James Corden proud his Prince Harry TV interview showed pal in 'truest light'

James Corden is honoured long-time pal Prince Harry picked his late night talk show for his U.S. TV debut.

The host of The Late Late Show scored the Duke of Sussex's first American television interview, in February, when he and Harry travelled around Los Angeles on the open top deck of a London-style bus.

And James is thrilled he got the chance to show off the real Harry.

"I've known Harry for a good few years now, (from) when we both lived in London, and I'm incredibly fond of him, incredibly fond of both of them (Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex) but obviously I have known Harry longer," James tells Variety's Awards Circuit podcast. "And we've been talking for a while about doing something on the show and, yeah, he was really into the whole idea of doing it, so we pitched him this idea, and he loved it."

And because James was so convinced he and his team had captured "the truest version" of his royal friend, they decided not to share the scoop ahead of time and surprise viewers with the footage on the day it aired.

"We felt like we... showed the person we know in a really true and positive light, so we... just put it out on a Thursday night," he explained.

"What was great about that was it meant that... you just had to watch it to make up your mind about it, and I think there are some elements of their life, where people make up their mind before seeing anything."

"I'm really proud of it...," he adds. "I felt like you saw the truest version of him (Harry). That's certainly the person that I have known all this time and mostly it was a very uplifting piece of television, so we're very proud of that. We're very proud that the first time either him or the Duchess spoke, the first time they spoke on (U.S.) television was on our show."