Lip readers examined the words exchanged by the Royal Family in some of their most high-profile moments in a new documentary – revealing new insights into the family’s dynamics
Existing inside the royal spotlight means that for the House of Windsor, millions of eyes are trained upon them at every moment they appear in public.
This is particularly true at the Royal Family’s most high-profile events – like royal weddings, King Charles’ Coronation, or Trooping the Colour. Whilst conducting engagements like these, the Windsors are on official duty, but they are still a family, and every so often, they are caught having a candid conversation or moment on camera.
A new Channel 5 documentary featuring insight from expert lip readers has revealed some snippets of conversations the senior royals have had in public, bringing new insight into their relationships. Lip readers are something that the royals have to be wary of, so much so, that guests at Harry and Meghan’s wedding back in 2018 were even warned to cover their mouths when they were speaking to one another.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please be careful what you are saying to each other because the world can lip read,” photographer Alexi Lubomirski has since revealed guards told the guests, adding: “As you walk in, you see a lot of people sort of talking like this…You don’t know what you’re talking about, but everyone on these cameras is watching and lip-reading.”
The new documentary, entitled Lip-Reading The Royals: The Secret Conversations, dropped some bombshells about the internal dynamics of the Royal Family, and included some seriously sweet moments too.
Harry and Meghan bombshell
When Harry and Meghan decided to quit royal life and move across the pond, it sent shockwaves throughout the UK, but Harry has since admitted that the couple’s unhappiness inside the monarchy had been brewing for a long time.
At a remembrance service in 2018 – only a few months after the pair’s star-studded royal wedding in Windsor, the couple shared a conversation before the service began that seemed to potentially reference their desire to leave life as working royals behind.
Lip reading expert Nicola Hickling decoded the conversation for the programme, as she claimed Meghan instructed Harry to “take advantage of the situation”, before she turned to look around at the sea of royals that surrounded them.
“She says Harry responded to her comment by asking: “Today?”, as Meghan added: “Do it tonight.” Then, Harry poses a question to Meghan, asking: “You do realise that this is the end?” as Meghan responds: “Yeah, I do know” before looking away again.
The experts featured in the documentary put forward that this could have been a reference to the couple’s desire to leave, but whilst that isn’t confirmed, it’s clear it was a serious conversation.
Prince Harry out in the cold
In the approach to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Coronation, a huge amount of interest was generated about whether or not Harry and Meghan would be there.
In the end, Harry came to the historic day solo – but the lip readers captured a moment between the Duke and his cousin Princess Eugenie, with whom he is close, that indicated he wasn’t particularly happy with the icy reception that had met him at the event. It came only months after the release of his bombshell memoir Spare, that saw him make accusations about his relatives, and lifted the lid on the Windsor’s family dysfunction.
“I’ve spent five hours with my dad in his office and not a friendly text from either,” he said to Eugenie, with the lip reading experts claiming he said next, “Why hasn’t anybody contacted me?”
Eugenie responded with a quick and cautious but seemingly sympathetic smile.
Charles’ emotional moment
After being diagnosed with cancer not long into his reign, Charles was forced to take some time away from “public-facing” engagements and limit his schedule based on how he was feeling physically.
However, he was never going to miss Trooping the Colour, one of the set piece events of the Royal Family’s year. In 2024, he did ride in a carriage however, as an adaptation, where he was spotted by the documentary’s lip readers appearing to have an emotional moment with his wife Camilla.
“Are you absolutely certain?” Camilla said to Charles, they claimed, before the monarch replied, “I’ll get through today, it makes me feel emotional, I don’t know why”.
William and Kate’s sweet parenting moments
A couple of adorable parenting moments were revealed in the new documentary, showing Kate and William trying to balance the formal nature of their royal duties, whilst still engaging with their children normally.
In one moment, when Prince George was starting his very first day of school, William was spotted by the lip readers calmly and carefully explaining to his eldest son – who was at the time very young and visibly nervous, what was going on.
The lip readers claimed that William told George that the photographers were going to take his photo because it was his first day, and as the father and son held hands and approached his new teacher, he told George they would “shake the teacher’s hand” when they met her.
In another seriously sweet moment, William was pointed out to have told his children “Eyes to the skies” whilst the senior royals were gathered on Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a flypast, as a gentle reminder to pay attention to what was going on, after George said to his parents, “the crowd is so loud”. At the end of the RAF display, Kate said to Prince Louis, “Wow, wow, did you enjoy that?”.
