Prince Harry Admits His Fear of Public Speaking

Jonas Ezeanya • 3 December 2014

Prince Harry has revealed he gets "incredibly nervous" about public speaking and feels very "anxious" facing a room full of people. He made the confession in a YouTube video as part of the #FeelNoShame campaign for World AIDS Day (1st December). In the video (see below), he says:

"Believe it or not, I get incredibly nervous before public speaking no matter how big the crowd or the audience. Despite the fact that I laugh and joke all the time, I get incredibly nervous, if not anxious actually, before going into rooms full of people when I am wearing a suit.

"Now that I have confessed that, I will probably be even more worried people are looking at me!"

Can you blame him? It's hard to imagine that for a prince who has been exposed to the public ever since childhood, public speaking for him should have already become a "been there, done that" sort of skill. Well, the reality here is that this is not always the case.

The fear of public speaking (known as glossophobia) affects very many people around the world and, according to one famous research done in the USA some years ago, the fear of speaking in public was ranked #1 among all fears -- beating spiders, snakes, heights and even death!

The #FeelNoShame campaign is driven by his Sentebale charity (co-founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho) in commemoration of this years's World AIDS Day and hopes to reduce the stigmatisation of people living with HIV helping them come forward for support.

Prince Harry's secret is the latest in a series of "confessions" by celebrities who agreed to disclose some personal secrets in support of the cause. Singer Joss Stone confessed that as a child, she once wet herself in a shop after drinking too much tea, while the actress Gemma Arterton admitted to never having seen a Star Wars or Back To The Future film. Ricky Hatton disclosed that, although fearless in the boxing ring, he is absolutely petrified of cats — ailurophobia. (Wow!)

The video posted less than two days ago on YouTube has already gathered more than 65,000 views. Singers Nicole Scherzinger and Paloma Faith also took part in the campaign.

So what do you think about the charming prince's true confession? Leave your comments under.

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