Sorry, royal family fans, Gary Janetti is not keeping up with the monarchy.
“I actually was never interested in the royal family in the slightest,” Janetti, 58, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting his third book of essays, We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay. “I know that seems strange.”
Janetti’s Instagram account gained popularity after he turned Prince George — the eldest son of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton and future King of England— into a meme with his own voice. As his following grew, Janetti was offered a unique chance to bring the meme account to life with the HBO animated series The Prince, which lasted for one season in 2021.
“It was just, to me, all fictitious. It was just a world that I created based on a personality that I started giving them,” Janetti explained to Us. “It was never something I was interested in at all. Isn’t that weird?”
Janetti explained that “it was freeing” for him to give George, now 10, his own satirical reactions to everything going on at the time with the British royals — from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding to commenting on the palace’s birthday posts.
“I had no associations with any of it. It was only meant to be silly, and that’s it,” he added. “I didn’t even know some of the names, [or] who the people were.”
As his Instagram account started to become “more popular” and Janetti wanted to include more royal family members, he found himself asking, “Who are her kids?”
When it comes to his favorite royal family member, Janetti said he “loved” the late Princess Diana. Other than the former Princess of Wales, he’s out.
Janetti’s latest book of essays, We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay, was released on July 9, and details various trips across the pond. He also added a few hilarious asides directed toward his book editor, Jonathan Burnham, who is a Brit.
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything about Brits and excessive drinking, Jonathan. Even though we’re all thinking it,” Janetti quipped at one point in the book. Burnham also got a shout out in the book’s acknowledgements.
“My editor, for being incisive, encouraging and possessed with enough good humour (British spelling) to allow me to include him in these pages,” Janetti wrote.
The author told Us that Burnham had no idea about any of this until he edited the book.
“I didn’t tell him I was doing it, he just read it at the end,” Janetti admitted. “I was like, ‘I hope he has a sense of humor.’”
We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay is out now.
