You would think, being born into royalty, that the navigation of social protocol would be much easier to understand and follow. However, Princess Eugenie reveals that even they mess it up sometimes.
According to an interview with Vogue , Princess Eugenie admitted that she recently broke royal protocol on her personal Instagram account after she posted a photo of her father, Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
While royal family members are usually advised against having social media accounts, the further removed from the throne one is, the less it is an issue. The Princes William and Harry don’t have any form of social media accounts. Harry’s new wife, Meghan Markle, who used to be an actress, did have social media prior to marrying him. However, she followed royal protocol and closed her accounts down once she became engaged to Prince Harry. The official reason cited on the matter, according to People , is that royals who do not have a “formal working role within the royal family” are allowed social media accounts.
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, on the other hand, are eighth and ninth in line to the royal throne and are allowed more freedom as a result of this. Both of the princesses have Instagram accounts. However, Princess Beatrice keeps her account private so the public cannot access her photos. Eugenie, on the other hand, has a public profile on her Instagram account.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjzqLgHgTpq/
And, it is Princess Eugenie’s Instagram account that got her into trouble with royal protocol recently. As Eugenie explains to Vogue , she had posted an image of her father, Prince Andrew, from prior to the Trooping the Colour event in June. The image was taken at Buckingham Palace and shows Prince Andrew, in all his finery, posing for the camera in one of the long corridors of the palace.
The image was captioned, “A wonderful and proud day celebrating Her Majesty’s birthday and @hrhthedukeofyork for his first Trooping the Colour as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.”
However, this image has been deemed “too private” by the royal family and probably should never have been posted to Eugenie’s Instagram account.
“I recently got in trouble for posting a picture of Papa in a corridor of the palace that was off-limits to the public,” Princess Eugenie told Vogue .
However, as the Express points out, while it probably wasn’t proper that Eugenie posted the image, photography is not expressly banned inside Buckingham Palace.
Regardless of correct royal protocol, the image of Prince Andrew in the corridor of Buckingham Palace still remains on her Instagram account for all to see.