Prince Harry and Katie Couric have an awkward, complex history.
Despite a years-spanning smear campaign, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle still receive ample invitations and attend plenty of events. It’s just that none of them involve other members of the British royal family.
This week, it’s a series of appearances in New York. Prince Harry is honoring his late mother, Princess Diana.
But the Duke of Sussex may have just had an uncomfortable run-in with Katie Couric.
Katie Couric and Prince Harry Have Met Before
This is going to sound a little random, but bear with us.
On Tuesday, September 24, Prince Harry participated in the Everything Everywhere All At Once global issues panel at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting.
Prince Harry, Chelsea Clinton, former president Bill Clinton, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the legendary Dame Jane Goodall are all part of the conversation. And so, too, is Katie Couric.
In 2012, Katie Couric interviewed a then 27-year-old Prince Harry. This was around the time of the late Queen Elizabeth II, his grandmother, celebrating her DIamond Jubilee.
Katie Couric reflected upon this meeting with Prince Harry in her 2021 memoir, Going There. Suffice it to say that the young prince did not make a good impression upon her at the time.
According to her recollection, Prince Harry reeked of cigarettes and alcohol, with the noxious odor “oozing from every pore.”
Do Prince Harry and Katie Couric have a beef?
On the one hand, 27-year-olds are allowed to drink alcohol just about anywhere that alcohol itself is legal. At the same time, it is very unbecoming to participate in an interview while intoxicated. Even if you’re in your 20s.
There is of course no excuse for smoking cigarettes. It’s not a personal choice — the smell, as Katie Couric clearly recalls, can be enough to ruin someone else’s day. Not to mention the health risks to others.
We can acknowledge, however, that Europe is weirdly chill about cigarette smoking in ways that the United States has not been in many decades. Though Katie Couric’s journalism career has spanned decades and the globe, she would find this off-putting and unprofessional. As many of us would.
That said, Prince Harry is currently 40 years old. In 2012, he was 27. (His birthday was just last week, in fact)
27 is more than old enough to know better than to show up smelling like the back door to an unsavory bar. However, the thirteen year interim is more than enough time for Prince Harry to have grown and changed.
In that time, he has met the love of his life. He married Meghan Markle. They welcomed two beautiful children. And they also fled the toxic nightmare of the royal firm to live their own lives.
How did the panel go?
Katie Couric moderated Tuesday’s panel. There, Prince Harry discussed a cause near and dear to his royal heart — African Parks.
People doesn’t report anything going awry. Harry discussed the role that this parks program plays in conservation, combating climate change, and more.
Harry’s involvement with African Parks began in 2016. As we noted, a lot has changed since he stank up an interview with Katie Couric.
