Prince Harry saying "cock cushion" live on a late-night talk show wasn't on my 2023 bingo card. But say it he did.
The Duke of Sussex recently made a guest appearance on The Late Show with host Stephen Colbert, capping off a round of press interviews to promote his newly released memoir, Spare.
At one point during their conversation, Colbert prompted Harry to elaborate on a point he mentioned in his book in which he confessed to having a frostbitten penis during the wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate. (Watch that part at time stamp 29:56 in the video.)
"You write a lot about your brother," Colbert began. "You call him Willy, but there is a different willy that also gave you some pain and trouble. You got frostbite."
"Frostnip," Harry corrected.
"Frostnip on a delicate part of your anatomy," Colbert continued. "Can you explain how it is that the royal standard got frostnip?" He later added, "Why did you not take care of the royal jewels? … The context of this is that you are going to the North Pole, and things got very cold. At what point did you realize there was a crisis at the South Pole?"
"First of all, it didn't turn into an icicle," Harry jokingly clarified. "It's fine now, thank you. The context was that these amazing veterans were doing a walk to the North Pole. They had all the training, I had none. And I turned up thinking, How bad can this be? … It's only the North Pole, it's only minus 35 degrees. I've got the salopettes, I've got the jacket, I've got the warm stuff, I've got all the things that I need. What I didn't have was what I had when I actually went to the South Pole, which was a cock cushion."
At this unexpected answer, Colbert broke into laugher. "No one in my life when I was a child could ever explain to me that someday the Duke of Sussex was gonna say the words 'cock cushion' to me and it would all make sense," the host said.
Harry then explained that his "delicate part" needed similar insular protection as the rest of his body. "A lovely lady who made a cushion for me having been told by the guide from the North Pole, 'He's doing this again, he's gonna need some extra protection.' Because the pants I was wearing … that's all I had. So my man piece, my Johnson, my Wilson, my todger, my willy, all the things and any other words … "
"The Tower of London," Colbert cheekily added. "Big Ben."
"That's new," Harry replied, continuing, "The piece was against one layer of clothing or two very thin layers of clothing. … And when you're walking, you're hot and you're trying not to sweat, because the sweat freezes, and once it's numb, you don't know the pain. It's just numb."
The royal said he didn't realize what damage had been done until weeks after he returned home. According to Harry, there was "nothing visible, nothing obvious. It was a slow deteriorating situation."
In the book, Harry writes that he told his family about his condition during a pre-wedding celebration.
"Pa was very interested, and sympathetic about the discomfort of my frost nipped ears and cheeks," he writes, per Page Six. "While the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn't. It was becoming more of an issue by the day."