This article was originally published on WHerMoments
What do the royal family do before their days officially begin and they have to go around shaking hands and giving speeches? Well, we have the details of their morning routines right here for you — everything from how they like their baths to their favorite breakfast cereals. Some of the royals’ morning rituals are super relatable, and some of them are… let’s just say, very royal.
Kate Middleton loves her smoothies
Like many other working mothers her age, the Princess of Wales likes to drink a smoothie in the morning. According to the MailOnline, her favorite one is green tea leaves, coriander, kale, romaine, spinach, spirulina and blueberries.
Apparently she has her smoothie with a bowl of oats — a very healthy start to the day.
Rowing, skipping, and planking
Ever wonder just how Kate stays so slim and fit? Well, she does a pretty intense workout every morning, one that apparently involves skipping, indoor rowing, and planking.
An insider told the Daily Mail in 2016, “There are three [planking] elements: the basic plank, the side plank, and the prone skydive; all of which are positions Kate can hold for 45 seconds or longer and repeat at least ten times each.” Wow!
Takes the kids to school herself
You would expect the royals to have servants on hand for dropping the kids off at their school, but Kate much prefers to do it herself when she can. It’s clearly very important to her.
She even was on hand to take Prince George to school just one day after giving birth to his younger brother Prince Louis!
Princess Margaret liked to lie in
The late Princess Margaret had a truly extraordinary morning routine. She would wake up at 9:00 a.m.
— which is later than a lot of people get to wake up — but then she would lounge around in her bed for another two hours! She was powerful royalty, so who was going to tell her not to?
Smoked all morning
What did Princess Margaret do while relaxing in bed? According to royal author Craig Brown, she listened to the radio, chain-smoked the same way she always did, and read newspapers which she usually left lying around on the floor afterwards.
Then, at 11:00 a.m., she would have an hour-long bath, and only after that would she have her hair and make-up done to prepare her for the day.
Wouldn’t go downstairs ’til gone noon
Eventually, at around 12:30 p.m., Princess Margaret would go downstairs and have herself a midday vodka. After that she’d have lunch with the Queen Mother — a meal that allegedly involved more alcohol in the form of half a bottle of wine each.
None of this is a healthy morning routine at all, but it seemed to work for her!
Princess Diana liked weak coffee in the morning
Diana apparently didn’t tend to sleep very well. She once wrote a letter to a friend saying that her honeymoon was “a perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep” — while she was still on said honeymoon.
But once she had slept, she would usually have a breakfast of grapefruit, toast, muesli, and weak coffee.
Read the gossip columns
While Diana ate her breakfast, she would read the newspapers, specifically the gossip columns. She liked seeing what they had to say about people she knew — but she would never read the stories about herself, she found them too distressing.
For her whole short life she had a very difficult relationship with the press.
Exercised every day
Diana’s physical health was affected by her bulimia, but she did exercise every day. She liked to swim in the mornings, and if she couldn’t do that she would stretch instead.
However, some people have theorized that the exercise may have been bad for her mentally, as it could have been a bodily fixation like the bulimia was.
Meghan Markle wakes up with Lili
Meghan’s whole morning routine is centered around her kids, Archie and baby Lili. In a November 2022 episode of her podcast Archetypes she explained it all, saying, “I'm sure it'll only get more chaotic as they get older.
But for me, it's, you know, both monitors on for the kids to hear them, always up with Lili, get her downstairs, then a half hour later, Archie's up.”
Makes everyone breakfast
Believe it or not, Meghan is able to make home-cooked breakfast for her whole family in the morning. On Archetypes she said she usually started doing Archie’s lunchbox while getting Lili a “nibble” and then she made everyone breakfast, including husband Prince Harry.
“I loved doing it. To me, it just feels like the greatest way to start the morning,” she said.
Feeds her beloved dogs
It isn’t just the human members of the family Meghan feeds in the morning, as she also has to get breakfast for her three dogs Mia, Pula, and Guy. Clearly mornings are an incredibly busy time for her.
But she did make sure to state on her podcast that Prince Harry does actually help with the kids!
Has a morning playlist
Before she became a duchess, Meghan wrote on her lifestyle blog The Tig that she always had a playlist on in the morning. She listed her favorite songs and said to her followers, “Turn these tracks on as you’re getting ready in the morning.
