Lovehoney, a leading sexual wellness brand in the U.K, debuted its new ad featuring a ball gag with the slogan “Silence is golden, Harry” in the days after the prince undertook multiple interviews promoting his memoir, Spare, which was published on January 10.
In the book, the prince recounted a number of intimate anecdotes including how he lost his virginity at the age of 17 in a field behind a pub, and how he got frostbite on his penis following a 2011 trek to the North Pole.
The sex toy ad referenced the memoir title by directing viewers to its website with the phrase: “Spare ball gags available.”
Lovehoney’s head of sexual empowerment, Johanna Rief, told Newsweek, that the brand had a long-established history supporting the prince, but that his recent revelations had gone “a bit too far.”
“We have been—and still are—ardent supporters of Harry and Meghan’s journey, particularly the way they have voiced such important issues as racism, misogyny, and bullying within the U.K,” she said. “However, we feel that Harry’s memoir has taken certain things—for example references to his ’todger’ [penis]—a bit too far, falling under the category of ‘Too Much Information,’ so wanted to put out a playful response to this, in our own Lovehoney way.”
The company has also, in the past, gone as far as to create products commemorating Harry’s 2018 marriage to Meghan Markle.
“Lovehoney are long-term supporters of Prince Harry and, having even launched a commemorative ‘Royal Wedding Penis Ring’ to celebrate the pair’s marriage,” Rief explained. “We have also had a close connection to the royal family in the past, having twice been awarded the Queen’s Award—once in 2016 and again in 2021.”
The Queen’s Award For Enterprise, named after Queen Elizabeth II, celebrates British businesses for achievements in innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity through social mobility.
The billboard has been displayed in London’s Clapham Common area and also online, in the hopes that it will bring a “smile” to those that come across it, Rief said.
“We simply wanted to bring a smile to people’s faces. There are so many negative stories around at the moment, we wanted to make a light-hearted, Lovehoney-esque response to the memoir—if we made even one person laugh then we’ve succeeded. Think less tongue-in-cheek and more ball-gag-in-mouth.”
Harry has become the butt of several jokes over his revealing memoir anecdotes.
Chelsea Handler opened the Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday with a joke about the prince’s frostbitten penis.
“Dahmer became the third-highest viewed show on Netflix, which a combined watch time of 1 billion hours,” Handler said in her monologue referencing the true-crime series. “Which, apparently, is the same amount of time we’re going to have to listen to Prince Harry talk about his frostbitten penis. It’s enough already.”
In addition, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at the prince in a number of skits, most recently one in which the frostbite story was told through an imagined children’s book, which involved a Princess Diana character descending from heaven to provide cosmetic cream.
In Spare, Harry revealed that one of the home methods he used to treat his frostbite was by applying an Elizabeth Arden lip cream favored by Princess Diana to the affected area.
Newsweek has approached representatives of Prince Harry for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
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