Celebrate good times, come on!
According to body language expert Judi James, the royal family looked quite disjointed while they posed together on the balcony during King Charles’ 75th birthday celebration known as Trooping the Colour last month.
“The composition of this ‘slimmed down’ royal balcony pose looks like a gappy smile with several teeth missing,” James boldly told the Daily Express of the stark contrast to previous years’ assemblies.
This year, only working members of the royal family were allowed on the balcony at Buckingham Palace during the event, which means that cousins Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall were not permitted.
“Instead of a smaller, tighter, loyal group it looks like five factions in apparent conflict: Anne and Tim stand awkwardly at one end; William and Kate pose in a glittering but slightly cordoned-off family group; Charles and Camilla take all the goodwill from the crowds in the middle; Edward and Sophie try hard to create some sociable links with the Gloucesters at the other end,” James claimed to the outlet.
“Any ‘One united family group’ vibe seems to be totally lacking,” James added.
During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the crowd was much bigger, as she had all of the members of the royal family — both working and nonworking — join her on the balcony.
James noted that under her tenure, people looked “animated and excited.”
Queen Elizabeth died last September at the age of 96 and had reigned for 70 years at the time of her death.
The body language expert also pointed out that the sparse lineup only drew more attention to those who were missing from the family — like estranged Prince Harry.
“The gaps only call to mind the people who are missing,” James told the outlet. “Charles once had a mother, father, brother, son and his son’s family to mingle with.
“But each of the gaps now seems to tell its own tragic or murky tale,” she said. “The dynasty seems to have been dismissed or scattered, leaving this tentative group that is left looking like uneasy survivors of a business cull.”
The Post reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.
King Charles’ idea of a “slimmed down monarchy” — which he is bidding for in an effort to keep costs down and have a more modern image of the family, per the Financial Times — comes during a time when there is some apparent tension between members of the royal family.
In 2019, Prince Andrew resigned from his role as a working member of the royal family over his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2022, he was stripped from his military titles and royal patronages.
An insider claimed to the Mail on Sunday in 2022 that King Charles told him that he would never return to royal life during a morning meeting, which made him weep.
“At the meeting, Charles told him that he can go off and have a good life, a nice life, but that his public life as a royal is at an end. He was told, ‘You have to accept this,’” the insider said.
And, in January, King Charles’ son, Prince Harry, 38, released a tell-all memoir titled, “Spare,” in which he made allegations about different members of the family.
In the book, he alleged that his brother, Prince William, 41, had physically “attacked” him over a spat about his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2019, and even branded the sibling as his “arch-nemesis.”
Prince Harry also wrote that his stepmother, Queen Camilla, 75, leaked stories about members of the royal family to the press to make herself look better.
He even claimed that his father was “jealous” of Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, 41.
However, despite all of the drama, Daily Express royal reporter and expert Richard Palmer claimed during an episode of the Daily Express’ Royal Round Up last month that King Charles’ was “keen” to mend the rift between himself and Prince Harry’s family.
“I’m sure the King would welcome them back,” Palmer alleged during the episode.
“I mean… he’s quite keen to heal that family rift,” he continued. “But, you know, it’s obviously very raw at the moment and it’s very noticeable. While I’d say he’s keen to heal that rift, he hasn’t met his son the last two times he’s been over to the UK.”