{"id":617166,"date":"2025-12-07T03:30:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T03:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/617166\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T03:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T03:30:27","slug":"prince-harry-jokingly-compares-royal-family-drama-to-downton-abbey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/617166\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry Jokingly Compares Royal Family Drama to Downton Abbey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Harry<\/strong><\/a> poked fun at drama within the royal family during a Christmas party speech.<\/p>\n

The Duke of Sussex, 41, compared Britain\u2019s aristocracy to the soapy period drama Downton Abbey in tongue-in-cheek fashion during an appearance at the British-American Business Council\u2019s annual Christmas luncheon in Santa Monica, California, on Friday, December 5, according to People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sometimes ask if growing up with the royal family was a bit like [show creator Julian Fellowes<\/strong>\u2019] Downton Abbey,\u201d he began. \u201cYeah, but only one of those worlds is filled with drama, intrigue, elaborate dinners [and] marriages to Americans \u2014 and the other is a TV show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prince was humorously referencing his 2018 marriage to American actress \u200b\u200bMeghan Markle<\/strong>. The couple share two children: Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Prince
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: Prince Harry’s Ups and Downs With the Royal Family Over the Years<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrince Harry\u2018s relationship with his relatives is complex and complicated. Harry is the youngest son of King Charles III and the late Princess Diana. As children, he and his older brother, Prince William, seemed inseparable, but as they got older, cracks began to form in their relationship. \u201cThere\u2019s always been a part of Harry that [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

He has also had his share of family drama, though he reportedly made peace with his father, King Charles III<\/strong>, during a U.K. visit in September. Us Weekly reported<\/a> at the time that there was still \u201congoing tension\u201d between Harry and his brother, Prince William<\/strong>, due to the former\u2019s \u201cpublic disclosures, memoir revelations and interviews and criticisms of [William and wife Kate Middleton<\/strong>\u2019s] roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his Christmas party speech, Harry offered another zinger about President Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s immigration policy while discussing the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. is cohosting with Canada and Mexico. The royal quipped that he was excited to meet some of the athletes from \u201cacross the pond\u201d when they arrived stateside, provided they get \u201cthrough customs\u201d and \u201cpast ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry mentioned that his appearance for the British-American Business Council was his \u201cfirst Christmas party\u201d in \u201ca while,\u201d before speaking more seriously about what it has been like to move to the U.S. (Harry and Meghan, 44, moved their family from Frogmore Cottage in the U.K. to Canada in early 2020 after stepping down as working royals. They have since relocated to California.)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, being British isn\u2019t about where you physically stand, but what you stand for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Speaking about celebrating the July 4 holiday, Harry joked: \u201cIt\u2019s a new world to me, celebrating independence from Britain, and more specifically, independence from my great, great, great, great, great, great-grandfather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-2240181306
\n Prince Harry in September 2025. Suzanne Plunkett – Pool\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Harry has had a very busy week, as he made a cameo appearance<\/a> on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in New York City on Wednesday, December 3. He crashed host Stephen Colbert<\/strong>\u2019s monologue as the comedian made light of the trend of streaming royal-themed Christmas movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, I genuinely thought this was the audition for The Gingerbread Prince Saves Christmas in Nebraska,\u201d Harry teased as he walked on stage.<\/p>\n

Colbert feigned surprise over Harry wanting to star in his own Christmas movie, though the comedian admitted that the title \u201csounds fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies and you\u2019re obsessed with royalty, so why not?\u201d Harry replied.<\/p>\n

Later in the segment, Harry poked fun at President Trump when Colbert objected to his theory that America is \u201cobsessed with royalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally? I heard you elected a king,\u201d Harry jokingly retorted, with Colbert conceding that the prince \u201chas a point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Harry\u2019s media appearances, he and Meghan had a challenging few days. Meghan\u2019s brother, Thomas Markle Jr.<\/strong>, confirmed to the Daily Mail<\/a> on Friday that their father, Thomas Markle<\/strong>, had his left leg amputated below the knee after falling in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere was no option given. It was either, \u2018We have to operate now and remove the leg, or he may die.\u2019 It was a life-threatening situation,\u201d Thomas Jr. explained.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex later confirmed to Us<\/a>\u00a0that she got in touch with her father, 81, following his surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm she has reached out to her father,\u201d her rep said on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Harry poked fun at drama within the royal family during a Christmas party speech. The Duke of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[2406,12,5105,7710,519,448,14066],"class_list":{"0":"post-617166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-holidays","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-royal","11":"tag-royal-families","12":"tag-royal-family","13":"tag-royals","14":"tag-the-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115676173763143616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}