Queen Mother Reportedly Got Upset With Princes Edward, Andrew For Doing This

Queen Mother was reportedly upset after some members of the British royal family appeared on a TV show.

In 1987, Prince Edward tried to persuade the members of the royal family to participate in “The Grand Knockout,” now popularly known as “It’s a Royal Knockout.” He was able to convince Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and Sarah Ferguson to appear on the show. They dressed up and mucked about with a selection of stars, including Meat Loaf, Anthony Andrews, Kevin Kline, Mel Smith, Billy Connolly and George Lazenby.

However, royal biographer Ingrid Seward claimed in her book, “Prince Edward: A Biography,” that the Queen Mother was “most upset” because of the “disastrous” program. Queen Elizabeth II’s mother was not happy that her granddaughter and grandsons got themselves involved in the hour-long exercise on TV.

Queen Elizabeth II reportedly shared the Queen Mother’s opinion and didn’t like the program as well. In turn, Prince Charles reportedly didn’t approve of Princess Diana joining the show because he knew that the Queen wouldn’t like it.

“The Queen did not appreciate the sight of the Duke of York grinning inanely,” Seward wrote.

“And her youngest son Prince Edward dressed as a joker with a yellow plumed hat which made him look, as The Times drolly remarked, like ‘one of Shakespeare’s lesser jesters,’” the biographer added.

According to Seward, it was not the way most Brits wanted to see the royal family behave. However, Michael Mann, former dean of Windsor, explained why the Duke and Duchess of York, Earl of Wessex and Princess Royal participated anyway.

“For the best reasons in the world, the younger members of the monarchy wanted to make the royal family more approachable [and] more with it,” he said.

Seward also revealed in the same biography that Queen Elizabeth II once forgot Prince Edward’s birthday. They had breakfast together, but the Queen didn’t greet his son. When Prince Edward was asked what the monarch’s present for him was, he smiled and said he didn’t think she remembered. However, the royal author said that if it was Prince Edward’s 20th or 30th birthday, Queen Elizabeth II would not have forgotten about it.

In related news, Prince Edward reportedly preferred Ferguson over Princess Diana. Prince Edward and Ferguson were so close at one point that the Duchess of York would drive from the palace and meet him out to have lunch together. Prince Edward reportedly liked the duchess because she was young and fun.