KEY POINTS:
In less than 12 months, Prince Harry has managed a spectacular fall from grace.
In February last year, Britain was wild about Harry after news of the soldier Prince's secret mission in Afghanistan was leaked.
Harry's was hailed as a hero after his frontline stint, and his playboy image received a much-needed boost after a series of scandals.
Now, 11 months later, the Queen's grandson is back at controversy central - splashed over the front pages of British newspapers for making racist remarks in a homemade video.
Despite apologising for referring to a fellow soldier as a "Paki" in the video, which he filmed three years ago while an officer cadet, Harry has been roundly condemned.
He has been branded a yob, foolish and ignorant, as well as faced calls to leave the Army and apologise to the people of Pakistan.
Some commentators believe the video, published on the website of the mass-selling News of the World tabloid, demonstrates the party-loving Prince's inability to grow up.
But others argue that little else can be expected from the 24-year-old, because of his upbringing and the impossibly high standards he is expected to meet as a senior member of the royal family.
"The trouble with a hereditary monarchy is that you get what you're given, in this case a third-in-line to the throne of no great intellectual acuity," Guardian newspaper columnist Peter Preston wrote.
Harry was 21 when he filmed a group of his fellow trainee soldiers while they waited to board a flight to Cyprus in 2006.
At one point, his camera zooms in on Ahmed Raza Khan, now a captain in Pakistan's Army, and says: "Ah, our little Paki friend, Ahmed."
Harry, who is soon to begin training to become a helicopter pilot with the Army Air Corps, also refers to another soldier wearing a camouflage scarf on his head as a "raghead".
St James' Palace issued an apology on the Prince's behalf, saying that Harry was sorry for causing any offence, while Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission has demanded an inquiry.
While Harry's use of the pejorative term appeared light-hearted in the video, he has embarrassed Army chiefs who have been trying to stamp out racism in the ranks.
They were expected to give the Prince a dressing-down over the scandal, but not take any severe disciplinary action against him.
Some supporters say Harry should be forgiven because he has matured in the three years since the video was made.
"Like many young men, when they are in a particular environment, such as the Army, it is all too easy to get caught up in a culture and a way of behaving that is commonplace but inappropriate," Harry's former press secretary Colleen Harris wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"We should not be in the business of pillorying Prince Harry."
- AAP