The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new podcast has drawn the attention of ears across the country and beyond, with many noticing the new twang. Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, released the first episode of the hotly anticipated Archewell Audio on Tuesday.
The half an hour episode included James Corden, novelist Matt Haig and Sir Elton John.
BBC presenter Sangita Myska picked up on the change in Harry’s voice, commenting on Twitter: “He’s gone a little Estuary English, no?”
Behaviour expert Judi James told FEMAIL the accent is “pretty much mid-everything: mid-Atlantic, mid-London and mid-Estuary English”.
She said Harry’s accent, at times, “would probably sound right in the Queen Vic in Eastenders”.
Estuary English refers to an accent association with the area along the River Thames and its estuary. It is not too dissimilar to cockney.
The likes of Ricky Gervais, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are noted for their Estuary accents.
Ms James notes: “Describing the podcast as ‘Our tweny-tweny holiday special’, Harry drops the second ‘t’ in ‘twenty’ in a verbal slurring that sounds either American or South London, although the ‘holiday special’ wording probably places it in the US.
“He says they ‘wanna’ honour rather than ‘want to’ and he pronounces the word ‘look’ more like ‘luck’, both of which would probably sound right in the Queen Vic in EastEnders.”
ITV royal correspondent Chris Ship pointed out the Prince’s pronunciation of ‘”new year” rather than “noo year”’.
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Ms James spoke to Express.co.uk in September after he discussed the Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix, a film about the Paralympics, in a public video call.
She said he “shows signs of his immersion in a US lifestyle” by “adopting the traces of an American accent when he pronounces ‘matter’ as ‘madder’”.
The couple now live in an £11million property in Montecito, California.
During the first podcast episode, Meghan told listeners: “No matter what life throws at you guys, trust us when we say, love wins.”
Their one-year-old son Archie also wished listeners a happy new year, showing of a hint of his American accent.
