Members of the royal family have to make a lot of public appearances, so it's understandable if they make a mistake every now and then. However, some interviews with royals have been so awkward that people couldn't stop talking about them, with many still being brought up today.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Royal family interviews don't always go according to plan. In fact,
00:04over the years, members of the royal family have had some pretty awkward moments in front
00:09of the camera. These are some of the cringiest interviews they've ever given.
00:14In 1981, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer announced their engagement to the press. However,
00:20within a matter of minutes, what started out as a sweet love story evolved into a
00:25cringe-worthy mess. When asked by the interviewer if they were in love, Diana replied, quote,
00:30"...of course." Charles, on the other hand, quickly retorted,
00:33"...whatever in love means." Caught off-guard, Diana laughed uncomfortably at Charles' comment
00:39before the interview carried on. Years later, we would find out how Princess Diana really felt
00:44about her fiancé's response. The princess revealed in a taped interview used in the documentary,
00:49Diana, in her own words,
00:51"...that threw me completely. I thought, what a strange answer. It absolutely traumatized me."
00:56Charles' response may have seemed insensitive, but his biographer,
01:00Sally Burdell-Smith, doesn't think so, as she told People,
01:04"...it was a totally inappropriate thing for him to say,
01:07but understandable given the way his mind worked and the kind of things he had said in prior years.
01:13He can overthink things and was thinking out loud. I don't see it as a cynical,
01:17cruel statement. Either way, it was certainly an awkward royal family interview."
01:23Following the collapse of his marriage to Princess Diana, Prince Charles sat down for
01:27an interview in 1994. In the footage, which was later featured in a documentary about the prince,
01:33Charles can be heard repeatedly referring to Camilla Parker Bowles simply as a friend,
01:38but the public already knew better than to believe that.
01:41Two years earlier, a transcript of phone conversations between the prince and Parker
01:45Bowles, dubbed Camilla-gate, was published in British newspapers, and it was quickly obvious
01:51they were more than just friends. Although Charles didn't name names in the awkward 1994 interview,
01:56he ended up admitting, for the first and only time, that he had cheated on Diana.
02:01After saying that he had been faithful to his wife, he paused and added,
02:06"...until it became irretrievably broken down."
02:11Sarah Ferguson, also known as the Duchess of York, is no stranger to scandal. In the early
02:1690s, there was the infamous toe-sucking photo, which showed a rather intimate moment taking
02:21place between Ferguson's financial advisor, John Bryan, and the duchess' feet. At the time,
02:26Ferguson was separated from, but still legally married to, Prince Andrew. Of the infamous photo,
02:32People magazine editor Anne-Marie O'Neill told CNN,
02:36The tabloids had such a good time with it that it really was the first time that the royal family
02:41was opened up to such ridicule. Ferguson would expose the royal family to more ridicule in 2010,
02:47when she attempted to sell access to Prince Andrew to an undercover reporter.
02:51After watching the footage in its entirety for the first time during an interview with
02:56Oprah Winfrey, Ferguson expressed regret about the sorry situation. It wouldn't be the last
03:01time the Duchess of York would come face-to-face with that footage, either. In an awkward royal
03:06family interview with 60 Minutes Australia in 2018, a clip of the scandal was played for Ferguson,
03:12and it prompted the royal to walk out of the interview and demand,
03:16But don't try and trick me now, because I'm not going to play this game.
03:19Delete that bit. John, can you just delete it, please?"
03:22Prince Andrew has engaged in many cringeworthy exchanges with the press. After his daughter,
03:27Princess Eugenie, and her now-husband, Jack Brooksbank, announced their engagement,
03:32Andrew started comparing his daughter's royal wedding to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's.
03:36He told ITV's This Morning,
03:38"[It will not be the same as the previous one that was held in May 2018.
03:43It's not a public wedding. This is meant to be a family wedding.
03:46There are a few more people than Harry had, but that's just the nature of Eugenie and Jack.
03:51They have got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in."
03:56Whether it was his intention or not, it definitely seems as though Prince Andrew
04:00threw some not-so-subtle shade at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
04:05Just like the rest of us, the royals are bound to flub their words from time to time. And sometimes,
04:11those mistakes lead to funny and awkward moments which are often captured on video for the whole
04:15world to see. Thankfully, the royals seem to have a sense of humor when it comes to this sort of
04:20thing and can even laugh with each other about their word blunders. In May 2019, Prince William
04:25was asked by a reporter if he was glad to be an uncle to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's newborn
04:30son, Archie. He replied,
04:32"'Yes, absolutely. I'm an uncle. Second time for me.'"
04:35The prince then motioned to his wife, Kate Middleton, and said,
04:38"'And you as well.'" Kate initially nodded before laughing and shaking her head,
04:43because she's obviously an aunt rather than an uncle. William corrected himself,
04:47but not before he and the press started laughing as well.