Because when the air is filled with positive vibes, there’s no winter cold that can block out the warmth of happy hearts.”
Prince Harry works out and drinks green juice
Prince Harry has clearly been taking advice from his health-conscious wife when it comes to his morning routine.
An insider told Vanity Fair magazine in 2022, “Harry used to love lying in, but he’s up super early with Meghan, and the first thing he says he does is a workout, then he has a green juice.”
Gets out in nature
Prince Harry spoke for himself about his morning routine during a virtual conversation with Serena Williams in 2022. He explained that he set aside 30 to 45 minutes each morning to practice self-care.
And while the kids were at school or asleep he would “take the dog for a walk, get out in nature, maybe meditate.”
King Charles has very specific requests
Charles’ morning routine was a matter of fascination long before he even became king. According to Paul Burrell, Diana’s ex-butler, Charles always insisted on having his pajamas and even shoelaces pressed every morning.
And when taking his morning bath the water had to be tepid and the bath plug at an exact angle.
Stands on his head
Prince Harry has also revealed secrets about Charles’ weird morning rituals. He claimed in his 2023 memoir Spare that his father would “start the day with headstands in private in his underwear,” which was apparently a treatment suggested by Charles’ physiotherapist to help him with polo injuries.
According to Harry, Charles could do those headstands “like a skilled acrobat.”
Woken by bagpipe music
One aspect of King Charles’ morning routine is a royal tradition that’s been practiced since the time of Queen Victoria. As the monarch, Charles gets woken up every morning to the sound of bagpipes, just as his late mother did.
It doesn’t even matter which royal house he’s staying at; the bagpipers follow him around!
Prince William does special military exercises
Prince William, like many other members of his family, does exercises in the morning. His are slightly different, though.
According to a book published in 2006 called William’s Princess by Robert Jobson, the prince starts the day with, “a strict 11-minute regime of stomach crunches, push-ups, stretching, and running on the spot.” These are the exercises of the Canadian Air Force and William’s father and grandfather liked them as well.
Eats a healthy breakfast
Jobson declared in his book, “By [the exercise] stage, one of his valets would have laid out his smart clothes for the day, but, instead of changing into them, he would pull on a jumper and jeans and head for a breakfast of cereal with cold milk and fresh fruit. As a rule he eschews the full English breakfast which will always be on offer.”
Fair enough.
Princess Charlotte fights with her brother!
All parents will be familiar with Princess Charlotte’s morning routine. Her father Prince William told the Apple Fitness+'s Time to Walk series in 2021, “Most mornings there's a massive fight between Charlotte and George as to what song is played in the morning.
And I have to, now, basically prioritize that one day someone does this one, and another day it's someone else's turn. So George gets his go, then Charlotte gets her go.”
Does some dances
Princess Charlotte loves music, but she also loves dancing to that music. William said in that same episode, “One of the songs that the children are loving at the moment is Shakira, 'Waka Waka.' There's a lot of hip movements going along.
There's a lot of dressing up. Charlotte, particularly, is running around the kitchen in her dresses and ballet stuff and everything. She goes completely crazy with Louis following her around trying to do the same thing.”
Queen Camilla does ballet first thing
Did you know Queen Camilla practices ballet? Now you do!
During a filmed conversation for International Dance Day in 2020, she said, “[I start the day] with a bit of Silver Swans and a bit of Pilates.” She went on, “I had certainly never done ballet before [the pandemic], and it doesn’t matter whether you have done ballet or not. It’s something that will make you feel better. It gives you a certain amount of confidence in yourself. It’s just a bit of discipline.”
Eggs for breakfast
We know what Camilla has for breakfast thanks to a very reliable source: her son. Tom Parker-Bowles has told the media that his mother loves scrambled eggs!
He even has one of her egg recipes in his cookbook Let’s Eat. We can assume Camilla and Charles have very fresh eggs everyday since they keep their own chickens at Highgrove.
Princess Eugenie gets an early start
Princess Eugenie actually ran fans through her morning routine when she did an interview for Harper’s Bazaar in 2016! She said, “I get up around 6:45 to start exercising by 7.
I read my personal emails when I wake up. My mum always says, ‘What's the point of rolling straight out of bed and looking at your emails? It can ruin the first few hours of your morning. If you just wait…’ But I really can't!”
