King Charles and Queen Camilla Made a Cameo on Last Night’s ‘American Idol’

We already knew that Katy Perry and Lionel Richie would be replaced by Ed Sheeran and Alanis Morissette on American Idol last night, because the two Idol judges has been tapped to perform at King Charles III‘s coronation concert in London this past Sunday. But what we didn’t know was that King Charles himself, along with his wife, Queen Camilla, would actually make a surprise appearance on the May 7 episode of American Idol featuring this season’s top 8 finalists.

Not even one day into being king, and the man is already hard at work.

On last night’s episode, Idol host Ryan Seacrest announced that Perry and Richie would appear via satellite from Windsor Castle, and when they joined the show, Richie explained, “We were trying to figure out what can we do to bring something different to the show, so I would like to… uh, Katy, excuse me,” he said stumbling in fake surprise as he and Perry made room for the new king and queen to join them for a brief, slightly awkward moment of banter.

“Surprise! I have a surprise,” Richie said.

“I just wanted to check how long you’ll be using the room for,” Charles joked before thanking the two stars for their performances at his coronation concert and telling them they were both wonderful. Perry then joked in a fake British accent, “Are we making too much noise?”

“We understand there’s a party,” Richie then said.

“Ah, you’ve heard about that?” Charles answered, adding, “But you’re busy with all these other things!”

“We’re coming to the party!” Perry and Richie both told the king before he and the queen left, presumably to get back to the concert that also featured performances from Take That, Steve Winwood and Olly Murs, and appearances from Tom Cruise, Winnie The Pooh and Hugh Bonneville.

Though both stars appeared a bit starstruck by their interaction with the king, it’s not the first time either of them has met him. Richie is actually global ambassador for Charles’s charity The Prince’s Trust, and Perry is an ambassador for his charity The British Asian Trust.

American Idol airs Sundays at 8/7c on ABC.