Prince Harry's keynote speech at a United Nations event has been mocked after pictures emerged of him speaking to a near-empty room.
Harry addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday (local time) in a speech which discussed the threats posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the reversal of constitutional rights in the US and the "weaponising" of lies and disinformation.
However, pictures of the speech which emerged online, showing Harry talking to a mostly empty room, have been seized upon by amused social media users.
"It was to a packed house," one Twitter user joked.
"The big UN speech today was a bust for Harry! Room was almost EMPTY," another said.
"Embarrassingly empty" was how another described it.
But royal expert Marlene Koenig said those commenters were missing the big picture, noting it was an "informal event for Mandela Day".
She also said the event would have been viewed by a massive global audience.
"A room is more than a physical space. Yes, it was a small group of people who attended Nelson Mandela Day at the UN, [but] the speech was live streamed around the world, there are also links to watch the speech," she said.
"I expect more people watched that speech than were in the actual room."
