Experienced BBC reporter Nicholas Witchell lost his train of thought in an awkward moment on live TV tonight.
The veteran royal correspondent, 65, was forced to hand back to the studio after seemingly freezing on air.
He was commenting on Harry and Meghan's newborn baby being the first Anglo-American birth in the history of the royal family it happened.
The journalist paused midway through a sentence to say: "Excuse me, just let me just collect my thoughts."
He tried gainfully to continue before being forced to admit defeat.
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Witchell rounded off saying: "I'm so sorry let me just once again hand back to you Ben."
Coverage switched back to studio presenter Ben Brown.
People immediately began responding on social media, with one commenter writing on Twitter : "Poor Nicholas Witchell. Did the terminal inanity of Royal correspondence finally overwhelm him?"
BBC colleague Jeremy Bowen weighed in to defend him, posting: "I’ve seen some snide comments about Nick Witchell. Please stop, they’re not deserved. He’s a respected and experienced broadcaster, doing his job. I don’t know what happened tonight but it’s certainly no reason to be nasty."
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And Adam Boulton, of Sky News, wrote: "What just happened to Nicholas Witchell? Great reporter. Something must have been distracting him."
Fellow broadcaster Alison Bender wrote: "Hopefully he just had ‘one of those moments’ (we’ve all been there)."
