An annoying staffer, rambunctious marsupials, and a ridiculously exciting tennis match:
this is what it takes to get the royals to crack.
Only the youngest royal could blow raspberries at his mother at the most formal event and
get away with it. In June 2022, Prince Louis captured the spotlight at the queen's Platinum
Jubilee with an exuberant emotional display that was quite audacious, to put it mildly.
The 4-year-old's antics kept audiences entertained through the festive weekend, with live cameras
capturing everything for posterity. This included Louis covering his ears during the flyover
and thumbing his nose at his mom. As Britain celebrated his great-grandmother's 70 years of
service, he appeared to be in quite a mood that his mother unsuccessfully attempted to rein in.
"After 20 minutes, Kate was just like, 'Just hand him the royal iPad, please, just so."
The mischievous streak in Louis can be traced back to another goofy royal family member:
his own father, Prince William. In a vintage clip from his childhood at Kensington Palace,
his mother Princess Diana can be seen adeptly managing his tantrums. As for
Louis' spirited emotional roller coaster at the jubilee, his relative Mike Tindall
offered a perfectly relatable explanation on the podcast The Good, The Bad, & The Rugby:
"There were a lot of sweets out back though, so they had complete sugar highs."
The 2020 Commonwealth Day service was a memorable affair for multiple reasons.
Perhaps the most significant was that it was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's final
formal appearance as working royals. The occasion saw Prince William and Princess
Catherine reunite with the Sussexes amidst mounting strains in the family following
Harry and Meghan's announcement of departure from their public duties.
There was palpable tension between the couples throughout the widely broadcast
event. As body language specialist Judi James explained to Cosmopolitan,
"[Harry's] open-mouthed smile to Kate showed echoes of their strong
friendship and sense of humor but Harry’s smile for William was more
complex. [...] His skewed smile to his hosts hinted he was braced for what was to come."
Kate's demeanor also wasn't particularly upbeat, with a royal source revealing to Vanity Fair,
"To be honest I think Kate has taken it all badly."
Kate and Meghan's relationship has also reportedly soured,
with explosive claims of friction between the sisters-in-law surfacing in the press.
Optics are important when you're a royal. Newly appointed King Charles III was probably still
figuring out the ropes when he briefly lost his cool at some writing implements during
a formal ceremony in September 2022. Having just acceded to the throne,
he was tied up by a string of royal commitments that required his signature.
The king's Accession Council ceremony was televised for the first time ever. Charles
sat to sign official documents, only for a pen tray to block his writing space. And
he didn't exactly mask his irritation as he motioned for the tray to be removed.
Another incident proving Charles' bad luck with pens made the news even before social media was
done with its round of jokes over the first one. The king was in Hillsborough Castle signing a
guest book, when his pen started leaking on him. He then lost his temper, as he snapped:
"I can't bear this bloody thing! (unintelligible) every stinking time."
On a visit to Scotland a few days later, Charles managed to poke fun
at his unfortunate track record with pens, as he declared them to be "temperamental."
Despite all the drama within the royal family, Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan
Markle reportedly remained on good terms with each other before the monarch's passing.
That was abundantly clear at the event for the Mersey Gateway Bridge in 2018,
as Meghan turned on the charm for her grandmother-in-law.
Photos captured the monarch breaking out into a fit of giggles as Meghan muttered
something to her. The occasion marked one of the duchess' first string of royal engagements
in Prince Harry's absence. It was made all the more exclusive with a rare ride aboard
the Royal Train with the queen, a privilege few royal family members have had the opportunity
to enjoy. Meghan recalled the experience on the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan,
as she was grateful for a grandmother figure in the family who truly cared for her.
And even after Harry and Meghan's decision to step back from royal family duties,
there was no apparent bitterness between the duchess and the queen.
As Elizabeth announced in a rare public statement,
"My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry
and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family."
Who would dare steal Prince Harry's popcorn? Apparently, a 2-year-old was brave enough to
carry out this heist in broad daylight during the 2017 Invictus Games. And Harry didn't just
share his snack with toddler Emily Henson, he also kept her entertained throughout the
event. Emily was there to support her dad Dave Henson, a participant in the Games,
and she was lucky enough to have Harry keep her amused with funny faces and cheeky whispers.
This heart-melting exchange went viral, but it wasn't the first time that Harry's easy
affection for kids made headlines. Back in 2015, the prince stepped out on a visit to New Zealand's
University of Canterbury. He met students and young fans, and he even served them cupcakes.
A particularly sweet exchange between Harry and a baby ended up stealing the spotlight,
as they were both visibly thrilled to be in each other's presence. Based on all this,
we can only imagine how great a dad he is to his own little ones!
Royal life brings with it a fair amount of animal interaction, a tradition that Camilla,
Queen Consort, has been exposed to quite often. For example, during a visit to the
wildlife haven of Australia with her husband Charles in 2012, she was handed a 9-month-old
rescue koala named Matilda. Camilla was briefly bewildered before settling into the moment.
Charles' association with Australia goes back to his schooling years, and he wisely warned his wife
about koalas' tendency to relieve themselves. Camilla eventually seemed to warm up to the
marsupial and was even keen on taking one home. But we can't say the same thing about Ruby Blue,
a moody kangaroo she was obliged to stroke during the same tour.
