain and Europe, and igniting a phenomenal surge in its financial prosperity.
In 2021, he stepped down from the role and handed over the baton to his son, Eddie.
