When Prince Harry Recalled Tripping on Mushrooms at Courteney Cox’s Party: “I Was a Chandler”

Prince Harry published his tell-all memoir, Spare, in January 2023. The book detailed his life as a royal and revealed many secrets about his ‘guarded’ life. He recounted how he dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and became dependent on the hit sitcom Friends . “Day after day, night after night, I sat around eating takeaway, watching 24 . Or Friends . I think I might’ve watched every episode of Friends in 2013. I decided I was a Chandler,” he said. According to People , he also recalled the day he had taken magic mushrooms at Courtney Cox’s house and believed the toilet to be a monster.

“We spotted a huge box of black diamond mushroom chocolates ,” he wrote. “Somebody behind me said they were for everybody. Help yourself, boys. My mate and I grabbed several, gobbled them, and washed them down with tequila…Beside the toilet was a round silver bin, the kind with a foot pedal to open the lid. I stared at the bin. It stared back…I stepped on the pedal. A huge open grin,” he hilariously continued. “Now the loo became a head too. The bowl was its gaping maw and the hinges of the seat were its piercing silver eyes. It said. ‘Aaah.'” Harry claimed he laughed as he left the bathroom.

The Duke took solace in the popular NBC sitcom while managing panic episodes following his return from a second tour of Afghanistan ten years prior. He shared that on returning to London, he felt uneasy in front of cameras and crowds and so often chose to stay home. “People often speculated that I was clinging to my bachelor life because it was so glamorous. Many evenings I’d think, ‘If only they could see me now.’ Then I’d go back to folding my underwear and watching ‘The One with Monica and Chandler’s Wedding.’ ” He wrote, “Every night I’d go straight home from work, eat over the sink, then catch up on paperwork , Friends on low in the background.”

The Duke of Sussex added that he was thrilled when he finally met the Friends star in person at a party at Cox’s house on a visit to the United States, in January 2016. “We went from the home of [my friend] Thomas’ girlfriend to the home of Courteney Cox. She was a friend of Thomas’ girlfriend and had more room. Also, she was traveling, on a job, and didn’t mind if we crashed at her place,” Harry wrote. “No complaints from me. As a Friends fanatic, the idea of crashing at Monica’s was highly appealing. And amusing. But then…Courteney turned up. I was very confused. Was her job canceled? I didn’t think it was my place to ask. Does this mean we have to leave?”

“She smiled. ‘Of course not Harry. Plenty of room,'” he recalled. “But I was still confused because…she was Monica. And I was a Chandler. I wondered if I’d ever work up the courage to tell her. Was there enough tequila in California to get me that brave?” That was when the Duke ended up consuming the psychedelic drugs. According to Vanity Fair , Cox affirmed that Prince Harry did stay at her place but refused to comment about the mushroom episode.

She said, “He did stay here for a couple of days— probably two or three. He’s a really nice person…I haven’t read the book. I do want to hear it because I have heard it’s really entertaining,” she said. “But yes, it’s gotten back to me about it. I’m not saying there were mushrooms! I definitely wasn’t passing them out.”