Goes to the gym
Eugenie went on, “I go to the park from 7 to 8. I do circuits, which I love because they're quick: burpees, squat jumps, lunges, the whole lot.
It's much better, as I can't run for a long time. Or I go with my best friend to this amazing, women-only gym called Grace Belgravia. If I need to pick up some groceries, I go to Waitrose, right next to my gym.”
Does her make-up in the car
Eugenie doesn’t have staff to do her make-up for her! She told the magazine, “I do my make-up in the car.
I'm really good at doing it on the move! I use Charlotte Tilbury and Bobbi Brown — Charlotte's mascara and Bobbi Brown bronzer. They are geniuses.” Then, she heads to her non-royal job.
Queen Elizabeth had tea on a silver tray
It’s good to be monarch. When Queen Elizabeth was ruling the United Kingdom, she got to begin her day with a carefully prepared cup of tea brought to her by one of her staff.
It was Earl Grey, milk but no sugar, presented on a silver tray and accompanied by a napkin bearing the royal cypher of E II R.
Had the perfect bath prepared for her
Never mind taking a quick shower at the beginning of the day. If you’re queen, you get a luxurious bath every morning — one so fancy that the exact temperature is measured by a maid with a wooden-cased thermometer.
Apparently, the Queen used to take baths while on the Royal Train even, and the drivers had to slow down the train so the water wasn’t splashed!
Her favorite breakfast
Royal chef Darren McGrady once spilled all to newspaper The Telegraph about the breakfast habits of Queen Elizabeth. She actually had a very normal morning meal!
According to McGrady, her favorite breakfast was the cereal Special K and she kept it in a Tupperware container. Sometimes, though, she would treat herself with scrambled egg, smoked salmon, and grated truffle.
The Queen alone
It’s one of the most fascinating aspects of palace life: what exactly do the royals do when there are no cameras on them? How did the Queen of England behave when she was on her own doing ordinary things?
Thanks to insiders who worked as her staff members while she was alive, we know a little bit about what she got up to in the privacy of her home.
Morning time
It’s hard to imagine what everyday life is like for someone who rules a kingdom. What was the Queen like in the mornings?
Was she a morning person? Let’s be honest, many of us might be a little grumpy if we had to face the prospect of waking up and shaking hands with hundreds of people.
Wake-up call
According to those anonymous people in the know, the Queen wasn't really much of a morning person. While Meghan Markle apparently gets up at 4:30 a.m.
some days, the Queen would seldom be up with the lark. She prefered to be woken up at what most would probably consider quite a sensible time: 7:30 a.m.
Guarding the Queen
An interesting question: what happens when someone as important as the British monarch is asleep? Queen Elizabeth had a policeman guarding her bedroom at all times, ready to spring into action.
If they failed to do their job, the Queen’s life could have been in danger. And things did go very wrong in the past.
Fagan’s story
You may be familiar with the story of Michael Fagan – the man who famously broke into Buckingham Palace in 1982 and got all the way to the Queen’s bed.
He talked to the monarch in her bedroom for ten minutes before help finally arrived – although thankfully he had no intention of hurting her.
Official investigation
The break-in was a massive scandal for the Queen’s official guard. Scotland Yard investigated the matter and found there had been huge holes in the security systems protecting the Queen’s bedroom.
The alarm button in the room hadn’t even been connected properly! Unsurprisingly, palace security was seriously stepped up after that.
Step one
So if you want to go inside the monarch’s bedroom, you’d better be either a member of the royal family or a member of royal staff. In the mornings, Queen Elizabeth’s personal maid used to enter her bedroom as early as 7:30 a.m.
— which was when the night guard’s shift would end.
The tea tray
And the maid had to follow a particular routine. She would have to lightly knock on the door first, then politely enter.
She would be carrying a tray with a pot of Earl Grey tea, a second pot of hot water, a jug of milk, and a fine china teacup. Across this was draped a linen napkin bearing the Queen’s insignia “EIIR.” Fancy.
Tray placement
Even the very ordinary act of placing items on a tea tray is a big deal within Buckingham Palace. There are diagrams staff must replicate to ensure everything is placed how the receiving royal prefers it.
