Prince Philip Used to Get in Trouble With the Queen for Playing This Silly Prank on His Grandchildren
The lives of the royal family may be all about tradition and order, but that never stopped the late Prince Philip from playing pranks on Queen Elizabeth and his grandchildren! In interviews for a new BBC documentary titled Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, the Duke of Edinburgh’s grandchildren revealed that he had an ongoing joke with them involving mustard, much to the Queen’s displeasure.
“One of the games he used to enjoy playing was, when we used to go for family barbecues, instead of a mustard pot, we had a mustard tube,” Prince William recalled in the BBC documentary. “And he used to take the lid off, and put it in your hands … and then he would squish your hands together to fire the mustard onto the ceiling.” The Duke of Cambridge also mentioned that the Queen was less than amused. “He used to get in a lot of trouble from my grandmother for covering most of the places we had lunch and things with mustard on the ceiling … He enjoyed those jokes, he enjoyed messing around with the children and being a grandfather.”
Prince Philip’s other grandchildren vividly remembered the mustard prank, too. Prince William’s cousins, Zara Tindall and Peter Philips, smiled at the memory during their joint documentary interview. “He gets you to hold it in your hands, and the lid’s off and I can’t remember exactly what he says, but he ends up slamming your hands together,” Zara exclaimed. “It went all over the ceiling!”
“I actually think the marks are still there,” Peter added.
While Queen Elizabeth would get upset at her husband’s behavior, Prince William noted that she still enjoyed her fair share of shenanigans every now and then — especially when things didn’t go as planned. “Both my grandparents love that because you can imagine, they’ve lived a life where everything has to go right the whole time and so when things go wrong, they both chuckle an awful lot,” he said. “Everyone else gets mortally embarrassed. “
Prince Harry also recalled how calm and composed Prince Philip could be while his grandchildren got into all sorts of mischief. “What I remember now [are] the expressions on his face to the things that happened, the things that went wrong, and the craziness that was happening around him,” the Duke of Sussex said. “He would just sit there so completely calm with his legs crossed and his arms folded or his hands clasped, and just literally watch us run by and go ‘zoom, zoom.’”
Originally meant to celebrate the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday this past June, the documentary now reflects on Prince Philip’s life and lasting legacy. Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers airs on September 22 at 9:00 p.m. on BBC One.
