12 Times The Royal Family Tried To Be Relatable But It Backfired
When it comes down to it, folks don't admire the British royal family for their relatability. The world of hereditary privilege is one of pomp, pageantry, and prestige. From Princess Catherine's bounty of majestic evening gowns to the glitziest and biggest royal events of the year, fans love nothing more than to be presented with the archetypal fantasy image of regal spectacle. The royal family has stood tall as the United Kingdom's most dominant institution due to its detachment from the everyday life of British citizens. However, in an age of mass media and the normalization of oversharing online, the Windsors understand how important it is to reach out to their subjects — and at least impart a veneer of approachability.
While there's much amusement to be had from witnessing royally out-of-touch folks prattle on about, say, the purported benefits of homeopathy or toy towns, the royals are equally amusing when they try to be relatable.
The reality TV series that Queen Elizabeth II banned
Reality TV and royals aren't exactly subjects we expect to see in the same sentence. But back in 1969, the two made strange bedfellows when the royal family took part in an eponymous fly-on-the-wall documentary. Except, the Windsors' venture into demonstrating their relatability backfired to an alarming degree.
Far from the picture of prestige and stoicism they project to the public, the family was shown to be as messy and dysfunctional as the rest of us. For instance, during dinner with her family, Queen Elizabeth noted how hard it is to keep a straight face during her royal engagements. "The home secretary said to me, there's a gorilla coming in," she said (via The Times). "So I said, you know, what an extraordinary remark to make, very unkind about anybody ... The doors opened . . . and there was the gorilla!" In another scene, she lamented that Prince Edward's ice cream was going to ruin the interior of her car. "They're essentially a dysfunctional family, who operates a family business," TV expert Kate Casey told Express. "So, when you look at all the different personalities, it's essentially a motley crew of complex personalities."
Queen Elizabeth was so mortified that she banned "Royal Family" from ever airing again on British TV screens. Her Majesty felt that the doc was unnecessarily intrusive, a sentiment shared by her daughter, Princess Anne. "I thought it was a rotten idea," Anne remarked, per the Mirror.
It's a royal cringe-out
If someone wanted to encapsulate how utterly out-of-touch certain royals are, here are four little words: "It's a Royal Knockout." The brainchild of Prince Edward, the 1987 spinoff of the British game show "It's a Knockout" was supposed to show a lighter side to the seemingly stuffy royals. But the competitive nature of the show ended up bringing out a rather unpleasant side to Edward.
The charity event saw Edward, Princess Anne, and the Duke and Duchess of York dress up in ridiculous costumes as they competed in various slapstick stunts, joined by celebrity pals such as Meat Loaf and John Travolta. It was a toe-curling sight, exacerbated by Edward's awkward banter between games and Anne arguing with heralds over scores. Moreover, Edward hardly endeared the plebeians toward him when he forbade reporters from being on set.
In an excruciating press conference following the tournament, Edward enthused about what a success the show had been, before being sarcastic to reporters and furiously storming off. "That's the one thing you should never be seen doing on camera as members of the Royal Family and then storming out," noted royal commentator Rebecca English (via Express). "Seeing members of the Royal Family taking part in silly games ... is not just something they should be doing." These days, we don't hear much from Prince Edward, and considering his disastrous PR gaffes, it's not hard to fathom why.
Prince William lives to regret his singalong with Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi
In 2013, Prince William took part in an event for Centrepoint, a homelessness charity, when he ended up joining Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi onstage. What followed was an impromptu dad-dance rendition of "Livin' on a Prayer," in which William clearly couldn't remember the lyrics as he clumsily mimed along.
During an appearance on "Time to Walk" by Apple Fitness+ (via Vanity Fair) in 2021, William recalled watching Bon Jovi perform, thinking that the night was coming to an end. But Swift had other plans, declaring, "Come on, William. Let's go and sing." Rather than politely decline Swift's offer, William let her drag him onstage. "To this day, I still do not know what came over me," he lamented. "Honestly, even now I'm cringing at what happened next, and I don't understand why I gave in. But, frankly, if Taylor Swift looks you in the eye, touches your arm, and says, 'Come with me ...' I got up like a puppy."
Looking back on it all, however, William maintained a sense of humor. "Halfway through Jon Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a Prayer' song, I wake up, and I'm thinking to myself, 'Am I standing on the stage singing "Livin' on a Prayer" when I don't even know the words?'" he joked. Ultimately, his ability to grimace at his past faux pas makes him as relatable as his dad-dancing.
That time Prince William referred to his wife as 'the missus'
In places like the U.K. and Australia, referring to one's wife as "the missus" is rather antiquated and derogatory. One might expect a boomer to still use such outdated language, but not a Millennial prince. In a toe-curling attempt to seemingly come across as one of the lads, Prince William used the term when referring to Princess Catherine.
