See Prince Harry and Tom Hanks' Hilarious Backstage Mix-Up at 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'
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Prince Harry wasn't the only royalty in the building of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, joined the talk show Tuesday to promote his memoir, Spare, on the day of its global release, appearing opposite Tom Hanks in a lighthearted skit at the opening of the episode.
At the start of the segment, Colbert waited in a hallway with two trumpet heralds wearing "LS" (apparently standing for Late Show) on their chests.
"Where is he?" Colbert asked, acting annoyed. "He's coming," said a staffer who ran past, prompting the musicians to begin to play.
RELATED: Prince Harry Tells PEOPLE: Spare Is a Raw Account of the 'Good, the Bad and Everything in Between'
When Prince Harry turned around the corner, he said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop! Stephen, not needed, but thank you, I appreciate it."
"What are you talking about? This isn't for you," Colbert, 58, said of the regal welcome. "Get out of the way. He's coming!"
Strolling into view, Hanks joked, "I'm back! where's my fanfare?" as the comedian saluted, the trumpeters played and Harry threw red petals at the Oscar winner, who appeared on The Late Show Monday.
The playful spot prefaced Prince Harry's sit-down interview with the host, which had a more serious tone. Harry discussed the "cathartic" process of writing Spare, his military service in Afghanistan, the worldwide fascination with the royal family and what Princess Diana would make of it all today. He also said that a rift wouldn't have driven him and Prince William apart if their mother was still alive.
RELATED: Kate Middleton Seen for First Time Since Release of Prince Harry's Memoir
"If your mother were still alive, do you ever think about how she might handle this moment?" Colbert asked Harry, referencing the tension between him and the Prince of Wales.
"We wouldn't have got to this moment," Harry replied. "It's impossible to say where we would be now — where those relationships would be now — but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same."
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE The book jacket of Prince Harry's memoir 'Spare'
When asked by Colbert if he calls upon his mother for help or thinks of the advice she may have given him, Harry said, "I've said quite a lot recently in different interviews that I've really felt the presence of my mom, especially in the last couple of years. And I detail in the book my brother and I talking at her grave and how he felt as though she had been with him for a long period of time and helped set him up with life and that he felt she was now moving over to me."
"And I have felt her more in the last two years than I have in the last 30," Harry added.
For more from PEOPLE's exclusive interview with Harry, check out this week's issue, on newsstands Friday
Jenna Jones
Prince Harry covers this week's exclusive issue of PEOPLE, where he opened up about mourning his mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997 at age 36.
"I struggled for years to accept or even speak about my mother's death. I was unable to process that she was gone. I'm not sure anyone can ever truly have closure when they lose a parent, or anyone for that matter, especially when that grief may be the only thing left of them," he tells PEOPLE of grieving Diana.
"The healing process has allowed me to get to a place where I now feel the presence of my mum more than ever before," Harry says. "She's with me all the time — my guardian angel."
