--- title: John Oliver Warns Meghan Markle About Joining Royal Family description: “I would not blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” John Oliver gave Meghan Markle a warning with Stephen Colbert. canonical: https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-08T16:12:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:26.447Z og:title: John Oliver Warns Meghan Markle About Joining Royal Family og:description: “I wouldn't blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” Oliver said og:url: https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Warns Meghan Markle About Joining Royal Family twitter:description: “I wouldn't blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” Oliver said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver Wants Meghan Markle to Rethink This Whole Royal Family Thing: 'It's Going to Be Weird for Her' by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 8, 2018 4:12 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 8, 2018 4:12 PM UTC As late night television’s resident British person, John Oliver has a little advice for [Meghan Markle](http://time.com/5135912/meghan-markle-valentines/?xid=homepage) about her decision to [join the royal family](http://time.com/5135318/meghan-markle-suits-cast-on-prince-harry/?xid=homepage)—don’t do it. “I would not blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” Oliver said on Wednesday night’s episode of _The Late Show._ “I don’t think you need to have just seen the pilot episode of _The Crown_ to get a basic sense that she might be marrying into a family that could cause some emotional complications.” Despite his status as an American, [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/?xid=homepage) defended the royal family, pointing out that the younger members seem to be a much more well-adjusted bunch. Oliver wasn’t buying it, though. “I mean, they’re an emotionally stunted group of fundamentally flawed people doing a very silly pseudo-job,” he grumbled. “That’s what she’s marrying into. So I hope she likes it. It’s going to be weird for her.” While Oliver admits that he likes royal weddings (“It’s a spectacle, it’s something nice to look at.”) for his part, he would never consider joining the that crowd. “I would not marry into the royal family,” he told [Colbert](http://time.com/5135309/stephen-colbert-dodge-mlk-commercial-super-bowl-2018/?xid=homepage). “I’m a commoner; I would not be welcome—especially after what I’ve just said.” This isn’t Oliver’s first jab at monarchies in general and the British royal family, in particular. On his own talk show, _Last Week Tonight_, [he once said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyYpjF6iQGo): “The gene pool of European royalty is so small, the only difference between \[a royal wedding\] and an Alabama wedding are the amount of paper plates at the reception, and how drunk the violin player’s going to be.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/"},"headline":"John Oliver Wants Meghan Markle to Rethink This Whole Royal Family Thing: 'It's Going to Be Weird for Her'","datePublished":"2018-02-08T16:12:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:26.447Z","description":"“I would not blame her if she pulled out of this at the last minute,” John Oliver said on The Late Show","url":"https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/","keywords":["Newsfeed","the late show","Late Night Television","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight","meghan markle"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5139359/john-oliver-on-meghan-markle-royal-wedding/","name":"John Oliver Wants Meghan Markle to Rethink This Whole Royal Family Thing: 'It's Going to Be Weird for Her'"}}]}] ```