Thanks to Princess Anne’s Son, We Now Know Not All Royals Have to Abide by the No-Selfie Rule
Members of the royal family have to abide by a fair amount of rules. For example, PDA is discouraged, women are encouraged to wear nylon during public engagements and expressing political views is strictly prohibited. But there is one royal rule that apparently has a little wiggle room.
As you may remember, Meghan Markle made it known in 2017 that selfies are a royal no-no. If you think about it, they’re way less personal than the face-to-face interaction royals have with well-wishers during official engagements and they’re also problematic in terms of security. (You do have to get pretty close to capture the perfect selfie and that holds the potential for danger.)
But this past Friday, Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn posed for a selfie with British TV presenter and model Kirsty Gallacher and reporter Natalie Pinkham at the Cheltenham Festival 2020 Gold Cup Day at Cheltenham Racecourse in England. Sure, it’s safe to assume that the rules are to be followed by all members of the extended Windsor family, but Phillips is not a senior working royal and is pretty far down the ruling totem pole. That means he’s able to enjoy normalcies that Queen Elizabeth and Prince William can’t.
It should be mentioned, however, that the no-selfie rule seems to be becoming a bit more lax. Sophie, Countess of Wessex, posed for a selfie in January with a group of staff members at the Aberdeen Women’s Clinic in Freetown while on a two-day tour of Sierra Leone, West Africa. Still, this was a private get-together and not a massive event. But then the Duke of Cambridge posed for several selfies during his and Kate Middleton’s royal tour of Ireland earlier this month.
Does this mean things are changing? Maybe. What say you, Queen Elizabeth?