By Marisa Laudadio
5:27am PST, Feb 28, 2021
Prince Harry was candid, relaxed, playful and quite funny when he joined fellow Brit James Corden for an interview on an open-air double-decker tour bus in a segment that aired on the Feb. 25 episode of the comedy star's "The Late Late Show" on CBS. As the pair visited the house where the sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was set, enjoyed tea together and even competed in a military-style training course, James coaxed out some fun new stories and revelations from the Duke of Sussex. Keep reading to find out what Queen Elizabeth II got great-grandson Archie for Christmas, Archie's impressive first word, the adorable nickname Duchess Meghan has for Harry, what the royal really thinks of "The Crown," why Harry really got his family out of England last year and much more…
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Harry experienced a fun first
The interview began atop a double-decker tour bus as Prince Harry and James Corden drove around Los Angeles taking in the sights. The Duke of Sussex admitted it was a new experience for him. "This is the first time I've been on an open-top bus. Not really allowed to," he explained. "When I was in London, I'd always see them cruising around, [with] tourists… when you live in an area you never actually go sightseeing. I've always wanted to go sightseeing." Harry, who lives about 90 minutes north of the city in Montecito, California, also told James that because his wife's hometown has been in coronavirus lockdown for most of the last year, "this is the first time I've had a chance to see L.A."
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This is how he takes his tea
After James Corden rolled out a tea service cart as the bus drove around ("a little slice of home," James said), the world learned how Prince Harry takes his tea: with milk and sugar. "Put it all in," he told James as the late night host poured. "That's quite nice," Harry added as he took a sip. He later quipped that since James has "Carpool Karaoke," maybe he can do "English tea on the 405."
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He has some thoughts on "The Crown," the Netflix show about his family
Prince Harry revealed that he has, unlike some of his relatives, watched the award-winning Netflix show about his family — "The Crown" — and seems to approve. When James asked how he feels about the series, Harry explained, "They don't pretend to be news. It's fictional. But it's loosely based on the truth. Of course it's not strictly accurate, but loosely… it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that." He continued, "I'm way more comfortable with 'The Crown' than I am seeing the [media] stories written about my family or my wife or myself because it's the difference between, that is obviously fiction, take it how you will, but this is being reported on as fact because you're supposedly news. I have a real issue with that."
He has an actor in mind to play him on "The Crown"
Who does Prince Harry think should play him on The Crown as the next two seasons creep closer to the present day? "Daniel Lewis?" he said tentatively before James Corden helped him with a polite correction: "Damian Lewis! I think Damian Lewis as you and me as [your brother Prince] William, that's casting." Harry's response? "It's not great casting, but it is casting."
He's quite familiar with a certain classic American TV sitcom
Prince Harry knows the lyrics to Will Smith's "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song. James Corden surprised him by having the bus drive to what he called "the perfect house" for a British royal in Southern California: The home featured on the hit sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Quipped James, "If it's good enough for the Fresh Prince, it's good enough for a real prince!" As they walked up to the door, Harry half-sang, half rapped part of the theme tune with James before meeting the home's current owners. "Think about how cool it would be to go, 'I'm a prince and I live in the house of the Fresh Prince,'" James joked. Harry even popped inside to use the bathroom!
Duchess Meghan reveals her sweet nickname for her husband
Duchess Meghan has an adorable nickname for Prince Harry. She revealed it when James Corden called her from the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" house to try to get her to agree that they needed it as their Los Angeles base. "You'd be the Fresh Princess of Bel-Air," the late night host told Meghan (who, by the way, Harry calls "Meg"). She wasn't having it. "I think we've done enough moving," she said. Then she asked her husband if he was enjoying himself. "Haz, how's your tour of L.A. going?" she inquired, which delighted James, who said to Harry, "I didn't know we were calling you 'Haz' now." Harry hit back, "No, well, you're not my wife."
He has an affection for a particular game show
What's a regular night in these days for Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, who's expecting their second child? James Corden found out. "Depending on how the day's been, how busy it's been, we do Archie's tea," Harry began, "tea" in this case being not the drink but a common British term for supper, "give him a bath, read him a book, put him down, go downstairs, Meg might cook a meal, might order a takeaway, go upstairs, sit in bed, turn the TV on, watch some 'Jeopardy!,' maybe a little bit of Netflix."
He likes to brag about his son like any dad
Prince Harry is like any proud dad when it comes to his toddler son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. "My son is now just over a year and a half [old]. He is hysterical. He's got the most amazing personality. He's already putting three, four words together. He's already singing songs," Harry told James Corden. Archie's first word? "Crocodile — three syllables!" the royal dad bragged.
Archie loves his Christmas gift from the queen and enjoys it every morning
"My grandmother asked us what Archie wanted for Christmas and Meg said a waffle maker. She sent us a waffle maker for Archie so [for] breakfast, Meg makes up a beautiful organic mix in the waffle maker," Harry told James Corden, making sizzling noises as he motioned flipping the kitchen appliance. "He loves it. And now I have waffles for breakfast — a bit of yogurt, a bit of jam on top, I don't know if that's the right thing to do, a bit of berries, a little bit of honey, maybe some syrup. [Now] Archie wakes up in the morning and literally just goes, 'waffle?'" The queen and husband Prince Philip also both know how to use Zoom, Harry confirmed while revealing that the monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh have used it to check in on their great-grandson. "Both my grandparents [use it]. We've seen them a few times, they've seen Archie running around," he said. Philip, however, can be a bit abrupt with technology. "My grandfather, instead of pressing 'leave meeting,' he just goes [doof!]," Harry added as he motioned slamming a laptop shut.
He knew Meghan was the woman for him right away
James Corden asked Prince Harry when he knew that Duchess Meghan, whom he started dating in the summer of 2016, was the one. Harry said he knew very quickly. "The second date, I was starting to think, 'Wow, this is pretty special.' … It was just the fact the way that we hit it off with each other, and we were just so comfortable in each other's company," Harry explained. "Dating with me or with any member of the royal family, I guess, is kind of flipped upside down. All the dates become dinners or watching the TV or chatting at home, and then eventually, once you become a couple, then you venture out to dinners, to the cinema and everything else so, everything was done back to front with us. So actually, we got to spend an enormous amount of time just the two of us rather than going to friends' houses or out for dinner where there were other distractions. It was an amazing thing. We went from 0 to 60, like, in the first two months."
He says he never walked away from the royal family and will always live a life of service
James Corden also got serious with Prince Harry, asking him what life is like now — or what he's excited for it to be once coronavirus lockdowns are over — a year after he and Duchess Meghan moved to the States. "I have no idea. A slightly different version but a continuation of what we were doing in the U.K. anyway. That's what our life — my life is always going to be about public service, and Meghan's signed up to that, and the two of us enjoy doing that, trying to bring some compassion and trying to make people happy and trying to change the world in any small way that we can." James also asked why Harry felt it was necessary to walk away as senior royals last year. Harry responded, "It was never walking away. It was stepping back rather than stepping down. It was a really difficult environment, as I think a lot of people saw. We all know what the British press can be like and it was destroying my mental health. I was like, this is toxic. So I did what any husband and what any father would do, [it was] like, I need to get my family out of here. But we never walked away. And as far as I'm concerned, whatever decisions are made on that side, I will never walk away — I will always be contributing. My life is public service. Wherever I am in the world, it's going to be the same thing."
