Awkward Prince William Moments That Were Caught By Millions

Since his birth in 1982, the world has been fascinated with Prince William. He went from being an adorable baby to a super cute teen — many teen girls had his face on their bedroom walls! These days, he's a forward-thinking royal and a caring father and husband (via Hello!).

After his father, Prince Charles, William is next in line to the British throne. In fact, in all likelihood, he will one day be king. Usually, the prince presents himself well in public. He is often praised for his dignified demeanor.

Nevertheless, William is, after all, only human — and while he may do a good job of presenting himself well, every now and then, he has the occasional slip-up. Luckily for us, there are cameras pretty much everywhere these days, so we get a glimpse into the prince's more embarrassing moments. Ready to see some cringe-worthy moments from the king-to-be? Here are the most awkward moments of Prince William.

Let's face it — it's hugely awkward when middle-aged men take to the dance floor to show off their moves. In fact, it's a total dad move! As The Sun reported, Prince William had his own awkward dance experience in 2018 — and it was caught on camera. He and his then-pregnant wife, Kate Middleton, were visiting Coventry. They attended the opening of a new training center for nurses, midwives, and paramedics during their visit.

Things got a little awkward when the couple took part in a communications training session with the training paramedics. At one point, the paramedics all started doing a bizarre wiggle dance as part of a training game. Kate immediately joined in and looked to her husband as he stood awkwardly in the center of the wiggling paramedics. He laughed uncomfortably before trying half-heartedly to join in. We have to admit — it was a valiant attempt. Nevertheless, it was super awkward to watch!

This next awkward moment is pretty relatable — but still, we have no doubt that it was seriously embarrassing for Prince William. In 2020, William and his family visited the London Palladium to see a performance of Pantoland. As the Daily Mail reported, the prince had to deal with some pretty uncomfortable questions from his son, Prince George. As Nigel Havers, an actor in the show, said, "Prince William had us all chuckling when he said that his eldest, George, had innocently enquired why everyone was laughing at one of Julian Clary's more risqué jokes."

This is definitely something any parent can relate to. It's always awkward when a child is old enough to ask about rude jokes but not quite old enough to understand them. It sounds like William had a seriously awkward conversation with his son after this performance! As Havers put it, "He said it may take him a while to explain his way out of that one!" (via The Sun).

One of Prince William's royal duties is bestowing honors upon recipients. In 2018, Emma Thompson was honored with a Damehood. William was responsible for bestowing the honor by placing a medal on the actress' lapel. As Thompson explained The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the ceremony didn't exactly go to plan. "You get two badges," she explained. "He had to pin it on and it's a little bit of a nipple moment, and you go, 'Gosh, I wasn't expecting that.'" Oops, sounds like William chose the wrong place to pin that badge! Thompson confessed, "I made a very loud and inappropriate noise in Buckingham Palace." How awkward!

Luckily, Thompson was pretty good-humored about the incident. As she explained to DeGeneres, she had met William several times before, so it wasn't too embarrassing for her. Nevertheless, we're sure William was mortified when he realized what he'd done!

As any royal fan will know, the relationship between Prince William and his brother, Prince Harry, reportedly began to sour around the time Meghan Markle entered the picture. By the time Harry and Meghan had announced their departure from the royal family, things seemed to be pretty tense between the two brothers. According to the book Battle of Brothers by Robert Lacey, their relationship was left "utterly broken" by Harry's decision (via The Sun).

While we don't know exactly what transpired between William and Harry, we did get one glimpse into the awkwardness between them. In 2020, Harry and Meghan attended their last official royal event. When they greeted William and Kate Middleton, they were practically ignored, with William only giving his brother a brief nod. There's no doubt about it — it was an incredibly awkward moment. In fact, the person sitting next to Meghan even jumped in to cover up some of the awkwardness! Yikes.

