After Prince Harry’s N.Y.C. Speech Was Cut Short by a Teleprompter Glitch, He Returned 40 Minutes Later with a Joke
After Prince Harry’s N.Y.C. Speech Was Cut Short by a Teleprompter Glitch, He Returned 40 Minutes Later with a Joke
Stacy LambeWed, September 23, 2026 at 8:52 PM UTC
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Prince Harry onstage at the Clinton Global Initiative 2026 annual meeting in New York City on Sept. 23, 2026Credit: JP Yim/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative -
Prince Harry addressed the dangers of AI and social media’s impact on children at the Clinton Global Initiative on Wednesday
A teleprompter glitch interrupted his speech, but he returned 40 minutes later with humor to finish his remarks
In his speech, Harry highlighted progress in holding tech companies accountable for harm to minors and called for greater transparency
Prince Harry faced a technical malfunction while delivering a speech about the dangers of technology, but was ultimately able to laugh it off.
On Wednesday, Sept. 23, the Duke of Sussex, 42, took the stage at Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York City to deliver remarks about the dangers of AI and the adverse effects social media and technology can have on children.
However, more than halfway through his speech, the teleprompter failed, prompting Harry to stop his impassioned warning and walk off the stage. “We do not have years for what comes next,” he said before going quiet for a brief moment after the screen he was reading from glitched, PEOPLE observed from inside the venue.
Confused, he then asked, “And that’s it?”
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Nearly 40 minutes later, Harry made a welcome return to the stage to deliver the latter part of his speech. As he began, he made a dry quip about the situation. “AI got into my speech, so I was asked to come out and finish it,” he joked, per CNN.
According to GB News, he added, “Interesting to see what it was so concerned about in part two.”
As PEOPLE previously reported, Harry’s appearance drew quite a crowd on Wednesday, with many listening intently to his remarks.
Prince Harry onstage at the the 2026 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York City on Sept. 23, 2026Credit: John Nacion/Getty
“I come to this as a father, one who has shared countless conversations with other parents as they mourned the loss of their children to recklessly built technology,” he said before the tech failure stalled his remarks.
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Harry then recalled standing on the same stage two years ago, when he announced the launch of The Parents’ Network, an initiative he and his wife, Meghan Markle, launched at Archewell after meeting families whose children died by suicide or suffered serious harm following their experiences with social media.
“As a father, I will remind you of the faces that accompanied me the last time I stood before you,” Harry said as images of children were displayed behind him. “Hundreds have become thousands. Thousands of parents grieving their children. Millions of families living with the consequences of a digital revolution that moved faster than our willingness to protect them.”
While the prince noted there had been signs of progress, he warned that the rapid development of AI could lead to the same mistakes.
“Social media learned how to capture our attention. AI is learning how to enter our relationships,” Harry said. “It doesn’t just want your attention; it wants your attachment.”
He added, “We have spent years trying to loosen technology’s grip on children’s attention. We cannot wait another decade to discover what happens when technology has a grip on their relationships.”
Lessons from the social media era should inform how new and developing technology is approached, Harry said, while calling for greater transparency, standards and accountability. He added that those who have experienced dangers in the past should be at the center of the conversation moving forward.
“The good news: we proved pressure works,” Harry continued. “The bad news: we proved how long we are willing to wait.” He then warned that “technology and the humans in charge of it are going to promise us the world” and that “they must be accountable for the world they actually deliver.”
In the second half of his presentation, he spoke about meaningful advances made in the U.S. after courts determined major social media platforms are legally and financially responsible for dangers imposed on minors, according to GB News. At the beginning of August, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay nearly $1 billion to address harm done to young people and their mental health from its platforms.
“Some of the clearest acknowledgements yet that the harm is real and accountability is possible,” he said, per the outlet.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
