BBC’s royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell has revealed how he had a “brain freeze” as he stumbled over a live broadcast covering Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s baby.
The 65-year-old Beeb stalwart – who has covered the royal family for years – was forced to ask for time to “collect my thoughts” after appearing to lose his train of thought during a piece-to-camera on the Ten O’Clock News.
And he said he wanted the “ground to open and swallow him” as he struggled for words while covering the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son.
He told the Daily Mail: “I’d memorised, as you do, one minute twenty [seconds] which was supposed to be the duration of the item, and just lost my train of thought.
“It was one of those moments when I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up.
“It was extremely embarrassing. It was a brain freeze, like for an actor on stage.”
The excruciating moment happened during the late night broadcast on Monday, with the baby boy born that morning at 5.26am after Meghan Markle was rushed to hospital despite plans for a home birth at Frogmore Cottage.
In the cross, Mr Witchell said: “Now what of their son, baby Sussex, no name for him so far.
“The first Anglo-American birth in the British royal family, uh, now we know, of course, that uh …
“Excuse me, just let me just collect my thoughts.
“The first Anglo-American birth in the British royal family, and it is … it is certain, of course …
“I’m so sorry, let me just once again, uh, hand back to you, Ben.”
It was left to news anchor Ben Brown in the studio to continue with the bulletin after the royal baby item was abruptly ended.
Many rushed to Mr Witchell’s defence in the moments after the blunder aired – with some expressing concern for his health.
His BBC colleague Jeremy Bowen said: “I’ve seen some snide comments about Nick Witchell.
“Please stop, they’re not deserved.
“He’s a respected and experienced broadcaster, doing his job.
“I don’t know what happened tonight but it’s certainly no reason to be nasty.”
Sky News anchor Adam Boulton wrote on Twitter: “What just happened to Nicholas Witchell? Great reporter.
“Something must have been distracting him.”
Paul Royall, the BBC News at Ten editor, later said Mr Witchell was “lost for words” and was not unwell.
He said: “For those asking about Nick Witchell – he’s absolutely fine.
“Highly unusually for Nick he lost his train of thought on the #BBCNewsTen and decided to hand back to the studio.
“This can happen sometimes even to the most experienced and respected in busy live news broadcasting.”
The incident saw Mr Witchell – who became the BBC’s royal correspondent in 1998 – trending on Twitter.
He earned the Prince of Wales’s wrath in 2002 when he slipped up during a live broadcast by wrongly saying Prince Harry had been caught taking cocaine.
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