Camilla's track record with wild beasts has consistently made for
some cringeworthy entertainment. At 2015's Sandringham Flower Show,
for example, she came face to face with a bald eagle named Zephyr,
whose majestic wing-flapping prompted her and Charles to do a memorable double take.
Not many people have the authority to pass orders to Princess Catherine. But
in a perfectly rare royal moment of outrageousness and amusement,
the princess was told off in public for idling at work in the United States during a visit in 2014.
She was spending time at the Northside Center for Child Development, wrapping presents for
underprivileged children. In the middle of the session, she was approached by a staff member,
who advised her to continue wrapping. It was an unanticipated demand that
prompted a very off-brand eye roll from the princess before she got back to work.
As it turns out, the forever prim Catherine is reportedly quite the
eye-roll savant. As an insider revealed to The Times of London,
she even once let slip the gesture at a mention of her sister-in-law's former TV show Suits.
Ever since Meghan Markle became part of the royal family, every single twitch and gesture of hers
has been subjected to microscopic examination. She wasn't spared this scrutiny even at Queen
Elizabeth's funeral on September 19, 2022. She flew in from the United States with Prince Harry,
turning up at the final farewell for Britain's longest-serving monarch with
an especially somber appearance. Dressed in an all-black ensemble,
Meghan was photographed getting misty-eyed and wiping away tears. As she later told Variety,
"I feel fortunate. And I continue to be proud
to have had a nice warmth with the matriarch of the family."
"Look at the somber face."
While there was much to focus on during the queen's departure ceremony,
many observers concentrated their attention on Meghan's appearance. Some critics even
contended that her melancholic manner was bogus. As royal expert Tom Bower put it,
"The only person that Meghan,
I think at the moment, is crying for is herself, certainly not for the queen."
However, though a fallout between Harry and William over the course
of 2019 put a strain on the royal family,
it didn't seem to affect Meghan's friendly relationship with the late monarch.
Like plenty of other royals her age, Princess Charlotte isn't afraid to overstep formal
protocol and embrace her goofy side at public events. At the King's Cup regatta in 2019,
the then-4-year-old delightfully shocked onlookers by sticking her tongue out through a window while
greeting the crowds assembled below. She was with her mother Princess Catherine,
who was momentarily amused before ushering her daughter along,
as peals of laughter rang out in the audience. As it turns out, Charlotte
had reportedly spotted her grandfather Michael Middleton and was giving him a special shoutout.
Charlotte is third in line to the British throne, but that's no reason for her to stop sticking out
her tongue. She was also spotted flaunting her signature expression at Prince Harry's wedding
in 2018. It was a full-circle moment, as she carried forward the legacy of her goofy uncle,
who was also infamous as a child for giving cameras the royal tongue.
Apparently though, Harry's mother Princess Diana wasn't exactly thrilled about that.
In the documentary The Story of Diana, her brother Charles Spencer revealed that the
British press declared Harry's childish quirks to be rude. But the photographers
were actually provoking him, and Diana was understandably upset about that.
"It was the sheer dishonesty of it."
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York occupies a complex position in the royal family tree.
Her relationship with the British monarchy never really healed after her infamous
toe-sucking scandal during the 1990s. That invoked the wrath of senior working members
like Prince Philip, who reportedly called her a "royal embarrassment." Despite her
complicated history, Ferguson doesn't seem to have lost her sense of humor.
Some priceless moments were caught on camera in 2018 at her daughter Princess
Eugenie's wedding. They showed the duchess at her goofy best,
with animated waves and vivacious interactions with the press. Sprinkling in a little dottiness
at weddings is one of her specialties. At her own nuptials to Prince Andrew in 1986,
she was every bit the cool bride, winking unabashedly throughout the ceremony. As royal
commentator Richard Fitzwilliams explained on an episode of the podcast The Firm,
"She hadn't an idea of what being royal really meant. it wasn't just
the awful lapses of judgment. It was an attitude to royal life."
As Ferguson herself admitted to Harper's Bazaar in 2018, one reason why her marriage
ultimately didn't last was her inability to comply with the demands of royal life.
When you're a royal, there are certain things you can't ever be seen doing. You
can't eat certain foods, nor can you swear in public. Prince William veered dangerously
close to breaking the latter rule at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2022. He
was so invested in the quarterfinal match between Brit Cameron Norrie and
Belgian David Goffin that he appeared to not realize that he dropped an F-bomb on camera.
Social media users then worked themselves up into a debate about whether or not William's
supposed faux pas actually happened. Some observers swore that they witnessed
him almost mouthing the expletive before the camera cut away from him.
In the confines of the British royal elite, words like "toilet," "couch," and even "posh" apparently
don't exist and are reportedly considered too impolite to use. So it would be safe to
assume that curse words are also out of bounds. But since it's not so much a law as it is an
etiquette guideline, even senior members of the royal family have been known to commit this fault.
A particularly notorious example occurred during a hotheaded moment in 2015 honoring veterans of the
Battle of Britain, when the ever-brusque Prince Philip bellowed at photographers:
"Just take the [bleep]."