Yes, Prince Harry Watches (and ‘Fact-Checks’) ‘The Crown’

Royals—as we’re rapidly discovering—are just like us. Since the bombshell release of Spare, Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir about life within and beyond the palace walls, he’s provided relatable details on everything from familial strife to his affinity for Friends. (He’s “a Chandler,” by the way.) On Tuesday night, the Duke of Sussex stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where he revealed that he also binge-watches The Crown with Google open.

Between anecdotes about brotherly betrayal and his frostbitten penis, Harry admitted, “Yes, I have actually watched The Crown,” clarifying, “the older stuff and the more recent stuff.” (So…all of it?) When asked if he did any “fact-checking” while watching the series, he replied, “Yes, I do, actually. Which, by the way, is another reason why it’s so important that history has it right.” Alas, Harry didn’t do any live corrections on the depiction of his father, King Charles, and stepmother Queen Consort Camilla’s infamous Tampongate phone call or Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of his late mother, Princess Diana.  

He previously confessed to watching the Emmy-winning show about his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, during another late-night appearance. “They don’t pretend to be news—it’s fictional, but it’s loosely based on the truth,” Harry told James Corden (who gets a shout-out in Spare’s acknowledgments section). “It gives you a rough idea about…what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else—what can come from that.”

The estranged royal continued, “I’m way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family, my wife, or myself. That is obviously fiction—take it how you will—but this is being reported on as fact because it’s supposedly news. I have a real issue with that.”