The late Prince Philip, for example, always wanted his oatcakes perfectly adjacent to his jar of honey.
Step two
After carefully putting the tray down next to the Queen’s bed, the maid would have to open the curtains and then turn on the radio. Supposedly she would tune it to BBC Radio 4, which was the late Queen’s preferred station.
The monarch apparently liked Today, presented by John Humphrys, and she listened to him every morning before he retired.
Anti-Queen sentiments
Except despite this, Humphrys is a firm anti-monarchist. The presenter has written many articles calling for an end to the royal family altogether.
Prince Philip allegedly once swore at him, and according to Humphrys himself he often tried to get an interview with the Queen – only to be turned down.
An interesting claim
Humphrys claimed in a 2020 Daily Mail column that the Queen once turned down his interview request with the words, “If one were ever to do such an interview, it would most certainly not be with you.”
And yet despite this, she still listened to his show every morning.
Step three
While the Queen was sipping her brew and getting up to date with the news, the maid would start running her a bath. This was a very delicate process.
The Queen apparently didn't want the water to ever be deeper than seven inches, and the temperature had to be tested with a thermometer before she got in.
Royal baths
The late Queen seemingly loved baths. Not only did she have 78 bathrooms in Buckingham Palace – and we can safely guess her personal tub was quite luxurious – but she also had one on the Royal Train.
In 2020 royal biographer Omid Scobie revealed that the Queen used to request the train slowed down so she could enjoy her ablutions without the water going everywhere. The power!
No loud noises
You’d think that while the Queen was in the bath, the staff would take the opportunity to do some vacuuming. Buckingham Palace is massive, and it requires constant cleaning, after all.
But no – the staff aren’t allowed to vacuum until 10:00 a.m. in case they wake any other royals up! They have to sweep instead.
Step four
The Queen’s official dressers would enter her room at around this point. Styling the British monarch is another thing that requires an endless amount of planning and work.
Aside from anything else, the late Queen Elizabeth had to be prepared to change outfits five times a day, and all of those looks had to be flawlessly put together.
Colorful clothes
You may have noticed that the Queen used to favor very bright colors while she was alive, like reds, pinks, and blues. There was a good reason for that, though.
The Queen wanted to be able to stand out so that her subjects would instantly know where she was in a crowd. These bright clothes were likely laid out for the monarch in the morning.
Introducing Angela Kelly
The woman responsible for picking the Queen’s outfits was dressmaker and royal advisor Angela Kelly. You may have heard of her, as her longtime work with the monarch has made her famous.
Since 2012, she’s even been a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order – a very high honor indeed.
Kelly’s book
That’s not the only honor Kelly has received. She’s one of the very few people in the world who gained permission from the Queen to publish a book about the Palace’s inner workings.
The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe came out in 2019.
Looking nice
Kelly told The Daily Telegraph in 2007, “I love the Queen and everything about her. I adore her – but then, so does everyone else.
She is not ‘my’ Queen, she is everyone’s, and so I have to share her. Once she has chosen something to wear, I just want her to look good in it.” We imagine she felt her loss very deeply.
Everything correct
The dressmaker went on, “I just want everything to be right for the Queen – to make life easier for her because she is so busy. My job is to ensure that when the Queen meets people, she looks right.”
The stylist went on to assert that she would never have dared to “overstep the mark” and that while she had developed a close personal bond with the monarch over the years, she remained “in awe” of her.
Kelly’s creations
Kelly was responsible for – by common consent – some of the best outfits the Queen ever wore. She created the yellow ensemble that she sported at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, for a start.
And the beautiful dress the monarch wore for her 2012 Diamond Jubilee pageant was another one of Kelly’s.
Most important meal of the day
Once the British monarch is awake and dressed in a suitably eye-catching ensemble, it's time to eat. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all.
If you're a king or queen, you'd probably expect a very fancy meal served up on the finest crockery, right? Well, surprisingly, this wasn't the case for the late Queen Elizabeth.
Breakfast time
Darren McGrady, one-time royal chef, has told the whole world about what the Queen used to have for breakfast. There were two options usually: either smoked salmon with truffle shavings, or the Queen’s favorite cereal, which was Special K.
And where did she keep this delicacy? In a plastic container, of all things. Doesn't sound very royal!
