- During the reception at Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding in 2011, Prince Harry reportedly made his new sister-in-law tear up.
- Harry's touching words came as part of his best man speech, which was described as "affectionate, warm, and funny."
- The description of Harry's speech came courtesy of royal expert/biographer Katie Nicholl, who wrote about the moment in her book 2017 biography Harry: Life, Loss, and Love.
It's easy to forget this, but Prince Harry's reputation BMM (Before Meghan Markle) was much different than the public imagine he's had in his AMM (After Meghan Markle) life. Before he fell in love and started #adulting with Meghan, Harry was known as, well, first as a borderline Black Sheep (see: all of his cringe-y scandals from his late teens/early 20s) and then later as "the funny one."
Now that he's a husband and soon-to-be father, we also associate Harry with giving us collective warm fuzzies, but back in 2011, when Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot, Harry wasn't known for being serious. That might be why his sweet speech made such an impact.
"It was affectionate, warm and funny and touched William deeply," royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl wrote in her 2017 book Harry: Life, Loss, and Love, adding that the speech made Kate shed a (presumably single and glistening) tear and his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy get all smily. "When he said the couple’s decade-long romance was his inspiration, there was a shy smile from Chelsy, while Kate shed a tear."
Of course, Harry also included his signature humor—minus one comment that Chelsy (wisely) talked him out of making about Kate's body. Per Express:
"The speech was peppered with Harry’s classic sense of humor, and he ribbed his brother: 'William didn’t have a romantic bone in his body before he met Kate, so I knew it was serious when William suddenly started cooing down the phone at Kate.' Famous for his mimicry, Harry then impersonated his brother calling Kate 'Babykins,' to much laughter from the guests....[Chelsy] had helped Harry edit the best man’s speech, sensitively advising him to take out a line about Kate’s 'killer legs' that might have embarrassed the bride."
Good call, Chelsy.
