Members of the British royal family enjoy unimaginable wealth and access to rare perks,
such as art, castles, and even the Crown Jewels. However, with the benefits come challenges
and scrutiny, leading royals to hide certain habits. These are things all royals do, but
probably wouldn't admit to.
Royalty is practically synonymous with insanely lavish state banquets, involving ornate floral
arrangements, copious amounts of glittering jewels, and guest lists with prestigious leaders,
but in their downtime, royals have some surprising dining habits.
In the documentary Secrets of the Royal Kitchen, detailing royal life at Windsor, royal biographer
Lady Colin Campbell divulged that the Queen forgoes extravagant dinners at home and likes
to eat dinner on a TV tray while watching television. As Campbell said,
"She likes it. It's homely and cozy and it's comfortable."
"What were we doing? Roasting a chicken?"
"Roasting a chicken. Trying to roast a chicken."
Queen Elizabeth isn't the only royal fond of a TV dinner. In an interview with Food
& Wine, Darren McGrady, a former Buckingham Palace chef and author of The Royal Chef at
Home, shared that Princess Diana allowed sons Prince William and Prince Harry to take their
dinners in front of the TV against the wishes of their nanny. McGrady recalled,
"Nanny used to fume about it."
Think royals don't relax in front of the TV? Think again. Prince William likes Killing
Eve, Kate Middleton is a fan of Strictly Come Dancing, and the queen enjoyed Downton Abbey,
according to Hello! magazine.
However, one show William would never admit to liking is Netflix's The Crown, and you
could have said the same about his grandfather Prince Philip. When asked if he watched it,
Prince Philip reportedly replied,
"Don't. Be. Ridiculous."
And when Olivia Colman, who played the queen, personally asked William if he watched the
show, she shared on The Graham Norton Show,
"His answer was a firm, 'no.'"
But it's possible the royals are embarrassed to publicly admit their viewing habits. According
to Harper's Bazaar, actress Vanessa Kirby, who played a young Princess Margaret on The
Crown, revealed she'd heard the queen might be a fan.
"A friend of mine was at a party and didn't know anyone, so he sidled up to this group
who were talking about The Crown. One girl said, 'Well, my granny watches it and really
likes it.'"
As it turned out, that girl was Princess Eugenie, and her granny was the queen herself.
Before his engagement to Kate Middleton, Prince William was considered a highly eligible bachelor
and the hottest young royal in the world. As the future king, it's no wonder that William
was so desirable, which makes his slight bumbling when he met Kate all the more adorable.
When William and Kate met at the University of St. Andrews, they reportedly lived in the
same residence halls and attended some of the same classes. Although their meeting had
a fairy tale ending with their 2011 wedding, the first time they met, William was hardly
smooth. When interviewed for the documentary William & Kate: Too Good To Be True?, royal
expert Tom Quinn recounted William's awkwardness, and said,
"One of the funny stories is he was so desperate to meet her that as he walked towards her,
he apparently tripped and said, 'Oh that's a terrible start, you're going to think I'm
a complete clot.'"
When Meghan Markle married Prince Harry, she had to learn more than how to fit into a new
family, including how to sit, how to curtsy, and how to hold cutlery properly. The curtsy
was especially critical, but Meghan later alleged that there hadn't been any training
at all. She told Oprah Winfrey,
"Unlike what you see in the movies, there's no class on how to speak, how to cross your
legs, how to be royal."
Meghan continued,
"There's none of that training. That might exist for other members of the family. That
was not something that was offered to me."
However, reporter Ashley Pearson revealed in the documentary Kate Middleton: Working
Class to Windsor that Kate Middleton was once given lessons on how to sit, how to curtsy,
and more, by the queen herself. Pearson explained,
"She was actually given lessons on how to be a royal wife."
Newcomers marrying into the British royal family are not the only ones expected to take
royalty lessons. When Daniel Westling married Swedish Crown Princess Victoria, he took lessons
on Swedish history and political science, according to The Telegraph.
Whether liberal, conservative, or somewhere in between, whatever your political opinion
might be as a royal, you must keep it secret. As a royal, you're expected not to express
your political opinions, with neutrality being key.
As a result, when a member of the royal family expresses what they actually think, it's headline
news, such as when Prince Harry was tricked over the phone by pranksters, who pretended
to be Greta Thunberg and her father, into revealing his thoughts on everybody from Donald
Trump to Boris Johnson. While Harry insulted Trump, he had some warm words for Johnson,
calling him, quote, "a good man." Indeed, in 2019 the queen gave a speech and said,
"I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes, like speaking well of each other and respecting
different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing
sight of the bigger picture. To me, these approaches are timeless, and I commend them
to everyone."
The press read into it as a rare political nod toward the contentious Brexit negotiations,
but it's unclear whether this was intentional on the queen's part.
A selfie with a member of the royal family might be exciting for your Instagram account,
but it's a rarity. According to Hello! magazine, selfies are frowned upon in the royal family.
Prince Harry has even been quoted saying,
"I hate selfies [...] Just take a normal photograph!"
However, despite the queen reportedly disliking the trend, other royals have, at times, embraced
it. When Prince William was approached by a 12-year-old girl on Christmas Day at Sandringham,
he reportedly willingly obliged and took a photo with her. Not only did William pose
for the photo but he actually snapped the photo himself, leaving the schoolgirl stunned
and delighted. As she told Hello!,
"I couldn't believe it when William came over to me."
