Prince Harry turns family into laughing stock on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Prince Harry and his memoirs have been ridiculed by Stephen Colbert ahead of the broadcast of their US TV interview tonight with the comedian comparing his life to Harry Potter and joking the new book is available as a royal commemorative plate.

There were gales of laughter as the Duke of Sussex was called ‘His royal Harryness’ and also seen downing tequila shots in an interview with The Late Show in New York after being swept into the studio by armed bodyguards yesterday.

Harry is at the end of his transatlantic TV blitz promoting his new memoirs Spare, which is out today. In a series of interviews in the US and UK he has shared intimate details of his life, including losing his virginity, his use of drugs and killing 25 Taliban, as well as private conversations with his family and the deepening rift over Megxit.

But even the usually supportive liberal US media is tiring of Prince Harry’s complaints. The Left-wing, anti-British New York Times, called his remarks ‘repetitive and tiresome’ and suggested the ‘tide seems to be turning’ in US attitudes towards the Sussexes.

And in a trailer for tonight’s show, Stephen Colbert appeared more focused on poking fun at the royal and his bitter rift with his brother, and scathing gags about Britain and the royals including the late Queen.

After playing a clip where Harry describes his pain at William trying to avoid him at Eton, the Late Show presenter said to roars of laughter: ‘That’s heartbreaking. To be rejected by his older brother at school even though that magic hat sorted them into the same house. What do you think? Hufflepuff? Gryffindor?’

In another teaser Mr Colbert said Spare is available in hardback, audiobook and ‘commemorative plate’ – a joke at the expense of Harry and other royals whose weddings and anniversaries are marked with limited edition tableware and crockery.

And then in a further joke at Harry’s expense – and the expense of the Royal Family including the Queen – Colbert says: ‘Stock up on corgis and steal a priceless cultural treasure from one of your colonies because The Late Show is going imperial’.

After a series of serious TV interviews – which some critics claim failed to properly question contradictions in his book – the prince has chosen to do The Late Show, and looks set to be made a figure of fun. 

Harry’s book also contains anecdotes that also appear to poke fun at his own family including hanging a trinket likeness of the Queen on a Christmas tree.

Spare reveals that Meghan gave Harry an ornament of the Queen that she had bought from a local store in California.

Harry writes in his book that it was ‘Granny’s face to a T’ and hung it straight on the large Christmas tree in their California home.

Toddler Archie was running around and knocked the tree’s stand, which caused the ornament to fall off and smash into pieces.

Harry admitted he sought help from a medium who said she could prove she was talking to his late mother from beyond the grave because Diana was ‘giggling’ at Archie breaking the ornament.

And in the couple’s Netflix documentary, released last month, a giggling Meghan appeared to mock her own efforts at following royal protocol as she recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen – performing a deeply exaggerated curtsey in front of awkward-looking husband, Prince Harry.

In it, the Duchess of Sussex compared the first encounter with Her Majesty to a lowbrow themed dinner at America’s ‘Medieval Times’. Her husband, who served in the Army with the Queen being his commander in chief, looked uncomfortable throughout.

Harry was seen downing tequila shots in an interview with The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert yesterday ahead of its broadcast in the US tonight.

Fans in attendance for the recording at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City told DailyMail.com the Duke of Sussex answered a series of questions from the late night host in his Colbert Questionert segment.

The quiz devised by the liberal comedian and TV host is 15 questions that he says  ‘cover the full spectrum of human experience’.

Among the questions his guests get asked are what their favorite sandwich is, what app they most use on their phone and even what number Colbert is thinking of at that moment.

It is not known what his answered but people at the studios managed to film a glimpse of the segment where Harry was talking while double-parked with two tequila shots he later downed.

The interview is just the latest the Duke is doing as he works to promote his bombshell memoir, Spare, which will be released on Tuesday.  

Harry was accompanied to the Late Night studios Monday night by a guard carrying a Glock lock-box, used to carry his gun and ammunition.

The prince has become increasingly concerned for his security since moving to the United States, and has frequently said he feels vulnerable.

He took legal action against British authorities after he was blocked under U.K. law from having private armed guards with him in the country.

