Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, has explained that he generally avoids shaking hands with the public during walkabouts because doing so with everyone present is simply not logistically possible given the large crowds.
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Many reached out to shake his hand, but Prince Edward appeared to prefer non-physical contact, such as waving. Explaining to one mourner, he said: “I'd love to shake hands, but have you seen how many people there are here? They'd [my hands would] fall off!”
"We never shook hands," Princess Anne explains in a clip from ITV's Queen of the World. "The theory was that you couldn't shake hands with everybody, so don't start. So I kind of stick with that, but I noticed others don't," she added with a laugh.
Keep PDA to a minimum
The royals very rarely kiss or hold hands in public. Some royal watchers might assume that etiquette or royal protocol prevents couples from indulging in PDA, but some royals choose to remain professional when they are out and about because they are working representatives of the British monarchy.
Remembrance Sunday is always a poignant event in the royal calendar, and in 2002, the Queen was overcome with emotion as she visited the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey. The first time Her Majesty cried in public was in December 1997 when her beloved HMY Britannia was decommissioned.
"As they are next in line to the throne and are preparing to become King and Queen themselves one day, they use and follow the traditional royal protocols of the late Queen. The time when we may see them showing affection would be at a more lowkey event, which could be at a charity event or a film premiere."
The Queen rarely wore trousers to public events, and you have to look back as far as a walkabout in Canada in 1970 to see her photographed at a formal event wearing a pair.
This one is slightly more obvious. Instead of using “toilet,” royals use the word “loo” when they need to use the facilities. “'Toilet' is French by origin, so it is apparently avoided,” The Mirror writes.
Prince William and Kate Middleton sleep in separate beds primarily due to the constraints of the Royal Train (which has only single beds) and as part of a long-standing aristocratic tradition of separate sleeping arrangements for better rest or privacy, though they likely share a bed at home, with their dog sometimes joining them for extra comfort, aligning with modern trends for "sleep divorce".
As Prince William is now the new Prince of Wales, it is possible that his title code word for his possible demise is Operation Menai Bridge. However, it is also entirely possible that they have kept the King's code word the same, to avoid confusion.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh (then Sophie Rhys-Jones) did not attend Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, reportedly because her strong resemblance to Diana would have been too upsetting for the grieving crowds, a decision made thoughtfully by Sophie herself. At the time, she was dating Prince Edward, but they were not yet engaged or married.
No, King Charles and Queen Camilla generally sleep in separate bedrooms, a common practice among the British upper class and royals, including the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, as it helps maintain their relationship and allows for personal space, with both having their own rooms at residences like Clarence House and private country homes.
It is Prince Andrew, however, who remains the least popular royal, with nine in ten Britons (89%) now seeing the Duke of York negatively.
Many years later in 1970, he gave an interview at his home in Paris with the BBC's Kenneth Harris, where said that he had no regrets over his decision to abdicate. He said, perhaps somewhat implausibly given his background and role as King, that he did not consider himself part of the "establishment".
The most famous royal to refuse to be king, or rather, to abdicate the throne, was Edward VIII of the United Kingdom in 1936, choosing to give up the crown so he could marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, a union considered unsuitable for a monarch at the time. While he didn't refuse to be king initially, his decision to abdicate put his younger brother, Albert (later King George VI), in the position he never expected to hold.
The "baby brain" comment refers to a widely reported incident from Prince Harry's memoir Spare, where Meghan Markle allegedly told Kate Middleton she must have "baby brain because of her hormones" following Kate's birth of Prince Louis in 2018, causing a significant rift because Kate found the comment offensive, leading to a dispute about appropriate ways to speak within the Royal Family, although Meghan viewed it as a lighthearted comment she'd use with friends.
Princess Kate had "planned abdominal surgery" in January 2024, described by Kensington Palace as successful and non-cancerous initially, but later revealed to involve cancer requiring preventative chemotherapy, though the specific type of surgery (e.g., hysterectomy, organ removal, or other issue) was kept private, with speculation ranging from gynecological to gastrointestinal issues, all pointing to a major procedure requiring significant recovery time.
She would rise at 7:30am, ensuring she got a respectable eight and a half hours of sleep each night. Exercise is known to aid a good sleep routine, and like the late monarch, Kate is renowned for her love of outdoor exercise.
The Queen has a bath every morning, drawn by her maid while she sips a cup of tea. It's believed that the royals prefer to avoid taking showers, due to their belief that they're for members of the working class.
10 Words the British Royal Family Won't Say
This room is commonly known as a "bathroom" in American English, a "toilet", "WC", "lavatory", "loo" or “bathroom” in the United Kingdom and Ireland , a "washroom" in Canadian English, and by many other names across the English-speaking world.
Contrary to rumours which subsequently spread, she did not have a colostomy.
The 3-3-3 rule for clothes is a minimalist styling method where you choose 3 tops, 3 bottoms, and 3 pairs of shoes to create numerous mix-and-match outfits (up to 27 combinations), reducing decision fatigue and simplifying getting dressed, especially for travel or building a capsule wardrobe. It focuses on versatility and conscious styling with a small, curated collection of items, often including a third layer like a jacket or cardigan for even more options.
According to Sir William Heseltine, one of Queen's private secretaries, when staying with Her Majesty, members of the royal family should wait until the Queen retires to bed before they also hit the hay.