Prince Harry's pal tells wildly inappropriate Prince Andrew joke at royal wedding

Former rugby player James Haskell, who is a friend of Prince Harry's and also hosts a podcast with Mike Tindall has spoken out about his experiences of spending time with the royals and admitted to telling a joke about Prince Andrew at a royal wedding

Prince Harry's former rugby-playing pal James Haskell has given his cryptic verdict on the royals and admitted telling an inappropriate joke about Prince Andrew at a royal wedding.

The ex-England international is known to have close links to the royals, not only due to his friendship with Harry but also his bond with Mike Tindall, whom he hosts a rugby podcast with.

His friendships mean he was invited to both Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018 as well as Zara and Mike's back in 2011. And in a new interview to promote his book with Mike and fellow podcast Alex Payne called The Good, The Bad and The Rugby - Unleashed, James shares his experience on what it's like to spend time with the royals.

He told The Times: "I've spent time with the royals. Some aren't as great as others. They do amazing work — but they're also a modern family that's very dysfunctional. I went to Harry and Meghan's wedding. I went to Mike and Zara's wedding. To those who want to get rid of the monarchy — once they're gone, they're gone. There's no way back from that, so remember that they serve an important role. I love what they do."

In the same interview, he also admitted to an 'inappropriate' joke he made at Mike and Zara's wedding. He said: "I told a joke about when I was at Mike's wedding: Prince Andrew was sweating up a storm on the dancefloor, but then he realised that everyone was over 18 so he left. It was inappropriate, but it was funny."

The joke refers to how the Duke of York denied he dancing and sweating with Virginia Giuffre at Tramp nightclub in London in his infamous Newsnight interview, where he claimed he had a medical condition, which made him unable to sweat.

It comes after James also opened up about his royal experiences in the book, co-authored by Royal Family member Mike, which was released last month. In the book, he recounts the time Mike made the savage dig at Harry during a live event several years after he and Meghan Markle had quit as working royals. And in the book, James reveals that the cheeky quip actually causes a 'minor kerfuffle'.

He writes: "He [Mike] even got into a bit of trouble when he appeared on a live version of A Question of Sport: he told a story about him and Iain Balshaw pretending to punch Prince Harry at a post-World Cup final party in 2003 and joked that the royal family wanted to fill him in for real. I say trouble but it was a bit of a minor kerfuffle, nothing to write home about."

However, James claims that the whole incident would have blown over if it wasn't for Harry and Meghan Markle biographer Omid Scobie, who stuck up for the prince, causing a social media pile-on. However, James explains that when it comes to Mike, he gives 'zero f***s' about things like that.

He writes: "It did come back into public consciousness when that very odd bloke Omid Scobie started sticking up for Harry and Meghan, and loads of trolls went in on Tins, especially about him wanting to fill in a young, defenceless Harry. All context, sarcasm and humour is lost, when things are taken out of the zone they were meant to be in.

"To be fair to Tins he gives zero f***s about stuff like that, but it's very annoying for him. Royal fans can be mental. I think we all know that American royal fans are f***ing nuts, especially Scobieites."