‘Who was that?’: Prince Harry gets foul-mouthed and raises his fist to an actor as latest TV appearance doesn’t go to plan

Prince Harry has broken all kinds of taboos since splitting from the Royal family in 2020, committing many a shocking first that no progeny of the British monarch has done before. Spill the family’s secrets to Oprah and Netflix, for example, or take legal action against the press. Not to mention coming close to having his visa rejected due to undeclared drug use. Here’s another one to add to the list: scream and swear and nearly punch a guy in the face on national television.

The Duke of Sussex has currently left wife Meghan Markle and family in Montecito, California to spend two weeks on his lonesome in New York. On the whole, Harry is in NYC on business, attending the back-to-back UN Week and Climate Week, but he’s also found time to unwind, too, including attending swanky lunches with other royals and even doing something we’ve certainly never seen him do before: take on some zombies with Jimmy Fallon.

Prince Harry entered a haunted house, but he might have frightened the actors more

This spooky season, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is launching a haunted house walk-through, punningly titled Tonightmares, located in the show’s home of Rockefeller Center. Before it opens to the public, and no doubt becomes a regular skit on the show for the next couple months, Fallon tested it out on a very special guest: Prince Harry.

Harry and Fallon previewed the haunted maze on the Sep. 26 edition of the talk show, and it’s a relief to know that even royals get as easily spooked as the rest of us. Watch the clip above and you’ll see that, at every growl and jump-scare courtesy of a performer dressed in ghoulish costume and make-up, Harry yelps and swears like a sailor. This is the royal content we need more of. I ask you, why wasn’t there an episode of The Crown where Queen Elizabeth faced off against the undead and screamed “Jesus f***!”

But spare a moment of thought for the Tonightmares actors who got a fright themselves when they jumped up out of their coffins to see an actual prince standing there. In one hilarious moment, cameras capture the moment when, once Harry and Fallon have passed through the room, one actor turns to her colleague and asks who that was. “Prince Harry,” she’s told, at which point she covers her mouth in disbelief.

Harry’s on witty form throughout — “Is that Michael Buble?” he asks, when a zombie with an uncanny resemblance to The Voice judge jumps out at him — but the best part comes at the end. Harry believes he’s made it through the haunted house alive and Fallon instructs him to pose for a photo. Instead, there’s one last scare as a performer emerges from a hatch behind Harry, at which point he screams in surprise and automatically raises a fist as if to punch him.

This was Harry’s only appearance on the show, as he didn’t stick around to feature as an interview guest. At least this made for a nice change of pace from the bad press surrounding the Sussexes right now. Is it too late for Harry to ditch his upcoming polo docuseries for Netflix and do Prince Harry: Zombie Puncher instead?