Simple cereals
McGrady let it all slip during a 2017 interview with Marie Claire magazine. He revealed, “Breakfast was very simple for Her Majesty.
Some Kellogg’s cereal from a plastic container, which she’d serve herself. And some Darjeeling tea.” Food firm Kellogg’s actually had a royal warrant from the Queen.
Plastic and diamonds
In the same interview, McGrady mused, “People always say, ‘Oh, the Queen must eat off gold plates with gold knives and forks.’ Yes, sometimes… but at Balmoral, she’d eat fruit from a plastic yellow Tupperware container.” But the gold stuff was very fancy, he clarified.
Some of it was diamond-encrusted.
Formal dinners
Still, the Queen’s dinner was a far cry from her breakfast. According to McGrady, the royals would “come down in dressy ball gowns and sit at the table – like a Downton Abbey dinner.
All the fine china was brought out. At the end of the meal, a bagpipe player would walk around the table.” A bagpipe player?
Musical interlude
Yep – and bagpipes were present when the Queen had her breakfast, too. Every single weekday, the monarch would continue a tradition that has been going on since the days of her ancestor Queen Victoria.
An accomplished bagpiper with the title of Pipe Major would play for 15 minutes beneath her window.
Bagpipes at the Palace
The Pipe Major played a pretty important role in the late Queen’s morning routine and her life in general. This person – who’s also a member of the British Army – essentially oversees all bagpipe-related activities at the royal palaces.
The musician would play a tune beneath the Queen’s window no matter which royal residence she was currently occupying.
The Pipe Major
The position of Pipe Major has been held by many people, and they’ve all enjoyed close individual relationships with the Queen. She would speak to them personally before they took the job to ensure that they’ll be a good match.
The monarch was, after all, very specific about what music she liked to hear.
Fan mail
So what did the Queen do after bathing, eating breakfast, and listening to the bagpipes? She would read the newspaper, which we imagine is pretty interesting when you’re one of the people frequently featured in the news.
Then she would answer her “fan mail,” or letters from the public. Some of it, anyway.
Letter opening
There was a system for the Queen’s mail so that she knew which were letters from friends and which were from members of the public.
Personal friends would put their initials in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope so that Palace staff know not to open them and to pass them on to the Queen instead.
The mail system
The Queen also had a system for deciding which letters would actually be answered. Obviously she would never have had time to respond to them all herself, but apparently she was very good at speed-reading.
So she prioritized letters from children and elderly people, and her lady-in-waiting would reply to them on her behalf.
The Red Boxes
After answering the letters, the Queen would open up the “Red Boxes” containing the most important pieces of paperwork. These letters refer to affairs of state – things that the Queen had to read and sign.
She would do this every single morning; her only day off was Christmas Day!
Press the button
Only after all that did the Queen’s day “officially” start. She would press a button on her desk, and this would summon her secretary, who would fill her in on the day’s activities.
And that marked the end of the Queen's morning routine! Every day would be different of course, and some things more unusual than others. Do you think you could handle being the British monarch for a morning?
An experiment
Mikhaila Friel, a writer for Insider, tried out Queen Elizabeth's morning routine in 2020. While she found the drinking tea while listening to Radio 4 part “quite relaxing,” she didn’t at all like the 7-inch-deep bath.
She said, “I have no idea why the Queen would do this – it certainly isn’t comfortable – and I ended up running the water for as long as I wanted from day two onward.”
Bagpipe music
Friel also tried listening to bagpipe music while she ate her breakfast – except she had to use a YouTube video rather than a real-life bagpiper. And she wasn’t a fan.
She wrote, “I won’t lie to you. This is one activity I kept up for only the first three days before resolving to spend the rest of the week enjoying my breakfast in silence.”
Unexpected difficulties
In the end, Friel decided, “It was more challenging than I expected. The Queen likes the water in her baths extremely shallow, which made it not very relaxing at all.
Not to mention there’s only so long you can listen to bagpipes without wanting to throw your headphones out the window.”
Try it yourself
But if the late Queen’s morning routine has inspired you to make the most out of your day, why not give it a go?
True, most of us don’t have servants to help, but you might find yourself suddenly saving on bathwater… or gaining a new appreciation for bagpipe music and Tupperware containers.