In 2015, footie fan William was interviewed by English broadcaster and former soccer player Gary Lineker. Asked whether he was planning on taking Prince George to any soccer games, William blurted out a cringeworthy reply. "I don't know, I'll have to pass that by the missus, see how I can get away with it!" he quipped (via the Daily Mail). "At the moment, being only 22 months, it's a little bit early."
The Prince of Wales was heavily criticized for reducing Catherine to the offensive designation — not to mention his insinuation that he was being controlled by his wife — all in an apparent bid to appeal to chauvinistic men. As Claire Cohen for The Telegraph argued, "It's like Wills is positioning himself as a 'lad' in every sexist beer advert we've ever seen — where a group of blokes engage in some mutual backslapping and congratulate themselves on 'escaping' from 'the little woman' for a few hours."
King Charles' attempt at banter turned into a microaggression
Unfortunately, there's been a lengthy history of older royals using outdated language reminiscent of Britain's colonial era, whether it's Princess Michael of Kent being accused of racism against Black diners in a restaurant or Lady Hussey repeatedly asking a Black woman where she was really from. Though King Charles may see himself as a modern monarch, he isn't immune from propagating racist microaggressions.
In 2018, Charles attended the Commonwealth People's Forum when he started a conversation with British writer Anita Sethi. After some initial friendly chit-chat, Charles tried to be humorous — and it backfired epically. "And where are you from?" he asked Sethi, per The Guardian. When she replied that she was from Manchester, Charles laughed, "Well, you don't look like it!"
Writing for The Guardian, Sethi revealed that she was incredibly hurt by Charles' remark, which appeared deeply embedded in a colonial mindset. "I do look like I'm from Manchester, actually – a city in which many people of colour have been born and bred ... I remember being taught nothing in history lessons about the Commonwealth (I have four different Commonwealth countries in my heritage)," Sethi wrote. "If such vital knowledge was more ingrained there would not be so much racism and ignorance." Charles did not comment on the matter or issue a public apology to Sethi.
Prince Andrew tried to use a relatable anecdote as an alibi
When it comes to scandalous royal family interview moments, few can compare to Prince Andrew's sit-down with Newsnight in 2019. The interview was an opportunity for Andrew to paint himself in a more favorable light following his association with Jeffrey Epstein, allowing him to tell his side of the story. But everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
When asked to address allegations that he danced with Virginia Giuffre at the Tramp nightclub before sexually assaulting her, Andrew came up with the most bizarre of alibis. "On that particular day that we now understand is the date which is the 10th of March, I was at home, I was with the children. I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose sort of 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon," he claimed. The remark clearly astonished interviewer Emily Maitlis, who questioned how Andrew could remember this oddly specific pizza outing. He retorted that visiting the popular restaurant chain was an unusual move for him; moreover, he had apparently only been to Woking twice.
Anecdotes about his Pizza Express meal deal may have seemed like a good idea at the time, a means of exhibiting just how normal and relatable the prince is. But in the end, it backfired. The royal family's response to the Epstein drama and ensuing car-crash interview was swift, with Andrew stripped of his royal duties just days later.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
The excruciating elbow bump between King Charles and a Tory minister
Politicians are renowned for embarrassing themselves in the public eye. Throw a monarch into the mix and a cringefest naturally ensues. In the summer of 2021, King Charles visited Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to see how frontline staff were coping with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He was joined by the then health secretary Matt Hancock, who tried to elbow bump Charles in lieu of a more risky handshake. The rather confused-looking royal rejected the friendly greeting before joking that he wasn't keen on doing the "hokey cokey" (an outdated reference, to say the least), before gesturing wildly as a means of assuaging the awkwardness.
While we all had to adapt to new means of physical communication during the pandemic, Hancock may have been a tad too presumptuous in assuming that a royal of Charles' standing would entertain his elbow bump. And, as excruciating as the moment was to watch, Charles' awkwardness throughout the situation is undoubtedly relatable. It's also worth noting that Hancock didn't quite follow his COVID-safe protocol; mere days after his encounter with Charles, he lost his job after being caught breaking lockdown rules to cheat on his wife.
Queen Camilla's awkward attempt at table tennis
It's hard to fathom what the respective PR teams of Queen Camilla and Brigitte Macron were thinking when they set the two up to compete in an impromptu sporting competition in 2023. During Camilla and King Charles' state visit to France, the queen consort and the French first lady decided to showcase their table tennis skills to a group of young people, who looked on in a combination of amusement and apathy.
Camilla's effort to prove that she's down with the kids didn't end too well, with the royal stumbling her way through the match. Accordingly, fans agreed that the spectacle was embarrassing rather than endearing. "This is embarrassing," royal commentator and biographer Angela Levin wrote on X. Meanwhile, another observer questioned why the two agreed to engage in such unprofessional conduct in the first place. "They look too amateurish and childish," they wrote (via GB News). "At this time of year, Madame Macron could have spotted a garden and talked about the plants." While Camilla's table tennis skills left much to be desired, one can't help but admire the septuagenarian queen's readiness to demonstrate her silly side to the general public.
