Billy Eichner says "even Beyonce" was nervous about meeting the Duchess of Sussex.
The 40-year-old actor – who voices Timon in ‘The Lion King’ – has admitted he and his co-stars were all starstruck when it came to meeting Prince Harry and his wife Duchess Meghan at the movie’s London premiere last week.
Speaking on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, he said: "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle came, and Beyonce was there, and Sir Elton John was there.
"And I was there, randomly. And it was great, and we were all kind of nervous, even Beyonce."
When chat show host Jimmy joked that the British royals "should be bowing" to the ‘Formation’ hitmaker – who plays Nala in Disney’s photo realistic animated remake of the 1994 classic – Billy revealed the stars had "very intense" instructions about the "protocol".
He quipped: "That’s true, actually. She’s our American royalty. But what makes you nervous is in the days leading up to it, they email you a protocol of how you’re supposed to greet Prince Harry and they’re very intense about it.
"I’m not kidding. You’re supposed to say, ‘Your Royal Highness.’ You can’t speak until your hands are in a handshake with his.
"My plus one, my guest I brought with me, my very good friend Jared, they said he had to stand behind me and not speak unless he was spoken to – I’m not kidding. I was like, ‘Does that same rule apply to Jay-Z?’ I have a feeling it doesn’t."
Billy recently revealed that when he finally got to speak to the royals, he ended up chatting to the former ‘Suits’ star – who was known as Meghan Markle before marrying Harry last year – about college, as they both attended the theatre programme at Northwestern University in Illinois.
He said: "We both went to Northwestern which is outside of Chicago which has a big theatre programme. And she was a theatre major, I was a theatre major and so when I met her the other night all we did is have this strange casual conversation about our acting teachers. Because we had some of the same acting teachers."
Billy Eichner: ‘Even Beyonce’ was nervous about meeting Duchess Meghan
