Royals all took same behind-the-scenes photo at Coronation - despite phone ban

20 January 2024 , 11:23

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Royals snapped secret photo at the coronation (Image: PA)

During the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla, mobile phones were strictly banned by the palace. Presumably, this was because someone's ringtone going off during the solemn ceremony wouldn't have exactly given off the dignified atmosphere that they were trying to create on the day that marked the beginning of the new monarch's reign.

However, the ban reportedly didn't stop the Royal Family from sneaking their phones in - that's what aeroplane mode is for after all - and a royal author has claimed that they all managed to snap the same behind-the-scenes photo as the day was getting underway.

The claim that mobile phones were banned, and the royals decided to thwart this rule anyway was made by Robert Hardman in his new book, Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story.

He wrote that there was one part of the day in particular when the royals and attendants of the new King and Queen couldn't resist whipping their phones out and snapping a photo of a huge behind-the-scenes moment: when Charles and Camilla were getting in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach in which they would process to Westminster Abbey and officially be crowned.

The author wrote that the admission came from the Queen sister's Annabel Elliot, who described just what the atmosphere was like before Charles and Camilla left for the ceremony. Elliot also said that though her sister denied being nervous, she knew that Camilla was really, even if she "doesn't show it much" and that when it came to the new King he behaved "as if it was just another day at the office".

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The author explained that during the moment of departure, no one who was there was "supposed to have phones but everyone took this shot of them going off and getting into the carriage". At the coronation, Elliot - who is known to be great friends with her older sister Camilla - acted as one of her ladies-in-attendance and so was close by during the proceedings which were televised and watched by 20 million Brits on the day.

Before the King and Queen left for the Abbey, Hardman writes, they were joined by the rest of Camilla's close relatives, and her pages of honour were made up of her three grandsons - Louis and Gus Lopes, and Freddy Parker-Bowles, as well as her grand-nephew, Arthur Elliot - Annabel's grandson.

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Emma Mackenzie