Royal family interviews don't always go according to plan. In fact, over the years,
members of the royal family have had some pretty awkward moments in front of the camera.
These are some of the cringiest interviews they've ever given.
In 1981, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement to the press. However,
within a matter of minutes, what started out as a sweet love story evolved into a cringe-worthy
mess. When asked by the interviewer if they were in love, Diana replied, quote,
"Of course!" Charles, on the other hand, quickly retorted,
"Whatever 'in love' means."
Caught off guard, Diana laughed uncomfortably at Charles' comment before the interview carried on.
Years later, we would find out how Princess Diana really felt about her fiancé's response. The
princess revealed in a taped interview used in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words,
"That threw me completely, I thought, 'What a strange answer.' It absolutely [traumatized] me."
Charles' response may have seemed insensitive,
but his biographer, Sally Bedell Smith, doesn't think so, as she told People,
"It was a totally inappropriate thing for him to say, but understandable given the
way his mind worked and the kind of things he had said in prior years. [...] He can
over-think things and was thinking out loud. I don't see it as a cynical, cruel statement."
Either way, it was certainly an awkward royal family interview.
Following the collapse of his marriage to Princess Diana, Prince Charles sat down for
an interview in 1994. In the footage, which was later featured in a documentary about the prince,
Charles can be heard repeatedly referring to Camilla Parker Bowles
simply as a "friend," but the public already knew better than to believe that.
Two years earlier, a transcript of phone conversations between the prince and
Parker Bowles, dubbed "Camillagate," was published in British newspapers,
and it was quickly obvious they were more than just friends.
Although Charles didn't name names in the awkward 1994 interview,
he ended up admitting, for the first and only time, that he had cheated
on Diana. After saying that he had been faithful to his wife, he paused and added,
"Until it became irretrievably broken down."
Sarah Ferguson, also known as the Duchess of York,
is no stranger to scandal. In the early '90s, there was the infamous "toe-sucking" photo,
which showed a rather intimate moment taking place between Ferguson's financial advisor, John Bryan,
and the duchess' feet. At the time, Ferguson was separated from, but still legally married to,
Prince Andrew. Of the infamous photo, People magazine editor Anne-Marie O'Neill told CNN,
"The tabloids had such a good time with it that it
really was the first time that the royal family was opened up to such ridicule."
Ferguson would expose the royal family to more ridicule in 2010,
when she attempted to sell access to Prince Andrew to an undercover reporter.
After watching the footage in its entirety for the first time during an interview with Oprah Winfrey,
Ferguson expressed regret about the sorry situation. It wouldn't be the
last time the Duchess of York would come face-to-face with that footage,
either. In an awkward royal family interview with 60 Minutes Australia in 2018, a clip of the
scandal was played for Ferguson and it prompted the royal to walk out of the interview and demand,
"But don't try and trick me now, because I'm not going to play this game.
Delete that bit. John can you just delete that bit please."
Prince Andrew has engaged in many cringeworthy exchanges with the press.
After his daughter Princess Eugenie and her now-husband,
Jack Brooksbank, announced their engagement, Andrew started comparing his daughter's royal
wedding to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's. He told ITV's This Morning,
“It will not be the same as the previous one that was held in May [2018]. It’s
not a public wedding. This is meant to be a family wedding. [...] There
are a few more [people] than Harry had. But that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack.
They have got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in."
Whether it was his intention or not, it definitely seems as though
Prince Andrew threw some not-so-subtle shade at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Just like the rest of us, the royals are bound to flub their words from time to time. And sometimes,
those mistakes lead to funny and awkward moments, which are often captured on video
for the whole world to see. Thankfully, the royals seem to have a sense of humor
when it comes to this sort of thing and can even laugh with each other about their word blunders.
In May 2019, Prince William was asked by a reporter if he was glad to be an uncle to
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's newborn son Archie. He replied,
"Yes absolutely, I'm an uncle, second time for me."
The prince then motioned to his wife, Kate Middleton, and said,
"And you as well."
Kate initially nodded before laughing and shaking her head, because she's obviously an aunt rather
than an uncle. William corrected himself, but not before he and the press started laughing as well.
Of all the members of the royal family, Prince Harry certainly has the most
tumultuous relationship with the press. While he does participate in royal family interviews,
he's a stickler for proper procedures. During a royal tour of Africa in 2019,
Harry encountered reporters and photographers waiting outside.
