--- title: Prince Harry Meets Tonga Flag Bearer Pita Taufatofua description: Before leaving Tonga to return to Australia, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got the chance to to meet the Polynesian nation's biggest viral star. canonical: https://time.com/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-26T20:26:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:41.550Z og:title: Prince Harry Palled Around With Tonga's Olympic Flag Bearer og:description: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met the Polynesian nation's oiled up viral star og:url: https://time.com/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64a2fdcde28481d7/69893d9886f68e77586ea868/prince-harry-pita-taufatofua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: prince-harry-pita-taufatofua og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prince Harry Palled Around With Tonga's Olympic Flag Bearer twitter:description: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met the Polynesian nation's oiled up viral star twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64a2fdcde28481d7/69893d9886f68e77586ea868/prince-harry-pita-taufatofua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prince Harry Palled Around With Tonga's Famously Oiled-Up Olympic Flag Bearer > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=66c4ac83-8fc6-4b74-84dd-8f5cbf4de8ba&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 26, 2018 8:26 PM UTC  Getty Images (2)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 26, 2018 8:26 PM UTC Before [leaving Tonga to return to Australia](http://time.com/5435753/meghan-markle-prince-harry-plane-abort-landing/) on Friday, [Prince Harry](http://time.com/5435634/harry-meghan-tonga-forest-reserve/) and [Meghan Markle](http://time.com/5435882/meghan-markle-zika-tonga/) got the chance to to meet the Polynesian nation’s biggest viral star. While attending an official reception and dinner featuring traditional Tongan entertainment at the Consular House on Thursday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were introduced to [Pita Taufatofua](http://time.com/5112498/olympics-2018-tongan-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua-returning/), the famously oiled-up Tongan flag bearer who became a [viral sensation](http://time.com/4441924/rio-2016-olympics-tonga-flag-bearer/) during the 2016 Summer Olympics and then [returned to compete](http://time.com/5141296/tongan-flag-bearer-shirtless-winter-olympics/) in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games. “The reception started with Harry and Meghan taking a long time to meet and greet every single person there,” Taufatofua told [_Cosmopolitan_](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/a24236251/meghan-markle-prince-harry-pita-taufatofua-tonga-olympian-interview/)_._ “That really stood out as something special, that both of them not only met, but also spoke to a lot of guests.” Taufatofua went on to reveal that Prince Harry even cracked a joke about his signature shirtless Olympic opening ceremony appearance. “We had a laugh about the oil,” he said. “It was all in good fun!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/"},"headline":"Prince Harry Palled Around With Tonga's Famously Oiled-Up Olympic Flag Bearer","datePublished":"2018-10-26T20:26:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:41.550Z","description":"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met the Polynesian nation's biggest viral star","url":"https://time.com/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/","keywords":["Newsfeed","royals","Prince Harry"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64a2fdcde28481d7/69893d9886f68e77586ea868/prince-harry-pita-taufatofua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64a2fdcde28481d7/69893d9886f68e77586ea868/prince-harry-pita-taufatofua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"prince-harry-pita-taufatofua","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images (2)","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/5436446/prince-harry-tonga-flag-bearer-pita-taufatofua/","name":"Prince Harry Palled Around With Tonga's Famously Oiled-Up Olympic Flag Bearer"}}]}] ```