Prince Andrew was photographed in Windsor on Saturday – just days after being criticised over his demeanour at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral.
The 65-year-old royal appeared to be grinning when he was snapped while out horse riding.
It comes after he joined royals including the King, Princess Anne, and the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday. His ex-wife Sarah Ferguson was also in attendance.
Queen Camilla was not present: just two hours before the private family service began, Buckingham Palace announced she had pulled out as she recovers from acute sinusitis.
Saturday’s sighting of the prince follows reports he had a ‘jolly demeanour’ during the sombre event earlier in the week, with the Telegraph reporting a source saying it created ‘a distinct chill in the air’.
Footage from the funeral shows Prince Andrew sharing a joke with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. He also broke into laughter while standing next to Prince William, who looked visibly uncomfortable and embarrassed.
In addition, the disgraced Duke of York tried to engage in conversation with his nephew after service: he could be seen muttering a few words to William, who appeared to decline to engage and only gave a brief nod in response.
A body language expert described this exchange between Andrew and his nephew, Prince William, as ‘visibly frosty’.
Prince Andrew (pictured) appeared to be grinning when he was photographed while horse riding in Windsor Great Park on Saturday
It comes amid ongoing revelations linked to Andrew’s relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, six years after the scandal saw the Duke forced to stand down from public duties.
Andrew stepped down as a working royal over the scandal involving his friendship with Epstein, but he still attends private family events.
However, The Telegraph reported that some of the other mourners at the funeral were surprised by how public Andrew’s arrival at the service was, noting that some of the members of the public who were outside the venue gasped as his car pulled up.
‘If he truly wanted to pay homage to her at her funeral he should have had the common sense to drop in quietly,’ it cited an anonymous mourner as saying.
Speaking about Andrew’s awkward interchange with Prince William, body language expert Judi James said the younger royal’s ‘non-verbal responses’ suggest a degree of ‘awkwardness’ between the pair.
She also described the expression on Prince Andrew’s face as he tried to chat to his nephew as a ‘smug-looking smile’.
Ms James said: ‘The Duke of York tries to engage his nephew in a good-humoured chat and all William’s non-verbal responses suggest awkwardness and a subliminal desire to reject the overtures, making this look like a very frosty transaction.
‘Andrew turns his head fully towards William to not only get his attention but seeming to want to coax a mirrored response that shows he has his attention, too.
The 65-year-old royal (pictured in Windsor on Saturday) also received what was described as a ‘frosty’ response from Prince William at Tuesday’s sombre event
‘When he turns his face to the front he is wearing a smug-looking smile and he even turns back as though trying to gain a mirrored response from William.’
Ms James explained that the Prince of Wales uses a series of body language signals to suggest a lack of desire to communicate with his uncle.
‘Firstly, he barely inclines his head in Andrew’s direction and then he seems to avoid eye contact, looking down or away,’ she said.
‘There is the very exaggerated and prolonged rubbing of his nose with his fist to form a barrier to his mouth with this ‘act of distraction’.
‘Lastly, there is a rising up then banging down onto his heels, which will often signal ‘subject closed’.
‘William is at some pains to appear polite despite potentially feeling compromised here, but he is clearly made uncomfortable and is perhaps relieved when he can return to the more solemn facial expression of mourning.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail about the conversations that Andrew engaged in after the service on Tuesday, lip reader Jacqui Press claimed they included pleasantries, such as ‘It was a beautiful service’ and ‘Aren’t we lucky with the weather today’.
The Waleses made a notably quick exit after the King had got into the State Bentley, but not before His Majesty appeared to offer a few warm words to his daughter-in-law, who smiled and walked over, before kissing him on each cheek and curtsying.
Prince Andrew was seen grinning and engaging in light conversation at the end of the Requiem Mass, on the day of the funeral of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, at Westminster Cathedral in London on Tuesday
Andrew, Charles and William at the funeral for the Duchess of Kent at Westminster Cathedral
As the King drove off, the Duchess of York was seen waving somewhat over-enthusiastically at his car, before also dropping a neat bob.
Prince Andrew, meanwhile, exchanged some words with his sister, Princess Anne, thanked staff, and headed off towards his car.
According to the lip reader, the Princess Royal told her brother, ‘Let’s walk this way’. Andrew later turned to Anne and said, ‘Shall [we] go that way and we can leave there?’ He later questioned, ‘Where is she? Oh, over there, is she coming?’
Elsewhere, he thanked the priests and later turned to a different attendee before questioning whether they had been introduced before, Press said.
He was forced to wait at the side of the building, fiddling with the tails of his morning coat, as his ex-wife continued to chat merrily on the steps.
Saturday doesn’t mark the Duke’s first public sighting since the funeral: on Friday, he was seen in a Range Rover, again believed to be heading to Windsor Great Park to go horse riding.
