Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Princess Beatrice scolded the late Queen at an Easter service on her 93rd birthday, a lip reader has claimed.
When Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel for the Easter Service in April 2019, she was greeted by Zara Tindall, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Kate, The Princess of Wales, who all curtseyed.
Yet as she walked past her son and granddaughter at the entrance of the chapel, Beatrice, 37, failed to curtsey towards the Queen, while her son seemed to teasingly rebuke his mother for being ‘difficult’.
The relationship between mother and son has been put under renewed scrutiny amid the unfolding scandal over Andrew’s ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew was said to be the Queen’s ‘favourite’ and she supported his appointment as UK trade envoy, despite opposition from his older brother Charles.
The exchange at Easter seemingly offers more proof that the former Duke felt comfortable enough in his standing with his mother to tease her in public in front of the cameras.
According to lip reading expert Nicola Hickling, as the Queen walked past her son into the chapel, he told her: ‘Although it is your birthday, you can be quite difficult you know’.
‘Beatrice appeared to giggle at Andrew’s comment,’ Ms Hickling added. ‘Prince William was briefly seen sucking his teeth while watching the exchange.’
After the Princess Royal made a remark to her brother, Andrew apparently replied: ‘She mustn’t be so difficult, Anne.’
Princess Beatrice appeared to mutter quietly: ‘So difficult.’
According to lip reader Nicola Hickling, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Princess Beatrice scolded the late Queen on her 93rd birthday, seemingly in jest
Ms Hickling told The Daily Mail that, as the Queen walked past Andrew, he said: ‘Although it is your birthday, you can be quite difficult you know’, followed by a ‘giggle’ from Beatrice
The Princess Royal and her husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, then moved to the side while Anne appeared to issue a reply to Andrew’s striking comments, the lip reader added.
Ms Hickling said that she believes the ‘teasing’ exchange between Andrew and Anne suggests a ‘familiar sibling dynamic between them’.
She explained: ‘Anne’s glance towards her husband afterwards gives the impression this may be a well-known family trait.’
The interpretation of Andrew and Beatrice’s comments towards Her Majesty comes as King Charles is said to be deliberately distancing himself from Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, amid the fallout from their parents’ disgrace.
According to royal insiders, the princesses declined Charles’s offer to receive assistance from senior advisers in a bid to help protect their reputation.
Meanwhile, Andrew’s relationship with his brother has also fallen into disarray, with the King taking the decision to strip Andrew of his royal titles in October and is now said to be ‘likely to discuss’ his removal from the line of succession.
Yet in 2019, both Beatrice and Andrew shared a very close relationship with the then monarch, Queen Elizabeth.
Indeed, throughout her lifetime, Andrew was widely believed to be her favourite child who had ‘never done anything wrong in her eyes’.
She remained fiercely protective of her second son throughout her life, even after Andrew was accused of sexual assault by late Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre, in 2019.
‘She mustn’t be so difficult, Anne,’ Andrew allegedly told his sister, before Princess Beatrice quietly echoed: ‘So difficult’
While the former prince’s public presence virtually diminished, Her Majesty ‘stood by him, loyal to the end’.
Weeks after the Giuffre settlement, Andrew escorted the Queen to Prince Philip’s memorial service at London’s Westminster Abbey in March 2022.
‘In her final days, she kept him close, shielding him as palace insiders continued to push for his total exile,’ royal author Robert Jobson noted in his book The Windsor Legacy.
Confiding ‘her support’ for Andrew to a trusted aide, the monarch allegedly said: ‘You have to remember, he is my son.’
Following her tragic death in September 2022, Andrew was said to have ‘lost his strongest ally’ while Charles wanted his brother to be ‘cut adrift’.
And although Beatrice refused to curtsey for the late Queen on her 93rd birthday, the pair were also said to share an extremely close bond.
Body language expert Judi James previously told The Daily Mail: ‘Beatrice clearly shuns the act of respectfully greeting the other royal women so studiously and emphatically, and stands upright and stares as her grandmother passes and walks into the church.
‘It gives the impression that Andrew is performing some status leap-frogging to define his own “special role” in the family with a spot of non-verbal power play.’
Ms James noted that both Andrew and Beatrice’s greeting towards the late Queen looked ‘deliberately casual’ as Andrew greeted his mother with ‘a cocked head and puckered brows that suggest he’s making an informal joke’.
‘Beatrice smiles but the smile drops as the Queen passes,’ she added.
Yet despite Beatrice failing to curtsey for her grandmother on this occasion, the late Queen shared such a close bond with the princess that she even loaned her a Sir Normal Hartnell gown as her wedding dress.
The vintage Norman Hartnell dress, remodelled by Angela Kelly and Stewart Parvin, was worn by the late Queen for a state dinner in Rome in 1961, the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia premiere and the 1966 State Opening of Parliament.
Beatrice was said to have made a ‘last minute request’ to borrow her grandmother’s gown for her wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi after having a sudden ‘change of heart’ about her original wedding dress, according to insiders.
Meanwhile, Beatrice also wore the same tiara that the Queen had worn on her own wedding day to Philip in 1947 – the Queen Mary diamond fringe tiara.
Fashioned in 1919 from a necklace given to Queen Victoria, it is a treasured heirloom and was lent to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne on their wedding days.
On Beatrice’s big day, the Queen was pictured beaming at her beloved granddaughter, with one friend later telling the Daily Mail that the princess often spoke fondly about her grandmother.
They added that it was ‘clear’ there was a ‘strong bond’ between the two royals, making the borrowed dress ‘perfect’.
Despite calls for a streamlined or ‘slimmed down’ monarchy in the final years of Elizabeth’s life, she routinely maintained a close bond with Beatrice, and felt strongly she and her sister should retain a key role in the Firm.
A senior member of the Queen’s court previously told The Mail on Sunday that, while she would publicly be seen to support Charles as he plans for the future, she was adamant that his hopes of sidelining Beatrice and Eugenie could prove impractical.
‘The Queen adores the girls and is keen for them to have some kind of a role,’ said the source. ‘Charles’s vision for a streamlined family is all very well, but how can the Royal Family do everything it currently does with just five players?’
