Truth about Margot Robbie’s cheeky Prince Harry gag

The Aussie actress made a cheeky quip about Harry on behalf of Brad Pitt at the 2020 BAFTAs - and it even made it into his memoir.

It was one of the most standout moments of the 2020 BAFTA Awards: Margot Robbie delivering a hilarious speech on behalf of absent winner Brad Pitt, referencing Prince Harry’s then-recent exit from Britain.

“[Pitt] says he’s going to name this [trophy] Harry, because he’s really excited about bringing it back to the States with him,” Robbie read out from a piece of paper, as the camera panned to Prince William and Kate, who were laughing along with the rest of the audience.

She quickly added: “His words, not mine!”

The moment went viral, with Harry even writing about it in his bombshell 2023 memoir, Spare.

Robbie accepted Pitt’s award on his behalf - and made a cheeky quip about Harry. Picture: James Veysey/BAFTA/Shutterstock

The gag made Harry’s memoir. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

In a surprising twist, a fellow Aussie star has now revealed he was actually the person behind the controversial quip.

In an interview on Triple M’s Mick & MG in the Morning on Friday, comedian Jim Jefferies explained that he’d written “a lot of the jokes” in Pitt’s viral Best Supporting Actor acceptance speech, which had been read by his Once Upon A Time in Hollywood co-star at the last minute.

“Here’s a fun one for you,” Jefferies told hosts Mick Molloy and Mark Geyer.

“A joke that I wrote got mentioned in Prince Harry’s book.

“I can say this now, it’s been years since this happened. I wrote a lot of the jokes for Brad Pitt when he won the Oscar for Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood.

“He was meant to do the BAFTAS but he had some family issue or something so he didn’t go to England for the BAFTAs so Margot Robbie had to read out his acceptance speech.”

He added: “Brad would’ve said this: ‘I’m going to call this trophy Harry because I’m going to take it back to America and you’ll never see it again.'"’

Brad Pitt and Jim Jeffries on Comedy Central.

Pitt and the Australian comedian have known each other for some time, with the actor having made several hilarious appearances on Jefferies’ Comedy Central show.

During the Triple M interview, Jefferies also admitted he’d been thrilled to see William laughing along at the joke.

“Turns out in the book, Harry and William had had a day that day, or a couple of days earlier, they’d had a scuffle, right?” Jefferies said.

“And then to see William laughing at that joke, and Harry fully well knew … I predicted it.”

Robbie herself has spoken about the famous BAFTAs moment, telling Good Morning America afterwards that she’d been “so panicked” about having to fill in for Pitt.

“He, like the night before, was like ‘Can you do my speech for me? I can’t be there,’ and I was so panicked about his speech that I didn’t even think about preparing one for myself,” she said, referencing her own BAFTA nominations.

“I was up for two, for both films in my category, and it wasn’t until I was in the car on the way there that I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I hope I don’t win because I don’t have anything to say.”

Originally published as Truth about Margot Robbie’s cheeky Prince Harry gag