Queen Elizabeth publicly corrects Prince William as he’s caught breaking royal formation

Between keeping up appearances as part of one of the most famous families in the world and the realities of everyday life as a father-of-three, Prince William rarely steps a foot out of line.

Unfortunately for him, the one rare occasion when he momentarily forgot royal protocol was spotted by his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, who reprimanded him in front of the nation. 

The incident took place during the late monarch’s annual birthday parade, Trooping the Colour, back in 2016. While the attention was turned to the Buckingham Palace balcony, where the royals had gathered to watch the RAF flypast, William spotted that his young son Prince George had become restless.

Giving in to his parenting instincts, the doting father bent down to talk to then-two-year-old George. Despite the fact he had good intentions of minimising disruption to the Trooping celebrations, William’s movement earned a three-word warning from the Queen.

“Stand up, William,” Her late Majesty was believed to have said, and he immediately responded.

© Getty

Childhood telling off

This was not the first time the late monarch had told William off, with the Prince confessing he got into trouble while playing with his cousins Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall as a child.

Speaking during the documentary The Queen at 90, William explained: “[Peter Phillips and I] were chasing Zara around who was on a go-kart, and [we] managed to herd Zara into a lamppost and the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her. 

“And I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral to come running across the lawn in her kilt. She came charging over and gave us the most almighty [expletive], and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on.” 

Royals in trouble

William is not the only royal to have been issued stern words in front of an audience.

Earlier this year, Queen Margrethe of Denmark corrected her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, during a concert by the Royal Life Guards Music Corps for Margrethe’s 86th birthday. 

As the music played, her dachshund Tilia walked between the royals, with Mary briefly breaking formation to give her a pat on the head. Shaking her head, Margrethe seemed visibly displeased, and one Danish fan later told HELLO! that Margrethe told Mary: “Jeg tror ikke det er den rette tid til det”, which translates to “I don’t think now is the correct time for that”.