Prince Harry was roasted by a stand-up comedian by saying he and Meghan Markle pulled "the pin on the fun grenade" at a Halloween party.
Simon Brodkin, a well-known U.K. comedian who used to perform as Lee Nelson, used his live stand-up show to say the line was so cringey that he began "rooting for Prince Andrew."
The Duke of York, Andrew, stepped back from royal life in November 2019 over the scandal around his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
"I started off, I wanted to like them," Brodkin said. "They were making interesting points about racism. and misogyny , but then they started calling each other H and M and I just thought, 'Oh do f*** off.'
"Honestly, by the time Harry was describing a particular date with Meghan as the night they, quote, 'pulled the pin on a fun grenade,' I actually started rooting for Prince Andrew."
A clip of his remarks went viral on TikTok after it was viewed 330,000 times and liked 16,000 times.
The date Brodkin referenced was a Halloween party the night before Harry and Meghan's relationship became public for the first time, which the couple described in their December 2022 Netflix series Harry & Meghan.
@simonbrodkin Check out my tour. It's better than pulling the pin on a fun grenade💥 #princeharry #meghanmarkle #standupcomedy #funny #netflix #simonbrodkin ♬ original sound - Simon Brodkin 🎤🚌
"We went to this Halloween party together where we could be completely dressed up and no one would know," Harry told the show. "I had a bandana and goggles."
Meghan replied: "You borrowed a great costume. And we were like 'well this might be our last shot to just go out and have fun out in the world.'"
"Pull the pin on the fun grenade, which we did," Harry added.
Harry described in his book Spare how he dressed up in a real costume from the hit 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy.
They then went out to party with Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank at Soho House, Toronto, in 2016.
"For help with my costume," he wrote, "I'd turned to a friend, the actor Tom Hardy, before I left home. I'd phoned him to ask if I could borrow his costume from Mad Max.
"'The whole thing?' 'Yes, please, mate! The whole kit.' He'd given it all to me before I left Britain, and now I tried it on in Meg's little bathroom. When I came out, she roared with laughter.
"It was funny. And a little scary. But the main thing was I was unrecognizable."
"The party was loud, dark, drunk—ideal," he continued. "Several people did double-takes as Meg passed through the rooms, but no one looked twice at her dystopian date.
"I wished I could wear this disguise every day. I wished I could reuse it the next
day and visit her on the set of Suits."
Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
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