Prince Harry backed out of hosting ‘Saturday Night Live,’ fearing harm to public image, report says

A new report confirms that Prince Harry was on tap to host “Saturday Night Live” in January, amid his promotional blitz for his memoir “Spare,” but the report says he backed out at “the last minute” due to concerns that it could make him appear too much like a “celebrity” and less like the respected public figure he wants to be.

The Duke of Sussex was all set to host “Saturday Night Live” — until he wasn’t, according to a report by The Ankler. Lorne Michaels and other producers had been negotiating with Harry’s camp for weeks to host, presumably timing his appearance  to the January publication of “Spare,” his massively best-selling tell-about about the dark side of royal life.

The “SNL” hosting gig by Harry, who’s expected to appear Saturday at King Charles III’s coronation, would have coincided with other high-profile TV appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, including interviews with “60 Minutes’s” Anderson Cooper and “The Late Show’s” Stephen Colbert. As The Ankler said, hosting “SNL” is considered to be one of the most coveted celebrity gigs and “a rite-of-passage” for any actor, comedian, musician or sports star looking to elevate or cement their profile.

But after “a soft yes,” Harry backed out, The Ankle reported. A source with knowledge of the situation told The Ankler: “I think he was feeling oversaturated and questioning whether he was becoming too much of a ‘celebrity’ as opposed to a figurehead.”

Harry definitely became one of the most talked-about humans on the planet in January, and not just because of “truths” he shared about his dysfunctional family or his claims that King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William sidelined him, were unwelcoming to his American wife, Meghan Markle, or colluded with a racist and intrusive U.K. tabloid media to raise their public profiles at his and Meghan’s expense.

Harry also generated plenty of internet memes and late-night jokes for his revelations in “Spare” about his alleged kitchen tussle with William, the manner in which he says he lost his virginity and the agony he said he felt after his penis became frostbitten during a trip to the Arctic.

With all that, Harry perhaps felt that hosting “SNL” would hurt he desire to be seen as a serious world leader, given that hosts must be willing to make themselves look silly or to be the targets of humor. The Ankler said it’s easy to see how Harry’s “frozen todger” and other salacious stories in “Spare” could have provided “ample grist for SNL writers to dream up some hilarious bits.”

Back in early February, Page Six cited multiple sources in a report that also said that Harry had recently backed out of hosting “SNL” at the 11th hour.

“I know that Harry was all in, he was really serious about doing it — and it would have been great fun as promo for the book,” one well-placed TV source told Page Six. “‘SNL’ producers have been after Harry for a while. Everyone on the show was really into the idea, and people would definitely have tuned in.”

The Ankler said a spokesperson for NBC Universal declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Archewell, Harry’s production company with Meghan, also declined to comment.