Sir Ian McKellen has expressed his pity for Prince Harry, whom the actor claims was raised in a Royal ‘prison’, and isn’t clever enough to help himself.

The veteran actor brands royal life ‘a prison’

Veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen, whose career spans everything from big-screen blockbusters, such as the Lord of the Rings films and the X-Men franchise, all the way to Samuel Beckett plays with pal Sir Patrick Stewart, says he knows a thing or two about being in the public eye.

Due to his experience, he’s firmly on Prince Harry’s side when it comes to the “prison” of royal life, but feels the Duke of Sussex isn’t “bright enough to help himself”.

Sir Ian recalls that Her Majesty couldn’t wait to get rid of him

“Like the [late] Duke of Edinburgh managed to do, although even he was deeply, deeply eccentric and I suspect deeply unhappy.”

He added that he thought Harry’s father, King Charles, seemed to be quite a troubled soul as well, claiming: “He sort of survives, but he is clearly damaged.

“As for Harry,” Sir Ian added, “he’s probably not bright enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself”.

“Mind you, he had the pick of all the pretty women in the world. I hope he’s got the right one,” he concluded, in reference to Harry’s wife Meghan Markle.

Harry ‘had the pick of all the pretty women in the world,’ Sir ian says

Sir Ian’s support of Prince Harry came with a mild insult 

The veteran Shakespearian actor said that he had played enough Kings on stage to gain a certain insight into what made them tick.

He claimed that the late Queen was probably “quite mad at the end,” recalling how she was quite rude and dismissive when she presented him with his Companion of Honour medal in 2008, asking “Does anyone still actually go to the theatre?”

The star, who was speaking to The Times about his upcoming film The Critic which is in cinemas from 13 September, says that when she shook his hand, there was a definite force behind it.

Sir Ian recalls that the monarch, who was 82 at the time, shook his hand brusquely as if to say “go away”.