Prince Harry no doubt expected he would be in friendly company when he used his surprise appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Wednesday night to get political, needle Donald Trump and voice his disapproval for a network like CBS caving in to the president by settling his “baseless lawsuit.”
Indeed, Harry received a standing ovation when he suddenly appeared on stage with Colbert, who is well known for his criticism of Trump. And the boos that erupted in the audience, when Harry joked about Americans being so “obsessed with royalty” that they elected “a king,” may not have been directed at Harry, as the New York Post and the Daily Mail reported. It’s possible that this highly partisan crowd agreed with Harry’s view of Trump’s dictator pretensions.
But if Harry scored a win with the Colbert crowd and with liberal “Late Show” viewers, his decision to mock a sitting U.S. president probably won’t go over well with either that president or with the British government, which is headed by his father, King Charles III. Given that British royals are supposed to remain publicly apolitical, it’s likely that he gave his family, especially his older brother, Prince William, even more reason to consider stripping him of his royal titles, according to Tom Sykes, the Daily Beast’s European editor and author of The Royalist Substack
“I believe Harry thought he was being funny, but this was hardly the venue to be plunging headlong into America’s defining fear of the moment: creeping authoritarianism,” Sykes said on his Substack.
Even though Harry is no longer a working member of the British royal family, he arguably isn’t free to speak his mind on politics, Sykes said. He is fifth in line to the British throne, carries “the aura” of a royal family member and is seen by the U.S. public as a representative of the monarchy, Sykes wrote.
“And here a royal prince is, on American national television, mocking a sitting U.S. president,” Sykes said. “That leaves Charles in a diplomatic chokehold.”
“I think the monarchy now has no real choice,” Sykes continued. “The titles must be removed, not as punishment, but for clarity. Removing them draws a clear blue line between Prince Harry the royal and Harry Windsor the private citizen. It protects the monarchy from his volatility. It frees Harry from expectations he clearly rejects. And it stops the public assuming he speaks for an institution he keeps undermining.”
Harry “went nuclear” on Trump when he popped up on stage during Colbert’s monologue, according to another Daily Beast report. The host was riffing on Hallmark Christmas movies, when Harry approached him to say that he wanted to audition for a movie in which he’d play a “Gingerbread Prince,”
When Colbert asked him why he’d want to star in such a movie, Harry said, “Well, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies, and you’re clearly obsessed with royalty, so why not?”
“Hold on, I wouldn’t say we’re obsessed with royalty,” Colbert said.
Harry replied, “I heard you elected a king.”
The joke refers to Trump calling himself a king in February, which helped spark two major national “No Kings” demonstrations in cities and towns across the United States in June and October. Harry jokingly complained to Colbert about Americans electing Trump “after making such a big deal about my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, George III.”
Harry continued to joke that he would “do anything” for a role in a Christmas movie, saying: “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 on TV do.” The lawsuit joke referred to Paramount
This joke referred to CBS’s parent company, Paramount, deciding to settle a lawsuit from Trump to allegedly ensure their proposed merger with Skydance Media, the Daily Beast reported.
Sykes is among royal journalists and observers who have reported that Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are at risk of losing their Duke and Duchess and HRH titles once William becomes king. In October, friends of William told Sykes that the Prince of Wales plans sweeping reforms after he ascends to the throne, using special executive orders to remove princely titles from all non-working royals, including from his brother and sister-in-law.
William has long wanted “to exact vengeance” on Harry and Meghan, since they renounced royal duties in 2020, moved to the United States to try and become independently wealthy and began criticizing the monarchy and calling certain members racist, according to Sykes. William has reportedly become especially incensed by Meghan trying to capitalize on her royal titles as she tries to launch herself as a lifestyle influencer.
The likelihood of Harry and Meghan losing their titles grew last month after Charles finally made the unprecedented move to strip Harry’s uncle, Andrew, of his prince title, due to his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Andrew already had been convinced to renounce his Duke of York title. It was widely reported by Sykes and the U.K. media that William lobbied hard for Andrew to lose all his titles and for the royal family to disassociate itself as much as possible from him.
With Harry getting political on national television, William is even more likely to take similar steps against him, according to Sykes. William also might not be happy that Harry went on Colbert’s show, given that Colbert was forced to apologize after once cracking a joke about an unsubstantiated claim that William had been unfaithful.
Removing Harry and Meghan’s titles also may be popular with the British public, according to polling over the past several years. The most recent poll, by the Daily Express in May, found that 97% of 4,500 respondents thought Harry should lose his titles, while a 2022 poll by Find Out Now reported that only 36% of the British public thought he should keep it, the New York Post reported.
An Oct. 30 YouGov poll also found that Harry’s popularity with the British publicly has declined significantly since he left the U.K.: Only 30% of respondents had a favorable view of him, while 58% had an unfavorable view, the YouGov poll showed. As for Meghan, 66% of respondents have an unfavorable view of the American former TV actor.
Harry’s decision to needle Trump was risky in other ways, Sykes pointed out. The Trump administration has reportedly canceled visas for people who criticize its policies or its MAGA supporters, while Harry’s residency status has faced scrutiny by Trump allies, Sykes said. The Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit in 2023 to force the Department of Homeland Security to publicly release Harry’s visa records to see if he failed to report past drug use on his application or if he received preferential treatment.
“Harry knows his residency has already been dangled as a political cudgel,” Sykes wrote. “Against that backdrop, his decision to publicly mock a famously thin-skinned U.S. president feels almost self-destructive.”