Ellen DeGeneres is back from her summer hiatus with a royal tale.
The talk show host revealed in clip from her show on Monday that she and wife Portia de Rossi spent a summer afternoon during their vacation in the UK with none other than Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
“Here’s a sentence I thought I would never say, but I spent the afternoon with Prince Harry and Meghan,” DeGeneres said to thunderous applause, before quipping, “I just want to say it was an honour for them to meet me.”
“Seriously, they are so amazing. They’re the cutest couple and so down-to-earth,” she told the audience. “And I hate it ― I see them get attacked, and it’s not fair. They’re just two of the most down-to-earth, compassionate people. They’re doing so much good for the world.”
DeGeneres spoke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s work with elephants in Botswana, and her and de Rossi’s work with gorillas in Rwanda, adding that the famous couples all want to “do something together.”
“I mean I can’t tell you how sweet they are,” DeGeneres added, “but the most important thing is I got to hold little Archie ― the baby. I fed Archie, I held Archie.”
She joked that the little one “weighs 15 pounds, which is, the exchange rate, is 17 dollars here!” and said that “he looks like Harry and he had more hair than I did at the time.”
Though she didn’t provide a photo of the group hanging out together, she did show the audience a picture she drew of Archie to lots of laughs.
DeGeneres revealed in August that she had met the duke and duchess, but didn’t provide many details. She defended the royal couple on Twitter after Harry and Meghan were criticised for reportedly taking four private flights in 11 days, apparently contradicting the values of environmentalism and conservatism they regularly promote.
“Portia and I met Prince Harry and Meghan in England to talk about their work on wildlife conservation,” DeGeneres tweeted at the time.
“They were the most down-to-earth, compassionate people. Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you’re trying to do is make the world better,” she added.