We petty commoners spend a lot of time making fun of the Royal Family’s protocols because all those rules often seem pretty silly. But there is a method to the royal madness: in a perfect world, these rules help the royals maintain their public image, and that’s important when all it takes is a single photo to ruin someone’s reputation for good.
Unfortunately for the Royal Family, all the rules in the world can’t keep people from snapping pictures. And over time, photographers who are skilled, lucky, or both have captured quite a few embarrassing images that the royals would rather keep secret.
What are these photos the Royal Family never wanted you to see, and what does it tell us about those scandalous members of the world’s most famous family? Keep reading to discover the answer!
Prince William fangirls over a famous actor
Most of the time, Prince William causes fans to freak out when he makes public appearances. In fact, the prince has been known to break royal protocol and snap selfies with the occasional fan. But this photo captures the hilarious moment in 2011 when William absolutely freaked out when meeting Nicole Kidman for the first time.
This was in Los Angeles at the BAFTA’s Brits to Watch Event. It was a chance for the royals to meet many different Hollywood celebs, but none made the future King of England make this particular face. Speaking of faces, Kate Middleton’s look of bored disdain tells us everything we need to know about her husband’s fan crush on Nicole Kidman!
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Kate Middleton, the naughty future queen
As the future Queen of England, Kate Middleton has mastered the art of making relatively conservative fashion look stylishly chic. However, before she married Prince William, she was a student at St. Andrew’s University and agreed to participate in a fashion event to raise money for charity. She decided to wear sheer clothing that revealed her underwear, and many who have seen the photos of this fashion show assume that the way Kate is dressed would make Prince William blush.
If he blushed, though, it may not be for the reason you think. The prince actually attended the show after paying for a VIP seat, and he began dating Kate shortly afterward. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it’s fun to think that Prince William saw his future wife’s knickers before they were even dating.
Camilla’s Marilyn Monroe moment
In 2015, Queen Camilla was on her way to attend Princess Charlotte’s christening at St. Mary Magdalene Church. It seemed like a pretty routine trip to a pretty routine event, so Camilla had no way of knowing that the wind (or perhaps God himself) had other plans for her.
When a sudden gust of wind hit Camilla, she had to act fast, using one hand to hold onto her stylish hat and using the other to keep her dress from blowing up. She was successful in both holding onto the hat and protecting her modesty, but the cameras still captured this hilariously undignified moment for posterity.
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Prince Harry is in the pits
There is always something just a little bit edifying about embarrassing things happening to the Royal Family. Sure, these may be people that are wealthy and famous from the time that they are born, but they still face at least some of the same challenges the rest of us do. And in Prince Harry’s case, that includes worrying about whether his deodorant is still working or not.
Harry is relatively athletic, and this image is taken from the Audi Polo Challenge at Coworth Park Polo Club. While Harry is confident in his competitive abilities, he doesn’t seem to be confident about his deodorant. And here he is giving his armpits a big sniff, showing just how little separates a royal prince from that weird guy you try to avoid each week at your gym.
Kate Middleton: Monroe 2.0
Since that racy college outfit that obviously got Prince William hot and bothered, Kate Middleton has mostly stuck to conservative clothing that doesn’t reveal too much skin. But like Queen Camilla, Kate has had a few incidents with her dress trying to blow up, which is what we can see here when she and Prince William were visiting India.
To be fair to Kate, she somehow still makes holding down an out-of-control dress look very regal. Still, this has proven to be an ongoing annoyance to Kate, and she often goes as far as to wear clothes that more easily gather static simply because such clothing is less likely to fly up.
RELATED: How Meghan Markle Gave A Terrible First Impression To Kate Middleton
Meghan Markle: too racy for the royals?
Before Meghan Markle began dating Prince Harry, she was mostly known as an actor famous for her work on Suits. That show had more than a few steamy scenes that we can only assume made the Royal Family a bit nervous once she married Harry. But perhaps her racist photo is one that came from a 2013 photoshoot for Sharp Magazine.
The black outfit is partially sheer, showing us a bit more of Meghan’s skin than we normally see these days from the Duchess of Sussex. In retrospect, it’s interesting to note that for as much as Prince William and Prince Harry bump heads, both of them ended up falling in love with women who first showed the entire world how good they looked while wearing sheer clothing!