04:51Of all the members of the royal family, Prince Harry certainly has the most
04:55tumultuous relationship with the press. While he does participate in royal family interviews,
05:01he's a stickler for proper procedures. During a royal tour of Africa in 2019,
05:06Harry encountered reporters and photographers waiting outside. When the royal correspondent
05:10for Sky News, Rhiannon Mills, started asking Prince Harry questions after he left an official
05:16visit, he quickly shut her down.
05:18"'Is that why it's important for you to come here and talk to them?'
05:20"'Don't behave like this.'"
05:22While the prince's response may seem like an overreaction,
05:25it wasn't so much the question that annoyed him, but the timing. As USA Today reported,
05:30"'A person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly' said,
05:34"'Royal correspondents are well aware the royal family does not partake in
05:38unscheduled interviews, nor do they give the media commentary while at royal outings.'"
05:44Even before Meghan Markle married into the royal family, she was familiar with interviews. She was
05:49an actress after all. However, it's impossible to picture an interview like the one she had
05:54with Craig Ferguson back in 2013 happening today. In the resurfaced clip of her appearance on The
06:00Late Late Show, Ferguson seemed a little too obsessed with Markle's body. When asked where
06:05she was originally from, Markle revealed that she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
06:10"'You can pinch me, I'm real. See, oh yes. No, I'm from here, I'm from here. No?'
06:16"'I just wanted to do it again.'"
06:18The conversation took a creepy turn at that point. After pinching the then-actress a couple
06:23of times, Ferguson told Markle,
06:25"'A strangely hairless body you have. You're quite the dolphin, aren't you?'
06:29"'It's not easy being a lady.'"
06:31"'Yeah, I'll tell you, you're absolutely hair-free.'"
06:34There's no telling if Ferguson looks back on that interview and cringes, but we certainly do.
06:40The royal family may always put on a united front, but that doesn't mean they're always
06:45in agreement with one another. In their first royal family interview as a foursome, Prince
06:49Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William, and Kate Middleton took the stage at the Royal Foundation
06:54Forum in London, England. When the interviewer asked if they ever disagreed about anything,
06:59William let out a loud laugh.
07:03"'Oh yes.'"
07:06Looking more serious, Prince Harry clarified,
07:09"'Healthy, healthy disagreements. They come so thick and fast. Working as family does have
07:14its challenges. Of course it does.'"
07:16Considering the four royals later split up their households into two separate courts,
07:21one can only wonder how much they were really joking in the interview.
07:26Unlike her children and grandchildren, Queen Elizabeth II rarely gives interviews. The
07:31queen's husband, Prince Philip, is also not one to sit down with interviewers often,
07:35but when he does, there's no controlling what comes out of his mouth. The documentary Prince
07:40Philip's 70 Years of Service, in which he finally agreed to be interviewed, was more
07:44than a little awkward. According to 9Honey, interviewer Alan Titchmarsh even revealed,
07:49"[Prince Philip is not an easy man to interview.] In one particularly awkward exchange,
07:54Titchmarsh asked the prince,
07:56"'How important was fatherhood compared with being the queen's consort?'
08:00"'Was it something you were conscious of, a role you were conscious of fulfilling?'
08:04"'No. I mean, I just, I was a father.'"
08:06He then returned the question back to the interviewer and asked,
08:09"'Are you a father?' Well, do you think about it?"
08:13After sitting down with interviewer Alan Titchmarsh for the documentary Prince Philip's
08:1770 Years of Service, Prince Philip followed up with a letter to Titchmarsh, in which he admitted,
08:22"[Being interviewed isn't my favorite occupation.] Various publications,
08:27including The Independent and Yahoo News, have even compiled lists of some of the prince's
08:32biggest word blunders. For instance, Philip is quoted as saying about his equestrian daughter,
08:37Princess Anne,
08:38"'If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she's not interested.'"
08:41Philip also had a funny encounter with Simon Kellner, the former editor-in-chief of The
08:46Independent. When Philip asked who he was and why he was attending the Queen's Golden Jubilee in
08:512002, Kellner told the prince that he was the one who had invited him to attend. Philip told the
08:57editor,
08:57"'Well, you didn't have to come.'"
09:00Princess Charlotte is one of the youngest royals, but she already has her own cheeky
09:04way of dealing with the media. When arriving at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding,
09:08the then-three-year-old stuck out her tongue at the photographers nearby,
09:12but that's not the only time she's teased the press. While attending St. James's Palace's
09:17Chapel Royal for Prince Louis' christening with her parents and siblings, Charlotte gave an
09:22unprompted and rather cheeky message to the reporters and photographers. Even though it
09:27wasn't exactly during an awkward royal family interview, Princess Charlotte made it clear that
09:32the onlookers wouldn't be joining the royals for any part of the celebration. She sternly told them,
09:37"'You're not coming.'"
09:38Even more impressive is the fact that Charlotte managed to maintain eye contact with the
09:42photographers until she had left the chapel. And she wasn't wrong. Although photographers were
09:47able to gather outside of the palace chapel, they were not permitted inside to attend the
09:51prince's christening, and they certainly didn't join the royals for lunch afterwards. But in case
09:57there was any confusion, Charlotte made sure to let the public know where they stood.