The real Prince Harry surprised Stephen Colbert‘s Late Show audience Wednesday night, dropping into a Christmas-movie sketch and pitching himself—enthusiastically—to play one of the many interchangeable princes populating this year’s holiday films.
Colbert opened the segment by poking fun at the sheer scale of the genre (“We’re getting enough Christmas movies to last till Purim”), noting that more than 80 new holiday films are rolling out this season across Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, and other networks.
After listing a series of actual holiday movie titles like A Royal Christmas Manor, A Royal Christmas Hope, and A Royal Montana Christmas, Colbert complained that the movies give viewers false hope that they’ll “just bump into some prince at their job.”
Enter an actual prince. “Excuse me. Stephen?” Harry said, stepping onstage to cheers.
“Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales-Sussex!” Colbert declared.
Harry leaned into the bit, claiming he thought he was at “the audition for The Gingerbread Prince Saves Christmas in Nebraska.”
When Colbert questioned why a real royal would want to star in a Hallmark movie, Harry responded: “Well, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies and you’re obsessed with royalty, so why not?”
He then added a pointed kicker: “I heard you elected a king.”
The audience booed knowingly, while Colbert conceded, “That’s a fair point.”
Harry continued sending up his family tree, accusing Americans of making “such a big deal about my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, George III!”
“Well, he was kind of a jerk,” Colbert replied.
“Okay, let it go,” Harry deadpanned.
But perhaps the most eyebrow-raising exchange came when the conversation turned to show business. Asking what it takes to land a TV movie, Harry insisted he was ready to do anything: “I’ll record a self-tape, I’ll fly myself to an audition, settle a baseless lawsuit with the White House—all the things you people in TV do!”
Colbert quickly objected: “Hey. I didn’t do any of those things.”
Harry shot back: “Maybe that’s why you’re canceled.”
The sketch then shifted full-tilt into holiday-movie parody: sleigh bells, magical snow, Christmas trees that appeared out of nowhere, and Harry urging Colbert to “just believe.”
Harry isn’t exactly a regular on the late-night circuit, but he’s not a stranger to it. He has previously logged appearances on both The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Tonight’s visit marked his second time on Colbert’s Late Show—or third, depending on how you count them. He last visited in January 2023, when he discussed his memoir Spare and recorded an installment of “The Colbert Questionert,” which aired six weeks later.
Harry’s first visit to the show set a two-year viewership record for the program and made headlines internationally, in part because of the unusually candid back-and-forth he had with Colbert and the general rarity of royal guests on late-night TV.
Watch the video of Harry’s latest Colbert appearance at the top of this post.
Yeah, the audience booed an pompous, entitled, sanctimonious windbag.
And they also booed Prince Harry
What an incomprehending fool. I suppose the standing ovation was actually them winding up to throw tomatoes? Shut up
You taint this section by being such a taint entirely. Look it up when you learn what “booing” actually is.
Grow up, and try and improve your life from your trailer trash standing!
Since ‘Spare’ came out, subsequent events show where the real animus towards Megan came from and it is not the present king. The dour, resentful, ugly older brother has always been the racist controlling factor. He’s no fun and knows it.
England is in for a looong boring ride once The Royal Tampon leaves the stage (which is all monarchy is good for these days anyway: just for show). They are obscenely wealthy from historic opium money and leeches on the economy to this day!
Harry managed to escape. Welcome here to live a happy life.
The British monarchy is doomed to fall from its own hubris! And we might thank Andrew for that!