Royals and celebrities are being warned by their representatives and advisers to watch what they say when they are out of the house \u2013 or palace \u2013 as a lip-reading phenomenon means videos can be posted online and translated in seconds.<\/p>\n
Prince William was recently embroiled after a video of him speaking to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a> was translated by an expert lip-reader who was working as part of a forthcoming Channel 5 documentary, Lip-Reading the Royals.<\/p>\n The video, according to the lip-reader, allegedly shows Mountbatten-Windsor attempting to apologise to his nephew, who brushes it off. It is claimed Mountbatten-Windsor said: \u201cI\u2019ve learnt from what I\u2019ve done, but before I forget, and if I can, I\u2019d like to ask you if you can forgive?\u201d This was met with silence.<\/p>\n The disgraced royal relinquished his royal titles in October after new information came to light about his links to Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, the late financier and child sexual abuse offender.<\/p>\n The documentary also shows King Charles apparently saying \u201cfuck me\u201d while getting into his royal carriage, and Princess Anne allegedly gossiping about the Duchess of Sussex.<\/p>\n The Channel 5 documentary also shows King Charles apparently saying \u2018fuck me\u2019 while getting into his royal carriage. Photograph: Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The rise of lip-reading has greatly irritated the royal household. A royal source told the Guardian: \u201cAs with many high-profile individuals, members of the royal family are aware of the unfortunate and growing trend for lip-readers to be used, with varying degrees of inaccuracy, to snoop on conversations that anyone would have a right to be considered private.\u201d<\/p>\n Dickie Arbiter, who was press secretary for Queen Elizabeth II for a decade, said royals were being warned about speaking in unguarded moments that could be recorded by TV cameras or members of the public with a mobile phone.<\/p>\n \u201cOne was always aware of it, and even in my time there were experts who claimed he could read lips,\u201d he told the Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, they came out with some outrageous things. Often the member of the royal household in question wouldn\u2019t remember if that is indeed what they said, as when they are on a walkabout they speak to so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n Dickie Arbiter. Photograph: Josh Pieters & Archie Manners\/Youtube<\/p>\n The widespread lip-reading phenomenon was a fairly new one, said Paddy Harverson, former communications director to the Duke of Cornwall, now King Charles. \u201cI left the palace 13 years ago, and back in my day lip-reading wasn\u2019t really a thing, thankfully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Arbiter, who appears in the documentary, said the rise of social media had turbocharged the problem. \u201cThings get clipped up and spread around whether or not they are true,\u201d he said. \u201cSocial media is a cesspit, but we are all on it, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n He added he had warned the royals he worked with to keep conversation appropriate during walkabouts, when they walk around mingling with the public. \u201cI said: don\u2019t say anything silly on a walkabout which could appear in print,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd lip-reading is a craft which many people have. I actually did it once, during Prince William<\/a> and Catherine\u2019s wedding \u2013 when they left in a carriage, she quite clearly turned to him and said: \u2018Are you happy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Conversations at the tables of the Golden Globes and other celebrity events are usually somewhat private; though they are filmed, the stars are not wearing microphones. But the resultant videos have been ripe for lip-readers to translate and post on social media platforms, including TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of the conversations are banal; a recent video<\/a> with 1m views on TikTok shows the reality TV star Kylie Jenner apparently complaining to the actor Jennifer Lawrence at the most recent Golden Globes about someone coughing near her and having a fever, which could have made her ill.<\/p>\n Jennifer Lawrence and Kylie Jenner at the Golden Globes. Jenner apparently complained about someone coughing nearby. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive\/CBS\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Others are more problematic. A 2024 video from the Golden Globes apparently showed<\/a> the singer Selena Gomez complaining that she asked to take a picture with Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, and Jenner, his partner, apparently \u201csaid no\u201d. Private, off-guard moments have also been captured and apparently decoded by lip-readers.<\/p>\n One TikTok video with more than 5m views claims to show<\/a> the singer Olivia Rodrigo with the actor Iris Apatow at a Los Angeles Lakers game, discussing a man with whom she had been exchanging text messages. The actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who divorced in 2025, have been filmed<\/a> having what appear to be arguments at glitzy events.<\/p>\n Celebrity agents have been warning their clients to assume that anything they say while out and about could be filmed and lip-read.<\/p>\n Andy May, the director of JHM media agency, said: \u201cYes, we are absolutely talking to our clients about this, and have been for some time. The nature of the advice has simply evolved with the times.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that while celebrities used to be able to enjoy unguarded moments away from microphones, now in public they have to watch what they say.<\/p>\n May said: \u201cTwenty years ago, the golden rule was straightforward: be careful around microphones and broadcast cameras. That covered most of the risk. Today, the advice is categorically different \u2013 assume the cameras are always rolling. Every phone in every sports stadium and every post-match walkway is a potential broadcast. As is everyday life, even when \u2018off duty\u2019. Everyone is a content creator now, and all footage invariably finds an audience.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an ideal world, a talent agent would never need to teach a client to be a good person. But understandably, everyone has an off day, and the difference now is that an off day can travel around the world in minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n