This Deleted Scene From ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Has The Cutest Moment Ever — And You Might Miss It

Ever since the rumors that there was was a three-hour director’s cut of Amazon’s new Red, White & Royal Blue, fans have been clamoring for any bits of new material from everyone’s favorite sons of world leaders, Alex and Henry. Unfortunately, those three-hour rumors were dispelled by writer-director Matthew Lopez in an exclusive with Teen Vogue. But don’t spill too many tears, because they just dropped a deleted scene–the much-hoped-for Cornetto scene, for fans of the book. If you blink, you just might miss an adorable moment toward the end of the clip. (FYI: Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, what are you even doing? Go!)

In the scene, similarly as it happens in the book, Alex is spending time at the royal palace. For context, this is during his trip to pretend to be Prince Henry’s friend, before they start texting. They’re still in the “enemies” stage of the enemies-to-lovers story arc. You know the drill, smiling for the cameras while barely concealing their disdain for each other. Elbowing each other every time they think no one is looking.

Alex is in the guest quarter’s kitchen face-timing with Nora and complaining about how much he loathes Henry (sure, right), when the prince himself enters and hears the tail-end of the conversation. He’s just popping in to grab some Cornettos from the freezer, a popular brand of ice cream cones. Thus starts a verbal sparring match between the fake friends, culminating in Alex snapping a pic of their hands for the ‘gram.

There’s a little, important moment hidden in this scene, though. Blink and you’ll miss it. Here’s the deleted scene to see if you see it for yourself:

Did you catch it? As Alex argues with Henry about having to pretend to be friends, and how they can handle it fine, even if they hate each other, Henry gives Alex a look when the FSOTUS isn’t looking.

For just a moment, Henry’s mask falls away and he can’t help but show how he truly feels about Alex. There’s no hate there. None at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. A moment later and it’s gone.

This is significant because, if it had been left in the film, it would be the first moment that the audience gets a clue into how Henry really feels. Our first proof that Henry has loved him all along. And perhaps that’s why they didn’t keep it in? It’s awfully early into the movie to reveal Henry’s true intentions. They’re supposed to hate each other right now.

Or it could be how slow-moving and otherwise cheesy the rest of the scene feels. Either way, it didn’t make it into the final cut and now we just need to go to YouTube for this extra bit of Alex/Henry connection.

If you’ve gotten this far into the article and still haven’t watched Red, White & Royal Blue, you can see it on Prime Video.