It's always pretty awkward when couples' tiffs are made public. For Prince William and Kate Middleton, this rarely happens. However, on one occasion, we got a brief glimpse into a potential awkward moment between the couple on TV. During Mary Berry's Christmas special in 2019, A Berry Royal Christmas, the couple were shown chatting with members of the public over a Christmas meal. At one point, William gently placed his hand on his wife's arm — pretty normal for a married couple. Kate, however, immediately jerked her arm away from William. It was a brief moment, but still, the shrug-off is undeniable!

InStyle even spoke to a body language expert, Patti Wood, about the awkward moment. "The pull away was a strong significant retreat from his touch and you can see that her hands, held out in a cannon shot formation to calm and protect herself, stayed together the whole dance," Wood explained. Sounds like Kate was just feeling stressed about showing PDA on camera, which may be seen as a breach of royal protocol. Either way, it was definitely a seriously awkward moment!

We get it — it's easy to get sleepy in church. But it's pretty awkward if you're the future king and you fall asleep in a service at Westminster Abbey! This is exactly what happened to Prince William in 2018 at the Anzac Day service. Unfortunately for William, the whole thing was caught on video and posted by 5 News. In the footage, William can be seen struggling to keep his eyes open. We have to admit — it's pretty funny to watch!

For the most part, the public cut the prince some slack. After all, he was a brand-new father at the time, and it was his first royal appearance since the birth of his third child. As People jokingly commented on Twitter, "Life with a newborn baby." Some Twitter users were keen to stand up for the sleepy prince. One wrote, "Who cares? Leave the poor guy alone. He has a new baby and two young children. I'm surprised he wasn't sound asleep and snoring!" While we definitely sympathize with the prince, it's still pretty awkward to watch his eyes drooping at such an important occasion!

When it comes to greasy fast food, KFC is pretty much the ultimate indulgence. It turns out, even Prince William isn't immune to the temptations of fried chicken. In 2020, the prince was caught ogling a KFC window, sending the internet into uproar. According to Express, he and his wife had been en route to visit a photography exhibition when he got a little distracted by the fast food restaurant.

KFC managed to capture a snap of the hilarious moment, which they posted on Twitter with the caption, "William whispered quietly to himself, 'Oh, I just can't wait to be wing,'" in reference to the famous song from The Lion King. Later, the KFC account commented, "I'm sad I didn't call him His Royal Thighness." It's true — the funny picture presents the opportunity for endless puns and jokes! We bet William will be a little more careful about eyeing up fast food in the future.

Film award ceremonies are usually a chance for celebrities to let off a little steam with a few jokes about their fellow actors. In 2020, Prince William and Kate Middleton attended the BAFTA awards. Unfortunately, the jokes that year may have gone a little too far when it came to the royal family. Margot Robbie, who accepted an award on behalf of her colleague Brad Pitt, read his speech, which included a joke about calling the award Harry because, as Robbie read, "he is really excited about bringing it back to the States with him." The cameras cut to William and Kate in the audience, both with strained smiles painted on their faces.

Apparently, the royal couple weren't particularly pleased. As media commentator Neil Sean told Fox News, "The feedback is that many of the stars stepped out of line in front of the patron, which is the Duke of Cambridge." Awkward!

It seems that the BAFTAs and Prince William are a dangerous combination. In yet another awkward moment, William was caught on camera high-fiving the rapper Tinie Tempah. What could have been a cute moment got super awkward when William clasped the rapper's hand during the high five and gave it a weird little shake. Could it be that the royals don't know how to high five? We don't know — either way, it was super awkward.

Tinie Tempah spoke to the BBC about the moment afterward. He explained that the decision to high-five the prince had come to him in the moment. It "felt great," he said. As he explained, he'd met William a few times before, so he wasn't too worried about the gesture. While he didn't mention the awkwardness of the high five, royal fans certainly noticed it. PopSugar even called it one of the prince's dorkiest moments — and we have to agree!

