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Prince Harry tweets! Says ‘can’t type fast’ so joined army instead

Prince Harry attends a news conference where he sends his first-ever tweet to mark tickets going on sale for the Invictus Games in London.
(Tristan Fewings / Getty Images for Invictus Games)
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Prince Harry now has a royal following online!

The British prince officially tweeted from the Invictus Games 2014 Twitter account in honor of the annual competition, making him the most senior royal to use the social media platform, according to several reports.

“Hope everyone will get behind #invictusgames. Great opportunity to support and thank the men and women who have given so much. Harry,” the 29-year-old wrote.

The @InvictusLondon tweet came on the heels of his speech at BT Tower in Central London, where he was ramping up interest for the Paralympic-style games, which benefit injured servicemen and women.

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It was promptly followed up with, “Yes, that last tweet from ‘Harry’ really was by none other than #InvictusGames President Prince Harry!”

After the speech, BT Chairman Michael Rake invited the ginger royal to take an iPad and update the games’ following after a live Q&A about the games on Twitter.

“This is why I joined the army, I can’t type fast,” Harry joked (according to the Daily Mail) after painstakingly crafting his first tweet based on a cheat sheet. “Just keeping talking.”

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After he sent the tweet with an exasperated “phew,” he said London Mayor Boris Johnson, an avid Twitter user, would be “thrilled” that the prince embraced modern technology. (What is this, 2009?)

Most Twitter-based royal news comes from the crown’s official BritishMonarchy account or Prince Charles’ Clarence House account, which usually posts updates about the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall; Harry, his brother Prince William, and William’s wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. (That was the account that announced the arrival of Prince George in a series of tweets last summer.)

However, the members of the royal family are not direct users of the accounts.

Other royals on Twitter include Harry and William’s uncle, Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Harry is believed to have a secret account he uses to keep an eye on what’s being said about him on social media, according to the Guardian.

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Apparently the tweet wasn’t as simple as it looked either, as it required a bit of “royal protocol,” Invictus Games Charmain Keith Mills told the paper.

“Members of the royal family don’t normally tweet. I don’t think they’ve ever tweeted,” Mills said. “But they were comfortable and he was thrilled to do it, so we have made a bit of history this morning.”

The Olympic-style competition for wounded veterans is set to take place in September.

“By the nature of their profession these men and women are often very active and undoubtedly highly competitive,” Harry said in his Thursday speech. “The Invictus Games this September will give these inspirational people the opportunity to showcase their talent and, in doing so, prove that anything is really possible. The games do not stand in isolation but are part of a broader legacy; there are many fantastic organizations supporting those leaving the armed forces, whether injured or not.”

The fourth in line to the British throne reportedly called it quits with free-spirited model Cressida Bonas last month. Soon after that news surfaced, the young prince was linked to a Memphis socialite, Us Weekly reported, saying that he and the woman hooked up at a friend’s May 3 wedding in Tennessee.

In other Harry news, the dating reality show “I Wanna Marry ‘Harry,’” which features a Prince Harry lookalike, was picked up in Australia and will premiere in the U.S. on Fox on May 27.

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