Prince William Once Got Quite a Scolding From Queen Elizabeth for Doing This, Which Left Her “Terrified” and “Frantic”

Rachel BurchfieldSun, October 4, 2026 at 3:51 PM UTC

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Queen Elizabeth and Prince William with other members of the royal family in June 1989.Credit: GettyThe Gist -

Lady Anne Glenconner, Princess Margaret’s former lady-in-waiting, wrote in her new book Trunks & Tiaras about a “relaxed” shooting weekend she attended at Balmoral in August 1990.

Suddenly, she explained, she “heard raised voices coming from outside.”

An 8-year-old Prince William left his grandmother Queen Elizabeth “terrified” and “frantic”—and got a stern talking to as a result.

Princess Margaret’s former lady-in-waiting, Lady Anne Glenconner, is sharing a story about Prince William when he was a young boy—one where he left his grandmother Queen Elizabeth “terrified” during a visit to Balmoral.

Glenconner was with members of the royal family in August 1990, when they visited their beloved late summer retreat in the Scottish Highlands. That would have put William at 8 years old, and Glenconner joined the royals for a shooting weekend, she wrote in an excerpt from her latest book Trunks & Tiaras that appeared in The Daily Mail.

A young Prince William around the time of the August 1990 incident.Credit: Getty

“It was a very relaxed, family weekend and everything was going smoothly until I was waiting for Princess Margaret in the castle later in the afternoon and heard raised voices coming from outside,” she wrote.

She added, “I peered out of the window and saw the queen tearing a strip off Prince William, who was on his pony on the drive.” Glenconner wrote she “crept back from the window, not wanting to be spotted, and reported back to Princess Margaret what I’d seen. She said, ‘Oh, I wonder what’s happened. I’ll ask the queen.’”

It turned out that William “had been out riding with the groom and his cousins and had…returned to the castle on his own without letting anyone know,” Glenconner remembered. “The grooms had been frantic looking for him.”

Prince William riding his pony at Sandringham on January 2, 1990.Credit: Getty

“You can imagine how terrified they were, in case he had fallen and hit his head with no one knowing where he was,” Glenconner continued (after all, this is the future king—as well as a beloved grandson). “Princess Margaret said, ‘The queen was right to give him a rocket.’”

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“I can imagine it’s the same reaction as if your child starts to dart into the road for some reason,” Glenconner concluded. “You must make them realize how serious the consequences might be.”

This wasn’t the only time a young William got in trouble while at Balmoral. The future king shared in the 2016 documentary The Queen at 90 that he and his cousin Peter Phillips—Princess Anne’s son—had been chasing the Princess Royal’s daughter, Zara, as she drove a go-kart. Zara ended up steering the go-kart “straight into a lamppost,” The Mirror reported.

Zara Phillips, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth, and Peter Phillips.Credit: Getty

“And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt,” William said. “[She] came charging over and gave us the most almighty bollocking, and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on.”

Queen Elizabeth and Prince William enjoyed a warm relationship throughout her long life. This past April, the Prince of Wales contributed to a digital memorial of the late queen, who died in 2022 and would have turned 100 years old on April 21 of this year. “It’s a privilege to know the late queen better than most,” William said, per The Times. He noted that he was able to see “a side of Granny the world didn’t often see—off-duty, relaxed, and utterly at home. These moments with my grandmother are ones I’ll always hold dear.”

Prince William and Queen Elizabeth on June 28, 2021.Credit: Getty

In an October 2025 episode of Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler, William told host Eugene Levy, “I do miss my grandmother and my grandfather [Prince Philip, who died in 2021]. It’s been quite a bit of a change.”

Prince William and Queen Elizabeth on July 10, 2015.Credit: Getty

“I had a good relationship,” he added of his grandparents, explaining they “were of a different generation. I think when we were younger, it was harder to have that very close relationship because it was quite formal, but as they got older and I got older, it got warmer and warmer, and I definitely think my relationship was best with my grandparents when they were more in their eighties. When they’d sort of relaxed a little bit.”

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