Harry's brother and father teased him on ski trip, lip reader claims

Charles and William teased a teenage Harry and called him 'mad' during their 1998 visit to Canada nearly three decades before their rift, a lip reader has claimed.

Long before 'Megxit' and the Duke of Sussex's tell-all memoir Spare, there was already tension brewing between the brothers, according to Channel 5's Lip-Reading The Royals: What Are They Really Saying?, airing on Saturday at 8pm.

Lip reader Nicola Hickling analysed a clip of Harry, then 13, on a ski trip to Whistler where he opted for style over comfort by wearing a baseball cap on the slopes.

According to Ms Hickling, Harry complained while posing for the cameras on the ski lift with his father and brother, telling them: 'I'm so cold.'

The King turned to William, then 15, and said: 'He has no sense. Of course it's bloody cold. We're in the snow.'

The Prince of Wales apparently replied: 'Didn't he bring a spare hat?'

'He wanted to wear that cap. I told him he was mad and that it's very cold. He doesn't make it easy for himself,' was Charles' reply.

'Let him crack on,' William replied. 'He will learn. He will probably get frostbite.'

Nicola concluded that the response from Charles was: 'Perhaps'.

The mini Royal tour of March 1998, came just seven months after the death of Princess Diana. 

Its main purpose of the trip was to give Charles, William and Harry some private time together in the Rocky Mountain ski resort of Whistler.

But before they could take to the slopes, the trio spent 24 hours in Vancouver - where William was at the time said to be unsettled by a 'Willsmania' pop-star welcome.

'The royal family they are just human beings and this is the perfect example of it,' said actress Nina Wadia.

'I love the fact that his brother and his father are ripping into him. Of course style is more important than practicality, he's a teenage boy!

'Of course he's going to wear a baseball cap on a ski lift and then complain that it's cold.'

'What's nice with this clip is you see the King trying to take his kids - he's trying to get them to do fun things and have some time with them and enjoy their company,' Grant Howard, a former royal butler, added.

'Even though it's obviously gone wrong with this conversation.'

In another moment from the series, a lip reader claimed that the late Queen and Prince Philip 'rowed over biscuits' during a 2004 state visit to France.

The couple were in Paris, watching a calvary display by the elite Cadre Noir riding college, when Her Majesty began rifling through her handbag.

According to Khalil Anwar, she then turned to Philip and said: 'I have mints in here'.

Her husband then replied with something off-camera, to which Elizabeth 'snapped back': 'Yes, I have biscuits.'

The late Duke of Edinburgh then allegedly responded: 'I only asked and you are being in a mood with me today. I would like this to be a nice day, today.'

The lip-reader believes that the Queen tried to diffuse the situation, saying: 'Let's stop this now. Of course I don't want you to suffer.'

'That's a delightful exchange,' royal commentator Ingrid Seward told the programme. 'Philip and the Queen used to bicker a lot, so it's quite interesting to see the boot on the other foot if you know what I mean.

'We always hear about Philip being rude to the Queen, but here's the Queen snapping at him.'

Actress Nina Wadia also called the sweet spat 'hugely entertaining'.

'This is just every day real life,' she added. 'And I love that they are normal.'

'What's funny with this glimpse is everyone wants to know what's in the Queen's handbag,' Grant Howard, a former royal butler, also said.

'What it says to me is she basically had a walking buffet in that bag!'