Gaffes and glitches: How the Royal Family adapted to video calls during pandemic
In March 2020 when the UK was told to work from home, suddenly everyone accommodated to Zoom and Microsoft Teams, including the Royal Family. Everyone from the Queen to the Earl and Countess of Wessex began attending royal engagements via video call. Express.co.uk has looked up the most awkward and funny moments of the Royal Family struggling with video calls, including the Queen’s technical troubles and Prince Edward’s surprising video backdrops.
Prince Edward
In March 2021, Prince Edward began using visually pleasing virtual backdrops and experimented with this background for an important video call.
While the Earl of Wessex was speaking to organisations in Greater Manchester, he appeared on screen with backdrops of the city behind him, which changed as he spoke through his points.
The jazzy techniques weren’t appreciated by many royal fans on Twitter, who claimed the green screen effects distorted the appearance of the Prince.
One wrote: “This is really great! Glad he’s drawing awareness for these services.
“He needs to stop with virtual backgrounds though. It makes people look somewhat distorted.”
READ MORE: Prince Charles posts throwback photo for Princess Anne’s birthday
The Queen
The Queen, 95, has taken surprisingly well to virtual appearances but in December 2020 technology failed her in the middle of an important call.
Queen Elizabeth was speaking to KPMG employees and partners to mark the accountancy firm’s 150th anniversary when the line to Windsor Castle briefly went down.
Her image vanished from the gallery of faces for a moment but when she returned, she said with a smile: “You just disappeared, all of you.”
In a very professional manner, she carried on regardless and actually went on to praise technology despite the slight difficulty.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton
While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have not suffered a public mishap on their video calls, it sounds like there must have been some near misses.
During an interview with the BBC, they opened up about video calls with young children in the house.
Kate said: “It gets a bit hectic, I am not going to lie, with a two-year-old.”
William continued to explain Prince Louis’s cheeky actions: “For some reason, he sees the red button and he always wants to press the red button.”
But Harrold acknowledged bowing or curtseying would probably look bizarre over video chat.
He said: “If someone wanted they could still nod their head as a note of respect.
“But this would be a personal choice and I am sure not expected.”
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