Prince William and Catherine were visiting the Foundling museum when a reporter asked
if he supported Prince Andrew.
Willam avoided the question and SAID nothing...
but his body language gave away his true opinion.
Welcome back, my body language buddies!
my name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body Language Guy, and it would be great if you
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Check out the video first, and let's see what you can spot:
- Your Royal Highness, If I might ask, do you support Prince Andrew?
- Sorry, can't hear you - Do you support Prince Andrew?
As you might already know, Prince Andrew has been stripped of all his military titles and
charities facing the upcoming lawsuit in the US.
And this was a very hard decision made by the Queen, along with Prince William and Prince
Charles, and according to royal sources, they had been considering this move for some time.
William is very close to these matters since he, along with Catherine, have the not easy
at all task of being the face of the monarchy for the next generation, and scandals such
as Prince Andrew's shenanigans really, don't help at all.
So we could suppose that the question, "Do you support Prince Andrew", must have an easy
and straightforward answer.
Well, a lot happened in those twelve seconds, so it's a good idea to spot everything from
the start.
The Cambridges are about to leave the museum.
We can guess that the reporter was waiting at the exit through the museum's store.
The first body language clue from this clip is that, even if William is two full steps
ahead of Catherine, he turns around to check out on her.
Just to confirm that she's right behind him.
I've mentioned in other times that these kind of gestures are useful to spot both synchronization
and bonding inside a couple, because even if there are no public displays of affection,
just making sure she's still there is a way of displaying that he cares about her.
This gesture seems absolutely forgettable but it's going to be important later on.
I'm sure that by this point William had already noticed that there were reporters near the
exit.
You know, of the kind that can become a pain in the arse really quickly, so that's why
he made that small, pacifying gesture protecting his neck.
Notice that he was actually scratching the left side of his neck.
So it would have made sense to scratch it with the left hand.
But using the right makes some kind of protection over his chest.
He must have sensed that there were awkward questions coming.
Now, when the man says the words, "Your royal highness", and tries to call William's attention,
something very interesting happens.
Both William and Catherine turn their heads exactly at the same time, in the direction
of the person.
It's funny to watch it forwards and backwards, just to confirm how closely matched are both
head movements.
I've always said that they've got crazy synchronization, and that's a signal of a very healthy couple.
But that's also a signal that Catherine already knew what was coming.
You don't spend so many years in royal engagements without developing a sixth sense for these
kind of events.
Now, pay attention to what happens next: William is trying to listen to the man, and the music
at the background is a bit loud.
But what's relevant is that he's actually turning away from him.
William's chest is pointing in a direction that is roughly halfway between the reporter
and Catherine, and his arm is tense, like a defense.
It looks a lot like carrying a shield.
What happened in this moment is that he was turning to wait for Catherine.
But his general attitude, even before understanding the question, is to protect his wife.
It's a very subtle gesture, but it's there.
Now we have to zoom in to catch the subtle changes in William's facial expressions.
First, he's got neutral eyebrows.
They are more or less relaxed because he's not quite engaged with the man yet.
Then he does a classic nose scrunching, that is a common gesture when someone is trying
to make sense of what someone is saying.
And, if you've been following my channel, by this point you have a great tool to confirm
that William really did not understand the man at first.
And the signal that you need to look for is blinking.
From the neutral state of the eyebrows, to the nose scrunching, to relaxing the eyebrows
again, he doesn't blink.
That means that his brain has not been able to process the question because it has incomplete
information.
And this is a very good tip that you can use.
If you want to be sure that someone understood what you said, make sure you see them blink
at least once.
If they stare at you without blinking, they still don't get it.
So, William gets closer to the man and does two things: raises his eyebrows, which is
a common signal of goodwill, like saying, "sorry but I need you to repeat", and the
obvious pointing to his own ear.
It's when the reporter asks the question a second time when William blinks, or gets the
question right.
In fact, he blinks in mid-sentence, which means that he had already understood that
the topic was Prince Andrew, but he did not get the other words on the first listening.
Then, William rests his eyes for a split second.
That's the moment that you know that he's processing his reaction.
And then, two things happen.
He relaxes his hand and tilts his head a bit to his right.
But what is relevant is that as soon as he gets the question, he completely breaks eye
contact with the man.
And this is something that William must have a lot of practice, ignoring people without
being rude.
The reason he must completely break eye contact is that, whatever he says or does while keeping
eye contact, can be taken as a direct or indirect answer to the question.
And he must be very careful with ambushes like this.
He relaxes his hand and does a couple dismissing gestures, and relaxes his neck a bit, just
to balance the fact that he's completely ignoring the man.
You can see that William says something, but it's uninTElligible.
In fact, the first thing he does is looking at this woman, and that's a great tip.
Just focus your gaze into anyone else.
By the way, the gesture she gives the reporter when she's passing right in front of him,
I think that's the expression of every one of us.
Like, what the hell are you thinking, you blockhead?
Pretty much like the reaction of the woman in black as soon as she hears the question.
Like, seriously.
NO.
And that's when Catherine does her thing.
She steps in and completely blocks the reporter from William's field of view.
This is Catherine playing human chess.
I'm sure she knows the importance of body language and how she can act this way to block
unwanted approaches.
This is important to understand.
This is not weakness in William.
In fact, it takes a lot of nerve, not only to NOT answer a question but also NOT give
any signals that could be misinTERpreted.
This is much, much harder than it sounds.
Because it's a fact that every human being has a natural TENdency to answer questions.
And it's very hard to go against it.
So Catherine moves to protect her husband with a blocking body language tactic.
This is part of their synchronization, and how they are supporting each other all the
time.
That's why I mentioned William looking after her, right at the start of the clip, and the
perfect sync of both heads when the reporter began speaking.
Remember that a man and a woman, a couple, both of them have feminine and masculine traits.
Every man should be masculine but at the same time learn to use his feminine skills, and
vice versa.
In this case, William avoids the question in the most elegant way, and that is a feminine
trait that he has learned to apply.
Catherine steps in and blocks the man in a reactive way, that is a masculine trait.
If William was reactive in this situation, he could have answered or done something that
he could regret later.
These are fascinating dynamics, and as we have seen in dozens of videos, in just twelve
seconds you can have a complete body language showcase.
And in William and Catherine, we've got the best example of how a couple reacts in unison,
watching each others' backs.
If you want to refine your observation skills, all you have to do is download my 100+ body
language tips, right in the description of this video.
My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas and it will always be a pleasure, my body language buddies!
Much Love, and Bliss.