When the royal correspondent for Sky News, Rhiannon Mills started asking
Prince Harry questions after he left an official visit, he quickly shut her down.
"Is that why it's important for you to come and talk to them?" "Rhiannon, don't behave like this."
While the prince's response may seem like an overreaction,
it wasn't so much the question that annoyed him but the timing. As USA Today reported,
"[A] person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly said
royal correspondents are well aware the royal family does not partake
in unscheduled interviews, nor do they give the media commentary while at royal outings."
Even before Meghan Markle married into the royal family, she was familiar with interviews. She
was an actress, after all. However, it's impossible to picture an interview like
the one she had with Craig Ferguson back in 2013 happening today. In the resurfaced clip
of her appearance on The Late Late Show, Ferguson seemed a little too obsessed with Markle's body.
When asked where she was originally from,
Markle revealed that she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
"You can pinch me. I'm real. Oh yeah. No I'm from here, I'm from here."
"I just wanted to do it again."
The conversation took a creepy turn at that point.
After pinching the then-actress a couple of times, Ferguson told Markle,
"A strangely hairless body you have. You're quite the dolphin, aren't you?"
"It's not easy being a lady." "Yeah, I'll tell you, you're absolutely hair free."
There's no telling if Ferguson looks back on that interview and cringes, but we certainly do.
The royal family may always put on a united front,
but that doesn't mean they're always in agreement with one another. In their first
royal family interview as a foursome, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William,
and Kate Middleton took the stage at the Royal Foundation Forum in London, England.
When the interviewer asked if they ever disagreed about anything, William let out a loud laugh.
"Oh yes."
Looking more serious, Prince Harry clarified,
"Healthy, healthy disagreements. [...] They come so thick and
fast. [...] Working as family does have its challenges, of course it does."
Considering the four royals later split up their households into two separate courts,
one can only wonder how much they were really joking in the interview.
Unlike her children and grandchildren, Queen Elizabeth II rarely gives interviews. The
queen's husband, Prince Philip, is also not one to sit down with interviewers often. But,
when he does, there's no controlling what comes out of his mouth.
The documentary Prince Philip: 70 Years of Service, in which he finally agreed to be
interviewed, was more than a little awkward. According to 9Honey,
interviewer Alan Titchmarsh even revealed,
"[Prince Philip is] not an easy man to interview."
In one particularly awkward exchange, Titchmarsh asked the prince,
"How important was fatherhood compared with being the Queen's consort?"
"Was it a role you were conscious of fulfilling?" "No, I mean, I was a father."
He then returned the question back to the interviewer and asked,
"Are you a father? Well, do you think about it?"
After sitting down with interviewer Alan Titchmarsh for the documentary Prince Philip:
70 Years of Service, Prince Philip followed up with a letter to Titchmarsh in which he admitted,
"[B]eing interviewed isn’t my favourite occupation."
Various publications, including The Independent and Yahoo! News,
have even compiled lists of some of the prince's biggest word blunders. For instance,
Philip is quoted as saying about his equestrian daughter Princess Anne,
"If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she's not interested."
Philip also had a funny encounter with Simon Kelner, the former editor-in-chief
of The Independent. When Philip asked who he was
and why he was attending the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002,
Kelner told the prince that he was the one who had invited him to attend. Philip told the editor,
"Well, you didn't have to come!"
Princess Charlotte is one of the youngest royals, but she already has her own cheeky way of dealing
with the media. When arriving at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, the then-3-year-old stuck
out her tongue at the photographers nearby. But that's not the only time she's teased the press.
While attending St. James's Palace's Chapel Royal for Prince Louis's christening with
her parents and siblings, Charlotte gave an unprompted and rather cheeky message to the
reporters and photographers. Even though it wasn't exactly during an awkward royal family interview,
Princess Charlotte made it clear that the onlookers wouldn't be
joining the royals for any part of the celebration. She sternly told them,
"You're not coming."
Even more impressive is the fact that Charlotte managed to maintain eye contact with the
photographers until she had left the chapel. And she wasn't wrong. Although photographers were
able to gather outside of the palace chapel, they were not permitted inside to attend the prince's
christening, and they certainly didn't join the royals for lunch afterwards. But in case there was
any confusion, Charlotte made sure to let the public know where they stood.
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