Katie Couric Recalls Meeting "Wild-Oats Sowing" Prince Harry in 2012

Journalists see a lot of things that, it’s safe to say ,famous people would probably rather they forget—especially famous people who have been well-known for their entire lives, like Prince Harry. But in her new memoir, Going There (opens in new tab), which comes out later this month, Katie Couric apparently shows she’s willing to, well, go there. Specifically, she reportedly recalls meeting the Prince for a 2012 interview at the height of his, as she calls it, “wild-oat sowing phase.”

Couric is a veteran journalist of nearly 40 years, and so you know she’s seen some things. And her new memoir apparently dishes some no-holds-barred gossip on Martha Stewart, Diane Sawyer, and her Today Show co-hosts. But it’s the snippet about meeting a wild child Prince Harry that is catching people’s attention.

The interview took place at a polo match in Brazil in 2012, according to Newsweek (opens in new tab), for a special that aired later to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Their chat was full of sweet moments—especially around Harry talking about his close relationship with his grandmother and how he “longed” to one day have children of his own (remember that this is at least four years before he met Meghan Markle).

But per the Daily Mail (opens in new tab), Couric noted that the Prince was clearly in a partying phase. The publication quotes her book as saying the smell of cigarettes and alcohol seemed to “ooze out of every pore in his body.” This was just a few months before his infamous Las Vegas trip (remember when he was photographed playing naked pool at a party?)

For his part, Harry revisited the chaotic time in his late-20s during his Apple TV docuseries, The Me You Can’t See, saying, “I would find myself drinking not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something,” according to Newsweek.

See a clip from the Katie Couric interview with Prince Harry below:

Despite the darkness we now know was in his life at the time, Harry still gave such a sweet interview—and gotta love the part where he jokes that his grandmother hasn’t friended him on Facebook yet.

Going There comes out October 26, 2021. You can pre-order it here (opens in new tab).