We wonder what the queen would think about that.
Part of being royal is always looking put together. However, despite the attempts to
maintain an illusion of perfection, even royals get gray hair. In 2015, Kate Middleton was
photographed with gray hair. Fortunately, some outlets were supportive of Kate, shaming
those who would call out a mother in her 30s for the normal aging process.
Meghan Markle has also been spotted with gray hair. In 2018, the rare sight of a single
gray hair on Meghan's head was enough to inspire a Marie Claire article, which declared the
sight, quote, "magnificent." One thing is certain: Grays or no grays, royal women are
overly scrutinized for their beauty choices.
A few months before marrying Prince Harry, Meghan Markle deleted her social media profiles.
According to the Daily Mail, Meghan is reported to have once said of her stepping back from
social media,
"Flattery and criticism run through the same filter."
While some members of the royal family do have official and verified public social media
accounts, it was revealed that Harry had been hiding a secret account for years. According
to The Telegraph, Harry may have used the pseudonym Spike Wells for four years across
various platforms.
Meanwhile, Princess Beatrice's secret Instagram account was revealed by model Karlie Kloss
when she got engaged. The account is private and unverified, despite her sister, Princess
Eugenie, having a public, verified Instagram. As for what the royals are getting up to on
their secret social media accounts, we can only imagine.
It's hard to imagine hopping on the Tube and running into Princess Anne, but that's exactly
what happened to riders in London once. According to the Daily Mail, Anne was on her way to
an appointment during London Fashion Week when she decided to use public transportation,
taking the Tube from Green Park to St Paul's. An employee who spotted the royal said,
"She came through with another older woman and her security. We weren't expecting any
royalty. Hardly anybody seemed to notice them."
Incredibly, Anne isn't the only royal who has hopped on public transport. The queen
herself takes a train from London Kings Cross to King's Lynn station for her yearly Christmas
vacation at Sandringham. And in her youth, the queen would sometimes take the Tube with
her nanny Marion Crawford and sister Princess Margaret, according to Vogue.
Even Princess Diana reportedly used to enjoy secretly taking the Tube with Princes William
and Harry. In the Evening Standard, her personal protection officer Ken Wharfe revealed she
saw the rare moments they went unnoticed as, quote, "major victories."
With members of the royal family carrying out over 2,000 engagements each year, it's
only natural that nature will call at some point. However, unlike the public, royals
are subject to rules and protocol when needing to use the restroom. Apparently, when a royal
is in the company of others and needs to use the lavatory, instead of announcing it, they
must simply say "excuse me" and leave.
The queen has her own set of protocols. Gordon Rayner, a journalist who has been on multiple
royal tours with Queen Elizabeth II, revealed that senior officials in visiting countries
work extra hard when planning out toilet arrangements. Rayner wrote,
"Hosts spend more time worrying about the [toilet] arrangements than anything else,
down to what colour the towels should be and whether the loo roll is a suitable brand."
While it used to be taboo for royal couples to live together before getting married, there
are several royal couples in recent years who have flouted that rule. Not only did Prince
William and Kate Middleton live together with friends while studying at St. Andrews University
in Scotland, but they also lived together before their wedding. So unconventional was
the decision at the time that the Archbishop of York weighed in, according to The Telegraph,
commenting,
"[Many young couples] want to test the milk before they buy the cow."
Several years later, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a similar decision to live together
before getting married, with Meghan moving into Harry's digs at Kensington Palace. On
the Kensington Palace grounds, close to William and Kate, Harry and Meghan were also neighbors
with another royal couple pairing up before marriage, Princess Eugenie and her now-husband
Jack Brooksbank.
While it's hard to imagine, even royals occasionally get excited meeting their favorite celebrities.
When Kate Middleton starred in chef Mary Berry's A Berry Royal Christmas on the BBC, Kate confessed
her nerves to Berry. According to The Sun, Berry recalled,
"I promise you Catherine said 'I'm nervous' and I said 'what do you think I am!'"
"Is that good, is that what you're looking for?"
"That looks lovely."
Kate is reportedly such a fan that one of Prince Louis' first words was "Mary," due
to all her cookbooks in the Cambridge family's kitchen.
In 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle came under fire for taking four private jets in
11 days, according to The Sun. This was around the same time Harry launched his sustainable
travel initiative Travalyst. However, despite the furor, Harry and Meghan had previously
reportedly been spotted flying economy class together to Nice, France.
In 2019, Prince William and Kate Middleton took a budget flight to Scotland, according
to the Daily Mail. Princess Diana was also known for secret economy class getaways. Royal
author Robert Jobson told the Daily Mail,
"There was a lot of nonsense spoken earlier in the week about how Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle needed to fly in private jets because of security concerns. But the Royal Family
have been using cheap airlines for years, Princess Diana would do it frequently."
Jobson continued,
"William and Kate flying on a budget airline proves you can do it, there was no trouble
on the flight, and if there was they have their protection officers."
In fact, according to Vogue, the royals have "two identities." They're both public figures
and private citizens, and they alter their travel accordingly to strike that delicate
balance. Still, when Harry and William were spotted during a layover at O'Hare Airport
eating nachos and hot wings en route to Memphis for a friend's wedding, per the Chicago Tribune,
we imagine the queen may not have completely approved.
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