What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas -- unless you're Prince Harry and TMZ publishes pictures of you cavorting naked during a game of strip billiards.
The tabloid website posted the photos online Tuesday night. It said the romp featuring the royal, who is third in line to the throne, took place four days earlier at a "high rollers hotel suite" on the Las Vegas strip.
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One photo shows Harry, stark naked but for a wristwatch and a necklace. His hands cup his genitals. His face is turned toward the television set in the suite. And his body partially shields that of another person, also naked.
A second picture shows him hugging a woman from behind next to a pool table. Both are naked.
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Princess Diana, from left, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles gather for the commemorations of VJ Day on August 19, 1995, in London.
Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his son Prince Harry stand for the anthems during the Wales versus Scotland game in Cardiff, Wales, on February 17, 1996.
Left to right: Princes William, Harry and their father Prince Charles wait in front of the Westminster Abbey in London after the funeral ceremony of Diana Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997.
Prince Harry stands in the Drawing School on May 12, 2003, between two of the works he completed while studying at Eton College. His work involves a mixture of painting and printing, and reflects his habit of using animals as his starting point.
Prince Harry takes part in the Wall Game at Eton College in March 2003.
The youngest son of the Prince of Wales, Prince Harry makes a slice of toast in his house kitchen situated in the house library, which is the preserve of the senior House prefects, in March 2003 at Eton College.
Britain's Prince Harry, right, and his father The Prince Of Wales play polo for The BFF/Highgrove Team in a match for The Indian Cavalry Polo Trophy in Tidworth, England, on July 12, 2003.
Prince Harry paints in Eton College's new Drawing Room on May 12, 2003.
A man reads the New York Post newspaper on January 13, 2005, featuring the "Royal Nazi" headline about Prince Harry who attended a fancy dress party wearing a khaki uniform with an armband emblazoned with a swastika.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry share a joke as they watch Prince Charles and his bride Camilla Duchess of Cornwall leave St. George's Chapel in Windsor, England, following their marriage blessing on April 9, 2005.
Prince Harry takes part in the Trooping Of New Colours alongside his fellow officer cadets at the Royal Military Academy on June 21, 2005, in Sandhurst, England.
Prince Harry sitting below the turret of his Spartan armoured vehicle as he communicates with other units by radio, in the desert in Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan, on February 20, 2008. The 23-year-old, an officer in the Household Cavalry regiment, secretly served for several weeks in the volatile southern province of Helmand.
Prince Harry skis with the Walking with the Wounded team, who have gathered on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway - situated between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole - for their last days of preparation before setting off to the North Pole by foot on March 29, 2011.
Prince Harry climbs on board a specially decorated golf buggy as he goes on a tour of Harbour Island in Nassau, Bahamas, on March 4, 2012. The Prince was visiting the Bahamas as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour as a representative of Queen Elizabeth II.
Left to right: Carole Coe, Prince Harry and Peter Phillips enjoy the atmosphere as they watch track cycling at the Velodrome on August 7, 2012 at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Prince Harry stripped down to nothing but a watch and necklace with an unidentified person at a party in Las Vegas.
Harry through the years
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Photos: Prince Harry through the years
Palace officials confirmed the photos are of the prince.
"Prince Harry has been on a private holiday before he resumes his military duties," said a palace official, declining to be named in line with protocol.
Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper website said the publication of the photographs "risks embarrassing Buckingham Palace and raises questions about the prince's security arrangements."
The website of the Daily Mail, a middlebrow tabloid, suggested that "Harry needed a rest after all that Olympic duty but it appears the fun may have got out of hand."
Naked Harry scandal a watershed moment for UK press
Neither website ran the photos, but the images quickly circulated worldwide, providing plenty of fodder on Twitter.
"The Queen must be sooo proud that Prince Harry showed us his crown jewels!!!! Lol," said Danielle Monaro, part of the Elvis Duran And The Morning Show, a syndicated radio program.
The 27-year-old Harry is no stranger to controversy.
In 2002, he faced accusations of under-age drinking and cannabis use. The young prince was a 16-year-old schoolboy at the time of the alleged incident
The allegations were made in the UK tabloid News of the World newspaper, which also reported his father, Prince Charles, had taken Harry to a drug rehabilitation clinic to alert him to the dangers of drug abuse.
He did not faces charges because police found no evidence to support them.
In 2005, photos of Harry wearing a Nazi soldier's uniform to a fancy dress party were splashed across the front page of The Sun newspaper, accompanied by the headline "Harry the Nazi."
He later apologized for the incident.
"I am very sorry if I caused any offense," Harry said.
Four years later, Harry issued another apology after videos surfaced showing him using offensive language to describe members of his military unit.
In one clip, a voice said to be Harry's calls a soldier a "Paki," a derogatory term for people of South Asian descent.
In another clip, the voice tells a soldier wearing a cloth on his head that he looks "like a raghead," another offensive term for someone who wears a headdress.
Now comes this latest controversy -- one that certainly gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "hanging out."
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Harry is a captain in the Army and served briefly in Afghanistan four years ago, but was hurriedly withdrawn when news of his deployment leaked.
Since then, he has qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot, doing some of his training in the United States, and is expected to deploy to Afghanistan again.
