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Embracing his wife after winning a charity polo match at Florida’s ritzy Wellington Polo Club on Friday, Prince Harry had more than one reason to celebrate.

Around 24 hours before, the Sussexes unveiled two new shows set to stream on Netflix – a “cooking and lifestyle” show for Meghan and, most intriguingly, a series about polo hosted by Harry which, it was claimed, “will provide viewers with unprecedented access to the world of professional polo”.

A statement issued by Archewell Productions – the company established by the couple in 2020 following their departure as senior royals and their reported £80 million five-year agreement with Netflix – read:

“Known primarily for its aesthetic and social scene, the series will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level”.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Harry, along with Meghan and his Netflix crew, will remain in Wellington for some time to cover the prestigious US Open Polo Championships, which attracts top players from around the globe. Harry’s ‘home’ club is the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club in California, but he appeared equally at ease in Wellington, Florida, a horse-mad enclave which serves as the HQ for the US Polo Association.

 

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A post shared by Prince Harry & Meghan Markle (@sussexroyal_hm)

Harry – who, like his father King Charles and brother Prince William – has played polo since his teens, but folks are wondering what it might mean for the Duke to pull the curtain back on the “hypersexual” world of polo.

Montecito socialite Kiki Astor wrote a 2022 ‘bonkbuster’ called Stick & Ball, which chronicles the sexual shenanigans she witnessed during her years following the sport around the globe, from Argentina to Cowdray Park in West Sussex, home to the British Open Polo Championships. Now the sport is as infamous for its sexually charged off-field antics as it is for horsemanship.

The 51-year-old writer – who currently spends polo season Sundays at the Santa Barbara club, which costs $10,000 (just under R200,000) to join and charges $200 a month (around R4,000) for membership – scandalously said:

“I don’t for a minute think Prince Harry is going to pull the curtain back on what really goes on. Polo is a hyper-sexual sport. Everyone is having affairs. There is a lot of sex. You have macho men, many of whom are gorgeous and Argentinian, thundering around on horseback holding big mallets playing a game which is fast and dangerous.”

She may be thinking of Nacho Figueras, a polo pal of Harry’s (see them strolling in the header image) who was dubbed the ‘David Beckham of Polo’. Ms Astor continues:

“Polo oozes sex. All that leather and sweat. It’s like catnip to women, particularly bored married ones. In Santa Barbara we joke about polo players being ‘entertainment for the wives’. The whole thing is like a circus. During the season the polo teams pack up and move from tournament to tournament. Indiscretions are quickly forgotten.”

You won’t be getting these wild revelations about Polo from Harry, so enjoy this while you can.

The Daily Mail writer, Caroline Graham also says she witnessed Polo’s debauchery first-hand, a few years ago when she visited the Wellington club as a guest of the late Sarah Hunt, ex-wife of F1 champion James Hunt. She described being incredibly close to all the action:

“Once the day’s sport was over –though not the drinking – the polo players, who had swapped jodhpurs for skintight white jeans, swarmed into the hospitality tent to be greeted like rock stars by adoring Chanel-clad female fans. Then the real sport began.”

She said much of the “action” took place in an outdoor jacuzzi, the “steps to which were draped in hastily discarded designer dresses” by women who, just moments before, had been proudly showing her their engagement and wedding rings:

“It was clear from the ‘motion of the ocean’, as Sarah jokingly called it, that marriage vows seemed not to apply under the bubbles. Bodies intertwined everywhere, not just in the Jacuzzi but embracing under trees and across the bonnets of luxury cars. It was impossible to avert your eyes.”

“As one player headed towards the stables with a trio of ladies, Sarah quipped: ‘He’s being put out to stud’, referring to the practice of pairing successful race horses with mares in the hope of siring a new champion.”

All in all, she says it was “brazen, shocking and Bacchanalian, particularly to a not very worldly-wise twentysomething, as I was then.”

Ms Astor reckons Harry definitely knows what goes on, but says “I don’t expect for a minute that he will show that side of things”.

“He’s been part of that world for years. In his book [Spare], he admitted he lost his virginity to a female groom so he knows how sexually charged the horse world is.”

Despite the glamour around the sport, Astor is not convinced the show will be a ratings success.

“It feels like Harry is clutching at straws. If he doesn’t focus on the sex side of things, and I don’t think he will, then you’re left with a show about privileged people playing an elitist sport, which few people are interested in.”

Meanwhile, the former Suits actress will “celebrate the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship” in her Netflix show, something which her half-brother took bizarre jabs at.

Thomas Markle Jr., the estranged half-brother of Meghan, released a provocative and slightly disturbing YouTube video mocking his half-sister in an unsettling manner. With his face painted black, donning a wig and tiara, and stuffing a pillow under his shirt to imitate pregnancy, Thomas’s 87-minute performance is steeped in controversy and personal jabs.

Royal commentator Jennie Bond told the Daily Mail, “To have your own flesh and blood lead the assault must feel like the ultimate betrayal for Meghan.” Bond described the footage as “grotesque,” underscoring the discomfort and disapproval it has stirred among the public and experts alike.

Thomas, who has not spoken to Meghan in over a decade, appeared unapologetic about exploiting his royal connection, brazenly stating in the video, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch, right? I’m gonna be riding those coattails, baby”.

Meghan’s estranged sister, Samantha Markle, has also gone for the jugular a couple of times, even taking out a defamation lawsuit against Meghan, which she lost last month. What a sour family.

Jeez, the Sussexes are off to a rough start already.

[source:dailymail]