Traitors fandom, a near-miss with a pop star’s photo and a childhood dream that did not quite work out. Royals give speeches, cut ribbons and occasionally sit down for carefully planned interviews. What they rarely do is join celebrities on a sofa for a late-night chat show. On October 23, Prince William did exactly that.
He appeared on a special Earthshot Prize edition of The Graham Norton Show on BBC One, becoming the first working royal to be a guest on a British talk show.
A Royal First on BBC One
The episode, filmed the day before at Television Centre in London, was dedicated to the Earthshot Prize, the environmental award William founded. Fellow guests included Cate Blanchett, a member of the prize council, Robert Irwin, a global ambassador, and Hannah Waddingham, who hosted the 2023 awards. Singer Jorja Smith performed in the studio.
The appearance came ahead of this year’s Earthshot ceremony in Mumbai in November, which will award a total of 5 million pounds in prize money.
The DJ Name He Once Chose
The most quoted moment came when William talked about his childhood ambitions. Besides wanting to be a police officer, he once dreamed of becoming a DJ, and even picked a stage name. “I was called DJ Xara with an X,” he admitted. “It wasn’t good.”
A Family of Traitors Fans
He also revealed what the Wales family watches together. “I love it, the family love it. Charlotte and Louis are obsessed with it. It’s really good telly,” he said of The Celebrity Traitors, adding a joke about one of its contestants, Ross Kemp: “Turns out he was actually very jumpy.”
The Photo With Taylor Swift
William also returned to one of the most widely shared photos of his recent years: the selfie he took backstage with Taylor Swift at her Eras Tour concert at Wembley in June 2024, with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Travis Kelce. The image became one of the first that Swift shared publicly featuring herself and Kelce together.
William admitted he had not understood its importance at the time. “I hadn’t appreciated the significance,” he said. “Actually, I was trying to move him out of the photo, and he just kept coming back in. I kept trying to move him out, so it was just me, Taylor and the children.”
He also shared an anecdote about being mistaken for the late musician Prince: a man he met on a visit, he said, “wanted me to sing Purple Rain,” a song whose words he did not know.
Why the Appearance Matters
For years, the royal family has kept a careful distance from entertainment television. William’s decision to join a talk show, with humor and personal stories, shows a more relaxed approach to communication, especially when it helps promote a cause he cares about.
It also offered viewers a rare glimpse of family life: children hooked on a reality show, a father poking fun at his own teenage dreams and a famous photo with a story behind it.
The Bottom Line
Prince William became the first working royal on a British talk show, and he revealed the DJ name he once picked for himself. DJ Xara may never have made it to the clubs, but his appearance on Graham Norton’s sofa certainly got people talking.