Prince William and Princess Catherine's Christmas card on a budget
With the U.K. suffering from a cost of living crisis throughout 2023, one can hardly blame the Prince and Princess of Wales for wanting to opt out of showcasing their enormous wealth to their subjects. King Charles did, after all, make a major PR misstep with his grandiose family photoshoot following his coronation earlier that year, harking back to the stuffy regal portraits of yesteryear.
When Prince William and Princess Catherine debuted their 2023 Christmas card, it was a noticeably toned-down shoot, capturing a stark black-and-white moment between the couple and their three children. Each family member wore a simple, button-down shirt and jeans in an apparent effort to appeal to humble Britons preparing for an austerity Christmas. "We're being shown the strength and total confidence of the pared-down family brand here, without all the trimmings and trappings of their royal status," body language expert Judi James told The Sun. "We know they look superb in formalwear and royal regalia but this is the casual and much more relatable version."
Not everyone believed that the monochromatic photoshoot was the greatest idea, however. The Guardian argued that William and Catherine were cosplaying as a relatable family, with the privileged couple's nod to the cost of living crisis coming across as woefully out-of-touch: "The mood music is 'these are dark times we're living through, but not to worry, we are extremely rich.'"
Queen Camilla's podcast foray was more rambling than relatable
It seems that every celeb and their dog has a podcast these days. When Queen Camilla made the podcast plunge, she likely thought the endeavor would make her more relatable, demonstrating a different side to the once-loathed former mistress of King Charles. But "The Queen's Reading Room" was a major missed opportunity.
Camilla first announced that she was making a podcast, entitled "The Queen's Reading Room," at the end of 2023. Featuring interviews with acclaimed authors, the podcast was supposed to serve as a means for Camilla to share her love of literature with the public, as well as offer insight into said authors. However, when the first episode aired in January 2024, folks couldn't help but notice that something was amiss.
As The Guardian noted, Camilla hardly features in the podcast at all, simply appearing at random to utter a few words. This stark detachment from her fans didn't do her any favors. Rather than enabling Camilla to come across as relatable, iNews argued that the poorly constructed format of "The Queen's Reading Room" simply served to prove how much the queen consort is out of touch.
We can all relate to Prince William bluffing about a film he never saw
Most folks will know the excruciating feeling of having to bluff through conversations about a movie they never saw, the fear of the ruse being exposed intensifying by the minute. In Prince William's case, he clearly hadn't even been briefed on the film in question.
At the 2024 BAFTAS, William chatted to actor Mia McKenna-Bruce about her film "How To Have Sex." In one of his most relatable moments, the prince remarked (via the Daily Mail), "I haven't yet watched your film — I think it looked like you had a lot of fun all the way through." Evidently, the prince hadn't researched the film, which has been deemed a chilling portrait of the sexual exploitation of teenage girls.
An apparent snap of the moment — supposedly showing William confidently pretending to know what he was talking about while actors Phoebe Dynevor, Ayo Edebiri, Sophie Wilde, and McKenna-Bruce looked on in horror — inevitably went viral. Discussing the awkward encounter with Refinery29, McKenna-Bruce explained that her fellow actors' aghast reaction was due to them being shocked that she ordered William to watch the film, rather than the prince's remark. "I felt really bad because I was like, oh no, it was me that was making the stupid comment, not him!" she said. "It's just me causing drama with the future King of England."
Princess Catherine's epic Photoshop fail
Hacky Photoshop jobs: we've all been there. Maybe all those tourists ruined the perfect Eiffel Tower shot, or perhaps some pimples needed to be banished from a bridal shoot. No problem: a quick Photoshop edit is sufficient for most mere mortals. But for Prince William and Princess Catherine, sloppy use of the editing tool simply will not suffice. In a social-media-obsessed age, presentation is everything. No celeb should underestimate the sheer commitment of stans to zoom into a photo within an inch of its life and pick apart just about any edit, no matter how innocuous it may appear at first.
In Princess Catherine's first family photo since her hospitalization in 2024, she was snapped posing happily with her children as they celebrated Mother's Day. Soon enough, however, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the photo had been heavily manipulated, featuring missing body parts, wonky cardigans, and cloning in the most random places. Subsequently, high-profile news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press withdrew the photo from circulation.
In response to the outrage, which simply fueled further conspiracy theories regarding Catherine's absence, the princess took responsibility for the editing gaffes. "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she said, per the BBC. Having been diagnosed with cancer around this time, few can blame the ailing Catherine for wanting to keep unsavory rumors at bay as she underwent treatment.