Kate likes a man in uniform
Before Kate had officially joined the Royal Family, she was still a staple presence at important moments for Prince William, after the pair fell in love as students at the University of St Andrews and had been in a long-term relationship.
At his passing out parade at Sandhurst, Kate was spotted by the lip readers making a joking comment to her pals about enjoying seeing her other half in his formal military attire.
“I love the uniform, it’s so sexy,” Kate said, the lip readers claimed, before her friends all killed themselves laughing.
Harry and William’s brotherly banter
Whilst William and Harry are now known to have a pretty icy relationship, they once seemed inseparable to the public – and one moment picked up on in the new documentary showed just how far their dynamic has disintegrated.
At their father’s wedding to their stepmother Camilla in 2005, William found himself having something of a bad hair day. His locks were all over the place during the windy day, and he turned to his younger brother and said that his “hair is a right mess” according to the lip readers.
Harry, seemingly noticing for the first time, replied, “Whoa” before joking around a bit at his brother’s expense and using his hands to show just how big William’s hair had become, to which William replied, “Don’t” with a smile.
Royals unimpressed with Camilla’s feather headpiece
At her wedding to Charles, Camilla opted for an elegant feather headpiece – but it didn’t go down too well with the other royals, including Charles himself, the lip readers claimed.
Camilla, after the pair had tied the knot, said to her new spouse, “Wish I hadn’t had feathers,” as they blew about in the wind and she struggled to control them, but Charles simply turned away, and muttered, “They look awful,” the lip readers claimed.
Queen Elizabeth, for her part, chimed in too, pointing out that she “did warn her not to wear feathers”.
William confesses how much he ‘owes’ late Queen
In a moving moment captured in the documentary, William showed just how much respect he had for his grandmother, the late monarch.
William and Kate – newly married at the time – had been asked to step into Prince Philip’s shoes and join the late Queen for an event, because the late Duke of Edinburgh was unwell.
The late Queen told her grandson she was “so glad” he was there and had been able to step in, to which William simply replied, “I owe you that,” according to the lip-reading experts.
After the sweet moment, the pair went on to joke about how Philip could be moody when he was feeling unwell, with William replying that he knew his grandfather could be “grouchy” and they all began giggling.
William tells Kate he will ‘always love her’
William and Kate’s royal wedding was watched by millions of people across the globe, but the lip readers spotted some sweet moments during the couple’s carriage ride that had previously flown under the radar.
“Are you happy?” Kate asked her new husband at point, they claimed, and he replied, “It’s been a perfect day.”
“My face is hurting from smiling at everyone so much,” he said later in their journey, with Kate agreeing, saying: “I’m smiling as well”.
Kate then said, “Tell me you love me,” to William, with him sweetly replying, “I love you always”.
Charles and Diana marriage breakdown
The lip readers compared how Diana and Charles spoke on their wedding day – to how they interacted towards the end of their marriage, and it wasn’t a pretty sight by that point.
“You will be fine,” Charles said to Diana when they tied the knot, and she replied happily in a “sing-song” voice, “As will you!”
The couple might have been all wide smiles then, but a decade or so later, it was a different story altogether, the experts noted.
The pair was sent to South Korea on a royal tour by the late Queen, on what one expert called the “mini break from hell” and it seemed to the lip readers things were pretty tense between them.
When sitting in a car, Charles tried to engage Diana in a chat about how “interesting” South Korea is, but the lip readers pointed out that she seemed unwilling to reply.
Giving only monosyllabic, “Yep” and “Yeah” answers, and “with no cheerfulness” one of the experts noted, she also remained resolutely facing away from him during the brief chat, looking out the car window instead.
William asks Harry to ‘talk’
It has been widely reported that William thought Harry was rushing into things with Meghan, and that he advised his younger brother to slow things down ahead of their wedding.
This, in turn, didn’t please Harry, given that he was so sure he had met the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
In one moment spotted by the lip readers, before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had tied the knot, William seemed to be appealing to his brother to have a talk with him.
The lip-reading experts claimed that William said to Harry that he “would like to chat with you some more” as the pair left church at Christmas, tentatively adding, “Are you up for that?” to which Harry nods in reply.
Whilst it can’t be confirmed what William wanted to discuss with his brother, in light of their relationship beginning to unravel, this attempt to reach out stands out.
Lip-Reading The Royals: The Secret Conversations aired on Channel 5.
