Prince William recalls bizarre moment someone mistook him for Prince the singer

A bit of a surprise addition to the usual vibe of line-up on The Graham Norton Show, Prince William took to the red sofa last night (23 October).

The first royal to appear on the chat show, he joined Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham, Robert Irwin and musical guest, Jorja Smith.

The Prince of Wales primarily came on the show to talk about the Earthshot Prize, as the episode marked a special Earthshot edition of Graham Norton’s show.

But outside of his project to ‘celebrate and scale the solutions that will repair our planet’, William also spoke about meeting Taylor Swift, his family’s love of The Celebrity Traitors and the bizarre time someone mistook him for Prince. Not Prince Harry or another royal Prince but rather the music royalty Prince.

It was a special Earthshot Prize edition of the chat show. (Matt Crossick/Assignments/Press Association)

Despite being such a famous face all over the world, William insists that ‘quite regularly’ people will meet him who don’t have a clue who he is.

“I went to a place in Somerset and was looking around some of the local communities there, and one lovely gentleman looked up at me from his seat and said, ‘When are you going to sing?’,” he recalled.

Now, I think us Brits might have an air of scepticism around this story, because let’s be honest it sounds like an incredible bit to do if you were to bump into royalty.

“I’ve had many requests over many years from all ranging parts of society, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, what do you mean?’,” Wiliam continued.

“He goes, ‘When are you going to sing your performance?’, and the lady behind tapped his arm and went, ‘No, no, he’s not that prince’.”

Apparently, it turned out the bloke was wanting the Prince of Wales to sing ‘Purple Rain’. But here’s maybe the most shocking bit: William doesn’t know the lyrics to that.

He also said he wanted to be a policeman when he was a kid. (Matt Crossick/Assignments/Press Association)

He did however explain that when he was a child he had two dream careers: being a police man or being a DJ.

“I did want to be a policeman when I was younger, I did think I would be a good policeman,” he said.

“And then I went through a phase where I wanted to be a DJ, which didn’t go very well, and I came up with a name, I was called DJ Xara with an X, it wasn’t good.”

Like all of us though, William has been loving The Celebrity Traitors as he says Charlotte and Louis are ‘obsessed’.

“It’s really good telly,” he added. “I saw Ross Kemp the day after the first episode and I couldn’t help but try – in the most appropriate way – to touch him to see what reaction I got from him. Turns out he was actually very jumpy!”

He joked he didn't want Kelce in the snap. (taylorswift/Instagram)

As for other musicians, William spoke about the time he met Taylor Swift backstage when she performed at London’s Wembley Stadium in June 2024 and they snapped a selfie.

He didn't realise the 'significance' of the snap until recently, as it became the first one the singer shared of her and now-husband, Travis Kelce, together.

The Prince joked: “I hadn’t appreciated the significance, and 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.”