In High Court papers filed in London, the duke said he ‘does not feel safe’ in Britain without armed security, and said the decision to prevent him being accompanied by armed guards is ‘unlawful and ‘unfair’.

When he stepped down as a working member of the royal family, he lost his official taxpayer-funded security detail, which infuriated him. 

He has said that paying for private armed security is one reason for his quest to sign lucrative deals in the U.S. – such as his memoir, for which he was reportedly paid by publisher Penguin Random House a $20m advance. ET Canada reported an even more extravagant sum, claiming the deal is for four editions, with a $35m-$40m fee. 

On Monday, dressed in a grey suit and navy shirt, Harry strode from his SUV into the studios to meet Colbert – who confirmed on Twitter that the interview will air on Tuesday night.

‘The interview will be Prince Harry’s first time visiting The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and coincides with the release date of his new memoir, Spare,’ CBS announced.

The PR team added: ‘With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.’

They described Harry as ‘a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate and environmentalist. He resides in Santa Barbara, Calif., with his family and three dogs.’

The prince was spotted earlier on Monday leaving his luxury Manhattan hotel, where rooms start at $400, rising to $3,500 a night for a suite. 

There was no sign of his wife or children, who are believed to be at home in California.

Harry on Monday morning appeared on Good Morning America, telling host Michael Strahan that he would likely never return to live in the United Kingdom.

He continued his relentless attacks on the British press – the focus of much of his publicity tour – and said the press interest would make his family’s lives ‘unsurvivable’ if they were ever to return to Britain.

‘I don’t think that, even if there was an agreement or an arrangement between me and my family, there’s that third party [the British press] that’s going to do everything they can to make sure that that isn’t possible,’ he told Strahan.

‘Not stopping us from going back but making it unsurvivable.’

Harry and Meghan, 41, relocated from the UK to California in early 2020, and have, since early 2021, been raising their two children, Archie and Lilibet, in a $14.65 million mansion in Montecito – thousands of miles away from the Duke’s family.

However, while Harry has admitted that he doesn’t believe they will ever make a full-time return to the UK or royal life, he has also hinted that he and Meghan will never give up their official titles.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Cooper asked why they did not relinquish their titles as Duke and Duchess if they wanted a peaceful existence away from the media.

Cooper said: ‘One of the criticisms that you’ve received is that okay, fine, you wanna move to California, you wanna step back from the institutional role. 

‘Why be so public? Why reveal conversations you’ve had with your father or with your brother? 

‘You say you tried to do this privately.’

Harry replied: ‘Every single time I’ve tried to do it privately there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife.

‘You know, the family motto is never complain, never explain. 

‘But it’s just a motto. And it doesn’t really hold.’

The couple first made the shocking announcement that they were going to step back from their royal duties on January 8, 2020.

At the time, they wrote in a joint statement that they had reached the decision after ‘many months of reflection and internal discussions.’

They said they wanted to ‘work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.’

The idea of them working to support the rest of the family has become increasingly untenable, however, thanks to a series of interviews and a documentary in which they condemned the actions of their relatives and the institution they represent.

A December poll revealed that 98 per cent of participants want the pair to be stripped of their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, after the couple aired their bombshell Netflix docuseries, which included several explosive accusations about their time as royals.

In the series, the pair claimed they were victims of ‘institutional gaslighting’ and accused the royal family of lying to protect Harry’s brother Prince William.

Harry also said in the series that he told his father, King Charles II, that he and Meghan were willing to relinquish their titles during discussions surrounding their plan to move to America – although it appears that is no longer the case.

Harry’s memoir has caused intense anguish within Buckingham Palace, although the King and Prince William have refused to comment on Harry’s mud-slinging and allegations.

Harry in the book writes that William physically attacked him, and has detailed allegations that William’s wife Kate was at loggerheads with Meghan.

He said he begged his father not to marry Camilla, and accused Camilla, now Queen Consort, of leaking stories to advance her ‘campaign’ to become officially recognized. 

The prince also detailed losing his virginity, taking cocaine and other drugs, and killing Taliban fighters while serving with the British army in Afghanistan.

He said his father and brother had ‘shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile’, and said he did not see how ‘staying silent’ would help. 

Read More:

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