There are many things we expect to see at Trooping the Colour - the King taking the Royal Salute, cute moments between the royal children and a magnificent flypast - but one of the senior family members checking their phone isn't one of them. Yet this royal 'first' has now happened and I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw pictures of the Duke of Kent breaking protocol like this.
Photographers managed to capture the moment the late Queen's cousin checked his phone whilst standing on the left side of the Buckingham Palace balcony. To his right, the King, Queen and Wales family were excitedly looking up to admire the aircraft flying overhead.
The 90-year-old Duke of Kent is one of only eleven working royals and was born Prince Edward, the grandson of King George VI. He's grown up in the Royal Family so will definitely be aware that checking your phone during this huge ceremonial occasion is a rather unusual move…
If his cousin Queen Elizabeth had been there I can only imagine how she'd have reprimanded him. Her Majesty was a stickler for good behaviour on the balcony and although she seemed to be less strict with the children (she often looked amused by Louis's cheekiness), she famously told Prince William off at Trooping the Colour in 2016.
He had been bending down to chat to Prince George and according to reports, the Queen said to her 33-year-old grandson, "Stand up William. Don't Crouch."
She also wasn't afraid to scold him in private either. William once recalled an "almighty" telling-off he got from her as a child after he and Peter Phillips had been messing around on go-carts at Balmoral and Zara Tindall almost got "squashed" by a falling lamppost.
She surely wouldn't have been very impressed to see the Duke of Kent on his phone with thousands of people watching and I wonder how King Charles might react after seeing all the pictures. Trooping the Colour is the monarch's birthday parade after all and we hardly ever see the royals with their phones out at all.
There's one time that comes to mind when the Princess of Wales held her phone when she was at Wimbledon but in general when they're on official business, mobiles are kept out of sight at all times.
At the same time, for those of us who aren't royals the Duke of Kent's protocol-breaking move is a bit more understandable and I can't help but sympathise with him. Trooping the Colour is a long day for anyone and he was standing on a section of balcony by himself for a lot of the flypast.
It's also possible that he was perhaps checking or responding to a more urgent message from his daughter Lady Helen Taylor. She attended the funeral of Prince Philip's cousin and Queen Elizabeth's Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Pamela Hicks, that afternoon representing the Duke of Kent.
Whatever the reason, the amount of attention the Duke's phone checking has received already means I somehow doubt he'll do that again in future.