Prince William has done a great job of coming across as a relatable royal. Even so, on some occasions, we think he may be trying just a little too hard. One of the cringiest moments came in 2013 when the prince took to the stage with two bona fide music legends — Taylor Swift and Jon Bon Jovi. In a moment of irrational confidence, the prince joined them in a version of "Livin' On a Prayer."

Needless to say, the performance could not be more awkward. William begins by standing uncomfortably next to Bon Jovi for the first verse, stiffly moving from side to side. He then gives it his all for the chorus, looking pretty pained by the whole experience. After all, the song has some pretty high notes! We have to admit — William showcased a lot of bravery to get up on that stage alongside these two singing icons!

Prince William eventually married his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton in 2011. However, their relationship wasn't always smooth sailing. In fact, the couple actually broke up briefly a few years before in 2007 (via Us Weekly). Of course, talking about a breakup is never easy, and for the most part, William didn't have to. That is, until one reporter accidentally asked him "how things were going" with Kate. Oops! Luckily for us, his response was captured on video.

When asked about his ex-girlfriend, the prince looked seriously awkward and shared an uncomfortable smile with his brother Prince Harry before mumbling something about seeing lots of his friends. Harry then laughed and said, "Very well avoided, William." After successfully avoiding talking about Kate, William added, "Very diplomatic." Yikes, it is so awkward watching William trying to dodge the reporter's question! We certainly do not envy him.

Imagine if an actor was playing your grandmother in a TV show and you bumped into them at a party. Now, for most of us, this would probably never happen. However, it did happen to Prince William, who had a super awkward conversation with actress Olivia Colman, who played the Queen on the Netflix show The Crown.

Colman told fans the whole story on The Graham Norton Show  (via Hello!). Apparently, she met the prince at a reception at the Palace. As she put it, "It didn't go very well." She explained, "He asked what I was doing at the moment before he quickly added, 'Actually, I know what you're doing.'" Sounds like William was keeping up to speed on the Netflix show! Colman then explained that she got excited and asked if William had seen the show. "His answer was a firm, 'No,'" she recalled. Wow, awkward! Of course, Colman was quick to add that the Prince was "very charming and very lovely." Sounds like he handled the awkward moment with grace on this occasion!

As we all know, coronavirus is no laughing matter. Even so, every now and then, it can help to lighten the mood with a little joke about the pandemic. Prince William made one such joke in 2020 — unfortunately, he picked a pretty awkward moment.

William and Kate Middleton were visiting the Guinness Storehouse in March of 2020, as part of a three-day tour of Ireland. Back then, the virus was just beginning to become a widespread, global issue. In a video, the prince is shown making a joke that many would say was in poor taste. "By the way, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spreading coronavirus, sorry," he said jokingly. Later in the conversation, William asked a paramedic, "Does it seem quite dramatic about coronavirus at the moment? Is it being hyped up, do you think, in the media?" (via Express).

Wow, it's clear that William didn't realize just how serious the virus was at the time. With hindsight, his comments come across as pretty naïve and more than a little awkward — especially considering the prince ended up suffering badly from the virus himself!

As we mentioned earlier, Prince William isn't exactly smooth when it comes to performing his dance moves. In 2017, the prince was caught on camera letting loose on a club dance floor — and it's seriously cringe-worthy. In fact, TMZ could not stop talking about it! And it's easy to see why. In the candid video, the prince can be spotted all alone on the dance floor busting a move, looking very much like a middle aged-dad.

As one TMZ reporter said, "He's not even fully extending his arms and he's just like ... a flamingo!" Of course, maybe we should be easier on him. As another reporter chimed in, "Here's the thing I didn't expect — the fact that he's married and he has kids and he goes out to a club and he has fun." We agree that it's great to see the prince letting loose at the club, even if he is a dad! It's just a shame that his moves are so undeniably lame. Our verdict? It's a great effort, but still, super awkward to watch.