Prince Harry Recalls Tripping on Mushrooms During Party at Courteney Cox's House: 'I Was a Chandler'

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Prince Harry shares many personal stories in his sweeping memoir Spare — like the time he took magic mushrooms at Courteney Cox’s Los Angeles home.

The Duke of Sussex, 38, revealed in his bestselling book that he is a “Friends fanatic” and took comfort in the hit NBC sitcom while navigating panic attacks after completing his second tour of Afghanistan a decade ago. Harry wrote in Spare that he became anxious around crowds and cameras after returning to London, so he started staying home.

“Day after day, night after night, I sat around eating takeaway, watching 24. Or Friends. I think I might’ve watched every episode of Friends in 2013. I decided I was a Chandler,” he said.

Elsewhere in the text, he admitted, “People often speculated that I was clinging to my bachelor life because it was so glamorous. Many evenings I’d think: if only they could see me now. Then I’d go back to folding my underwear and watching ‘The One with Monica and Chandler’s Wedding.’ “

Prince Harry said that his anxieties escalated and that he “stopped going out” entirely in 2014.

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“No more occasional dinners with mates. No more house parties. No clubs. Nothing,” he wrote. “Every night I’d go straight home from work, eat over the sink, then catch up on paperwork, Friends on low in the background.”

While visiting the U.S. two years later, the Duke of Sussex said it was surreal not only to attend a party at Cox’s home but meet the Friends star herself. Prince Harry and two friends traveled to Los Angeles in January 2016, where they spent a few days party-hopping — and spontaneously spent a night at Cox’s house.

“We went from the home of [my friend] Thomas’ girlfriend to the home of Courteney Cox. She was a friend of Thomas’ girlfriend, and had more room. Also, she was traveling, on a job, and didn’t mind if we crashed at her place,” Harry wrote. “No complaints from me. As a Friends fanatic, the idea of crashing at Monica’s was highly appealing. And amusing. But then… Courteney turned up. I was very confused. Was her job canceled? I didn’t think it was my place to ask. More: Does this mean we have to leave?”

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“She smiled. Of course not Harry. Plenty of room,” he recalled. “Great. But I was still confused because… she was Monica. And I was a Chandler. I wondered if I’d ever work up the courage to tell her. Was there enough tequila in California to get me that brave?”

According to Prince Harry, the actress invited a few more people over, and another party began. The royal said he was delighted to meet the actor from the “Batman LEGO movie” — alluding to Will Arnett — who indulged his request to do “the voice,” which cracked Harry up.

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“Then, maybe to get rid of us, he led my mate and me to the fridge, from which he extracted a soft drink. While the door was open, we spotted a huge box of black diamond mushroom chocolates,” he wrote. “Somebody behind me said they were for everybody. Help yourself, boys. My mate and I grabbed several, gobbled them, washed them down with tequila.”

Prince Harry and his friend then went outside to sit by a fire pit, where the mushrooms kicked in. Returning indoors a short while later to use the bathroom, Harry said he was spooked when he started seeing monsters.

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PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE The book jacket of Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’

“Beside the toilet was a round silver bin, the kind with a foot pedal to open the lid. I started at the bin. It started back. What — staring? I stepped on the pedal. A huge open grin,” he wrote. “Now the loo became a head too. The bowl was its gaping me, the hinges of the seat were its piercing silver eyes. It said: Aaah.”

Harry said he left the restroom “giggling,” where he bumped into his pal who he took the mushrooms with. Later, the friend would confide in Harry that he had a similar trip in the bathroom, where his puffer jacket transformed into a “dragon” and freaked him out.

“My delightful trip had been his hell,” Harry wrote in Spare. “How delightful. How interesting. I led him outside gently, and told him it would all be OK.”

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