Prince Harry may be third in line to the British throne but in some ways he is a very normal young man — a slacker in the kitchen with a terror of maths exams.

Still red-faced and sweating after playing in the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic yesterday, the 24-year-old Prince gave his first lengthy interview in three years, offering a rare insight into his life with older brother, Prince William.

The Prince admitted that his poor maths skills made learning to become a helicopter pilot difficult, five months into his tough training to fly Apache attack craft in frontline combat.

Harry, 24, said that his brother made life easier by doing all of the cooking at their shared digs in Shropshire. The pair are living together full-time for the first time since they were teenagers, while they train at RAF Shawbury — Prince Harry to fly £30 million Apache attack helicopters with the Army Air Corps and Prince William, 26, to become a search and rescue pilot with the RAF.

Prince Harry took two days off from training to make a whirlwind tour of New York on Friday and Saturday before yesterday’s charity polo match, played in blistering heat on Governors Island, a short ferry-ride from Manhattan.

“It’s a nice break,” the Prince said of the trip, during which his team won the polo 6-5 against the opposing Black Watch team featuring the Argentinian polo star and model Nacho Figueras. “I think I’ll regret saying that tomorrow when I get back and the old jet lag kicks in.”

He said that he was surprised by the intensity of the training that he started in January at RAF Shawbury, in the West Midlands. If Harry gets through the elite course he will be qualified to go back into battle as a helicopter pilot.

“There’s times when I thought, you know, I’m not really cut out for this mentally,” the Prince admitted. “I hope I’ve got the physical skills to fly a helicopter. But mentally, there are exams and everything.

“I mean, I can’t do maths. I gave that up when I left school, as anyone does at that age. But I’ve been throwing myself back in the deep end.”

During a tour of the Harlem Children’s Zone on Saturday, Prince Harry asked a group of students preparing at the school for a maths exam who was the best pupil, before confessing: “I was always the worst”. He later covered his eyes in mock horror as a student worked on fractions, exclaiming: “Flashbacks!”

Prince Harry said that it was “fantastic” to share accommodation with his brother for the first time in years. “He does most of the cooking,” the Prince said. “I spend time just lying around, watching TV and doing my work.”

Joking about the difference between his own training and that of Prince William, he added: “Because the RAF don’t have to work as hard as the Army.”

Prince Harry trained as a tank troop commander after passing out of Sandhurst, the military academy, in April 2006 but was denied deployment to Iraq because of fears that his presence would encourage attacks on British forces.

After the media agreed not to report on his activities, the Prince spent ten weeks as a forward air controller in Afghanistan’s Helmand province late last year, where he guided jets in to bomb Taleban positions.

Harry has made clear his desire to see frontline action again but concerns remain that it would be impossible to secure his safety again.

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