Prince William's 'almighty' telling-off by Queen Elizabeth shows she wasn't afraid to scold her family members

We probably all have at least one memory of being told off by our grandparents and the royals are no different. Prince William had a close bond with his "Granny" Queen Elizabeth, but as the family matriarch she stepped in when scolding was necessary.

One childhood incident "stuck in" the Prince of Wales’s mind so much that he ended up recalling it on Sky News’s Our Queen at Ninety documentary in 2016. He and his cousin Peter Phillips had been chasing Zara around at Balmoral and when things got a little out of hand, the late Queen Elizabeth was the "first" to reprimand her grandsons.

"We were chasing Zara around who was on a go-cart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost. And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt," he said.

A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown | £8.09/$10.87 (was £10.99/$14.77) at Amazon

This Sunday Times best-seller is the perfect read for fans of Queen Elizabeth and paints a fascinating picture of Britain's longest-reigning monarch. It combines biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire.

View Deal

William recalled that the Queen "came charging over" and gave him and Peter "the most almighty b*********, and that sort of stuck in [his] mind from that moment on". Her reaction is more than fair enough, given the circumstances!

Even as an adult, the Prince of Wales was kept in check by Her Majesty on occasion. Who else remembers the moment at Trooping the Colour in 2016 when William bent down to talk to Prince George on the balcony? Lightly scolding her grandson, Queen Elizabeth is understood to have said, "Stand up William. Don’t crouch."

The royals might live their lives in the public eye but moments like these remind us that they also experience the usual family ups and downs. Prince William told his anecdote in Our Queen at Ninety very light-heartedly and elsewhere in the chat he heaped glowing praise on his grandmother for how she was "always" there for him.

"She is always on hand for advice and support, and it's as much about doing it [royal duties] our own way as it is about getting it right," he declared. "She likes that we have our own style. It's a new generation, and there's no point in everyone doing it the same way. It's the modernisation of the Royal Family that keeps it interesting and relevant."

Prince William’s immense respect and love for Queen Elizabeth was so clear and although he and Peter once got an "almighty" reprimand because of the danger of the lamppost falling, in general, boisterous and playful antics are just part and parcel of being children. The royal kids weren’t the only ones to get up to mischief, either…

Speaking in the BBC's 2021 documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Prince William revealed a prank his grandfather used to play that got him into "trouble" with the Queen.

"He used to take the lid off [the tube of mustard] and put it in your hands... and then he'd squish your hands together to fire the mustard onto the ceiling," he said. "He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother".

"He enjoyed those jokes, he enjoyed messing around with the children and being a grandfather," William added.