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Lion King star reveals surprising connection to Meghan Markle

Can you feel the royal connections tonight?

harry meghan
Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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Meghan Markle joined her husband, Prince Harry, at the Lion King premiere on Sunday, and it looks like she ran into a familiar old face! Billy Eichner, who voices Timon in the new live-action adaptation of the hugely popular Disney classic, has revealed that he and Meghan actually went to the same university! Chatting on Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp, he said: "We both went to Northwestern which is outside of Chicago which has a big theatre programme."

billy eichner© Photo: Getty Images

Billy voices Timon in the Lion King film

He continued: "She was a theatre major, I was a theatre major and so when I met her the other night all we did is have this strange casual conversation about our acting teachers, because we had some of the same acting teachers." Speaking about meeting the royals at the London premiere, Billy explained: "They give you a list of things you're supposed to do when you meet them, all of this protocol and it all sounds very formal and very old fashioned and we didn't actually know if people do it or not. And so when they started to approach I didn't know what to say!

READ: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reveal Archie's new milestone to Beyoncé and Jay-Z

timon pumbaa© Photo: Getty Images

Billy opened up about going to uni with Meghan

Seth Rogen, who voices Pumbaa, added: "We were gauging what to do! Do you really say, 'Your Royal Highness'? I kept thinking, 'Or else what?' What could go wrong?" Billy joked: "That sounds crazy and we're not from this country, I don't know… What I need to figure out what words are going to come out of my mouth… I really started freaking out." The actor shared a video of himself waiting to greet the royals on Instagram, and can be seen discussing how to greet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. He captioned the post: "Caught on video last night completely freaking out to @sethrogen about how to greet Prince Harry and Meghan."

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