The TV presenter joked the Duchess of Sussex was ‘obviously following The Hamm’

Television presenter Alison Hammond has revealed that Meghan Markle sent her an Instagram direct message (DM) following Prince Harry’s now-famous lip-sync clip.

The 50-year-old explained that the Duchess of Sussex tagged her when sharing a video on the social media platform, which prompted a notification in her direct messages.

“Me and Megs are mates. We’re very good mates,” Ms Hammond quipped.

She noted that the Duchess was “obviously following The Hamm”, given that she knew to tag her, drawing laughter from the studio audience.

Alison Hammond told she’s ‘basically royal’ after receiving surprise message from Meghan Markle| GETTY / ITV

The viral clip featured Prince Harry alongside American talk show host Stephen Colbert, filmed to promote the Duke of Sussex’s appearance on The Late Show.

The pair performed a lip-sync recreation of a memorable exchange from the Great British Bake Off New Year’s Day special in 2024.

During the original broadcast, Ms Hammond asked Northern Irish contestant Mark Lutton what he would want her to do if he were “king for the day.”

When Mr Lutton replied: “Bake for me,” his accent led Ms Hammond to mishear the word entirely.

Prince Harry lip-synced to Alison Hammond during a comedic appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | INSTAGRAM: THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT

“You’d want me to do what? Beg?” she exclaimed in disbelief, before Mr Lutton clarified: “Bake! B-A-K-E.”

Ms Hammond described her approach to responding to the unexpected DM during Thursday’s edition of Loose Women.

“I said, ‘I love this’. I thought I’d keep it cool. Not too much,” she told the panel. “I didn’t want to beg it.”

The Duchess then replied with a heart emoji, prompting Ms Hammond to ask the panellists: “I’m in there – am I in there?”

Meghan Markle made a surprise return to Instagram on New Year’s Day 2025 | INSTAGRAM / @MEGHAN

Her fellow presenter, Charlene White, declared that Ms Hammond and Meghan were “basically BFFs,” whilst Coleen Nolan went further, telling her: “You’re basically royal!”

Ms Hammond also floated the idea of having Meghan and Harry appear on the Great British Bake Off during the discussion.

The video shared by Stephen Colbert on Instagram has accumulated more than 372,000 likes since being posted on December 3.

Mr Lutton himself appeared on This Morning last Friday to discuss the unexpected attention.

Coleen Nolan told Ms Hammond she was ‘basically royal’ | GETTY

When Ms Hammond asked whether his phone had “blown up” after seeing the clip, the baker admitted he was initially sceptical about its authenticity.

“I initially thought, to be honest, that it was an AI clip,” Mr Lutton said. “I couldn’t really quite believe that it was a legitimate clip.”

He added that the experience had been “a nice little flashback to my time on Bake Off” after receiving numerous messages from people sharing the video.