Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Princess Beatrice scolded late Queen on her 93rd birthday, lip reader claims – and William was not impressed 

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Princess Beatrice berated the late Queen at an Easter ceremony on her 93rd birthday, a lip-reader has claimed.

Queen Elizabeth II When Elizabeth arrived at St George’s Chapel in Windsor for Easter Mass in April 2019, she was greeted by curtsying Zara Tindall, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Kate, Princess of Wales.

But Beatrice, 37, failed to curtsy to the Queen as she passed her son and grandson at the entrance to the chapel, while her son appeared to sarcastically berate his mother for being ‘difficult’.

The relationship between mother and son has come under renewed scrutiny amid the scandal over Andrew’s ties to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew was said to be the Queen’s ‘favourite’ and the Queen supported his appointment as trade envoy to the United Kingdom despite opposition from his older brother Charles.

It seems this twist on Easter offers further evidence that the former Duke feels comfortable enough to publicly poke fun at her in front of the cameras while standing next to his mother.

According to lip-reading expert Nicola Hickling, as the Queen walked past her son towards the chapel, she told him: ‘You can be quite difficult, you know, even though it’s your birthday today.’

“Beatrice appeared to giggle at Andrew’s comment,” Ms Hickling added. ‘Prince William was seen briefly sucking his teeth as he watched the exchange.’

After the Crown Princess made a remark to her brother, Andrew apparently replied: ‘It shouldn’t be this hard, Mum.’

Princess Beatrice appeared to mutter quietly: ‘It’s so hard.’

Ms Hickling told The Daily Mail that Queen Andrew said as she walked past: ‘You know you can be quite difficult even though it’s your birthday’, followed by a ‘giggle’ from Beatrice

The lip-reader added that the Princess Royal and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence then stood aside and Anne responded to Andrew’s striking comments.

Ms Hickling said the “sarcastic” conversation between Andrew and Anne led her to believe there was a “familiar sibling dynamic” between them.

He explained: ‘The way Anne looks at her husband afterwards suggests that this may have been a well-known family trait.’

Andrew and Beatrice’s comments to Their Majesties come as King Charles is said to have deliberately distanced himself from Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, amid fallout from their parents’ embarrassment.

The princesses rejected Charles’ offer to seek help from senior advisers to help protect their reputations, royals say.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s relationship with his brother has also been thrown into turmoil after the King decided to strip Andrew of his royal titles in October, and it is now said his removal from the line of succession will ‘likely be discussed’.

But in 2019, both Beatrice and Andrew shared a very close relationship with the then monarch Queen Elizabeth.

Indeed, throughout her life she was believed to be Andrew’s favorite child who ‘never did anything wrong in his eyes’.

Andrew remained fiercely protective of his second son throughout his life, even after he was accused of sexual assault by Epstein’s late victim Virginia Giuffre in 2019.

‘It shouldn’t be this hard, Mum,’ Andrew allegedly told his sister, before Princess Beatrice silently repeated: ‘It’s so hard.’

As the former prince’s public presence almost diminished, His Majesty ‘stood faithfully by his side to the end’.

Weeks after the Giuffre deal, Andrew accompanied the Queen to Prince Philip’s memorial service at Westminster Abbey in London in March 2022.

‘In her final days, he kept her close and protected her as palace insiders continued to press for her complete exile,’ royal author Robert Jobson said in his book The Windsor Legacy.

Entrusting Andrew’s ‘support’ to a trusted aide, the monarch allegedly said: ‘You must remember, he is my son.’

Following his tragic death in September 2022, Andrew was said to have “lost his strongest ally”, while Charles wanted his brother to be “left alone”.

Although Beatrice refused to curtsy to the late Queen on her 93rd birthday, the pair were also said to have shared an extremely close bond.

Body language expert Judi James previously told The Daily Mail: ‘Beatrice clearly avoids respectfully greeting the other royal women and stands up straight and watches her grandmother pass and enter the church.

‘This gives the impression that Andrew is taking a status leap to define his own ‘special role’ within the family through a non-verbal power play.’

Ms James noted that both Andrew and Beatrice’s greetings to the late Queen appeared ‘deliberately casual’, with Andrew greeting his mother ‘with a nod and wrinkled brows that suggested he was making an informal joke’.

‘Beatrice is smiling but her smile disappears as the Queen passes,’ he added.

Although Beatrice did not curtsy to her grandmother on the occasion, the late Queen formed such a close bond with the princess that she even lent her a Sir Normal Hartnell dress as her wedding dress.

The vintage Norman Hartnell dress, redesigned by Angela Kelly and Stewart Parvin, was worn by the late Queen at a state dinner in Rome in 1961, the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia premiere and the 1966 State Opening of Parliament.

Insiders are said to have made a ‘last minute request’ to borrow her grandmother’s dress for her wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi after Beatrice had a sudden ‘change of mind’ about her original wedding dress.

Beatrice, meanwhile, wore the same tiara the Queen wore to Philip on her own wedding day in 1947: the Queen Mary diamond-fringed tiara.

Designed from a necklace given to Queen Victoria in 1919, this precious heirloom was loaned to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne on their wedding day.

On Beatrice’s big day, the Queen was photographed smiling at her beloved granddaughter; A friend later told the Daily Mail that the princess often spoke fondly about her grandmother.

They added that it was ‘clear’ there was a ‘strong bond’ between the two royal families and that the borrowed dress was ‘perfect’.

Despite calls for a modernized or ‘weakened’ monarchy in the last years of Elizabeth’s life, she routinely maintained a close bond with Beatrice and felt strongly that she and her sister should retain a key role in the Firm.

A senior member of the Queen’s court previously told The Mail on Sunday that while Charles appeared to publicly support his plans for the future, he was adamant that hopes of sidelining Beatrice and Eugenie would be impractical.

‘The Queen adores the girls and wants them to take on some sort of role,’ the source said. ‘Charles’ vision of a modern family is a great one, but how can the Royals do everything they do now with just five players?’