A veteran BBC journalist once made a brutal four-word swipe about Prince Harry and his family just before he retired.
Nicholas Witchell was a royal correspondent for the BBC for the last 25 years, having first joined the broadcaster in 1976.
Mr Witchell retired in 1976, and in a message ahead of the major change, he delivered a savage attack on the prince.
The 71-year-old had spent hundreds of hours in front of the camera delivering news about the royals, but in May 2019, he found himself unable to get his words out when announcing the birth of Prince Archie.
During the live broadcast outside Buckingham Palace, the former presenter handed back to the studio when he wasn’t meant to, which at the time prompted speculation online about possible ill-health.
But last year, Mr Witchell spoke to the Sunday Times and opened up about the mishap.
He told the outlet: “I wasn’t that interested,” in baby Archie’s birth, which could have contributed to him losing his words.
He said: “That was my worst single moment in 48 years.
“Drying up in front of the audience live on the telly.
“It was about Harry and Meghan, and maybe subconsciously, I just wasn’t that interested.”
He added: “I’ve obviously asked myself what went wrong.
“I was tired, you need to wind yourself up to stand there and do that, and I hadn’t. I was complacent, you cannot be complacent about live television because if you are, as I demonstrated in front of however many million people, it can bite you.”
