It is ill-advised to form judgments based on the behaviour of a talkshow audience, a group whose sympathies – stoked by hours of anticipation and the sunken cost of a day off work – would rally for any guest above the level of a pot plant. Still, after a week of intense media coverage in the US, Prince Harry stepping out before a studio audience on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night was the first sight we had of him interacting with something approximating the American public.
For days, American news outlets had speculated that the rollout around Spare was becoming overblown. But that night in New York, the audience heaved to its feet and gave the 38-year-old “husband, father, military veteran and activist”, per Colbert’s introduction, a warm standing ovation. Harry smiled sheepishly. It was, for British observers, deeply, unsettlingly odd.
