However, this isn’t the first time she’s been taken aback by a move made by a royal family member. In May 2018, Express revealed that Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, once “shocked” the reigning Queen with a decision they had made about their home life.
According to the publication, Her Majesty “couldn’t get her head around” the amount of time the couple spent socializing in their kitchen during her first visit to their Anmer Hall home in Norfolk, England.
“For the Queen, she can’t stand that because she is used to having a set room for that sort of thing,” an insider explained of the Queen’s surprise, adding, “…she couldn’t get her head around the fact the kitchen is the main base for them.”
Unlike Kate and William who reportedly chose to entertain in their kitchen, the Queen “never” goes into the kitchen at her Balmoral Castle estate. “In her mind, that is where all the kitchen staff work,” the source added.
This isn’t the first time Prince William has surprised his grandmother with a big life decision, however. As noted by Express in a separate report, Queen Elizabeth was reportedly once “delighted” when William decided to break family tradition by attending the University of St Andrews in place of Oxford or Cambridge.
“While the royal family have traditionally gone to Oxford or Cambridge, Prince William was set on breaking 150 years of tradition by going to Scotland’s oldest university,” author and royal expert Katie Nicholl explained in her 2010 book “William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls.”
Nicholl added, “The Queen was delighted that her grandson had enrolled at the elite college where the Scottish King James V studied in the early sixteenth century… The Queen Mother, who William visited at Balmoral for tea before he arrived for his first day, also shared a connection with the university, from which she received an honorary degree in 1929.”