Prince William revealed his favourite emoji in a recent radio interview with BBC’s Radio 1 Going Home show.
When the Prince and Princess of Wales were asked about their favourite emoji by hosts Jordan North and Vick Hope, William joked that his favourite was the aubergine emoji. William quipped, “Is this a clean thing or is this a family one? I’ve been told not to say the aubergine, so I’ve got to pick something else.”
“It would have been the aubergine but I’m saying now ― because I’ve got to be all grown up ― it’s the one where the eyes go up and down and the mouth’s out,” the royal heir added.
“Prince William is dirtier than anything you’ve ever said,” Hope reportedly joked to her co-host, adding later on that she hopes the future King of England has a “dirty mind.”
Meanwhile, Kate for her part made a less risqué choice and admitted that her favourite emoji was “the heart with then the crying emoji.” The Princess of Wales explained, “The sort of like ‘hysterical laughing’ when things have gone wrong.”
For years, royal emoji use has been put under the microscope, with headlines around the world analysing Prince Harry’s unconventional preference for the ghost emoji.
In 2020, authors Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie - royal Editor-at-Large at Harper’s Bazaar - reportedly discovered that Harry’s texts were “full of emojis, in particular the ghost emoji, which he often used instead of a smiley face” while writing the bombshell royal biography Finding Freedom on the Sussexes.
While the authors weren’t sure why the ghost emoji was his favourite, the Duchess of Sussex reportedly “found his texting etiquette funny and adorable, just like the prince.”
The Harper’s Bazaar editor justified their reporting on the prince’s emoji use, “Harry obviously also had sort of a larger social media profile with his friends, and they also were very familiar with his emoji habits.” He added, “So it was actually more than a few sources that we heard the same things from again.”
“You know what I heard that was very funny about the ghost emoji is someone said that if you type in ‘boo’ on your iPhone, it turns into the ghost emoji,” Scobie continued. “I would love to imagine Harry using the word ‘boo’ to describe Meghan, but I can’t see a world in which that happens.”
Scobie is slated to release another royal book called Endgame, which follows the upheaval and power struggle within the royal family after Queen Elizabeth II’s passing in 2022. According to Harper Collins, the new book will reportedly explore how her death “dismantled the protective shield around the world’s most famous family and saw a long-simmering crisis of confidence in the British monarchy begin to resurface.”