Prince Harry has revealed in the book Spare how he was twice approached by tabloid editors over evidence of his teenage drug-taking.

On the first occasion, his father’s then spin doctor did a deal with the News of the World and a story was published that cast Prince Charles in a flattering light. On the second occasion the editor backed away.

In his memoir Spare Harry reveals how at the end of 2001, when Harry would have been 16 or 17, royal aide Mark Dyer visited him at Eton to ask whether he was doing drugs.