Prince William told the Kelce brothers that King Charles 'hates football'

The most anticipated wedding of the year was a few hours from starting at Madison Square Garden, and Prince William picked that exact window to go on a podcast run by two former NFL linemen and announce that his father thinks their favorite sport is nonsense.

William turned up as the surprise guest on Friday's bonus episode of "New Heights," the show hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce. It dropped at noon ET, roughly five hours before Travis was due to marry Taylor Swift across town. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the wedding itself never came up on the episode. Almost everything else did.

"My father hates football"

Asked whether King Charles was the one who got him into soccer, William did not hedge. "Absolutely not. My father hates football," he said, laughing, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He said he caught the bug when some school friends took him to his first match.

It is a genuinely funny thing for the future king to say out loud on an American sports podcast, and it lands harder because William is not a casual fan. He has been involved with England's Football Association for two decades, first as president and then as patron, a role he took over from the late Queen Elizabeth. Asked what the job actually involves, he kept it to four words: "Just don't mess up."

Jason's title crawl

Jason introduced him the way Jason introduces everything, completely straight-faced and about six titles too long, per CBS News: "the president of the English Football Association, the vice royal patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, the duke of Cambridge, the duke of Cornwall, the lord of the isles, prince and great steward of Scotland, earl of Chester, and the prince of Wales." Then, "the 6-foot-3 prince from London, England," which is probably the only one Travis retained.

World Cup talk, and a rescue offer for the groom

With the World Cup being co-hosted in the U.S. right now and England's squad based in Kansas City (Travis's turf), the soccer talk had somewhere to go. William said the U.S. has done a "fantastic" job so far and that the biggest culture shock for traveling English fans would be the venues. "The scale of your stadiums, I think the size of them, is really going to be quite a shock," he said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

He also said he would "definitely" fly over for the final if England makes it. That match is set for July 19 in New Jersey. Travis pointed out he would be stuck at Chiefs training camp by then, and William did not consider that a real obstacle: "Tell me who I need to write to, Travis; we'll get you out of there." Travis ran with the bit: "Coach [Andy] Reid, listen, Prince William called. I'll be back tomorrow."

The backup dancer question

The best exchange was Jason asking William to settle which was the more iconic Wembley moment: Travis catching a touchdown for the Chiefs in 2015, or Travis serving as a "backup dancer" during Swift's Eras Tour stop in 2024. William did not hesitate. "Travis as a backup," he said, laughing. Travis took the loss well: "Definitely a very proud moment of my life for sure," adding that if "Tay's gonna sign up for a tour, I'll happily make sure that we bring it back to life."

The two families first met at that 2024 Eras show in London, when Swift and Travis hung out with William and two of his kids, George and Charlotte. The Kelces are still not over it. "We were so nervous to meet you guys and the royal family," Travis recalled. Jason admitted he genuinely did not know what to do with his beer. His highlight, as the father of four daughters, was meeting Princess Charlotte. William's reply to the four-daughters situation: "Congratulations having four daughters. I don't know how you do that."

The reality check

For all the royal-adjacent buzz, William is reportedly not actually at the wedding. Asked back in May on U.K. radio show Heart Breakfast whether he had an invitation, he gave a very William "No comment," then softened it: "I'm hoping, and I'm sure there might be an invitation around, but we'll see." People reported last month that he and Kate would not attend. So the podcast cameo may be as close as the Prince of Wales gets to what fans have taken to calling "America's Royal Wedding."

Travis and Jason seemed a little stunned they landed him at all. "When we started this thing, we thought we were gonna be talking to like, fat offensive linemen," Travis said, "not kings, queens, princes of other nations." Swift, who came on the show last year and once summed up its impact as "it gave me a boyfriend," would probably agree the guest bookings have come a long way.