Their representatives and advisers are warning royals and celebrities to watch what they say when they are out of the house – or the palace – as a lip-reading phenomenon means videos can be posted online and translated in seconds.
Prince William recently found himself embroiled after a video lip-reading expert working as part of an upcoming Channel 5 documentary, Lip-Reading the Royals, translated a video of him speaking to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The video, according to the lip reader, supposedly shows Mountbatten-Windsor trying to apologize to his nephew, who ignores him. Mountbatten-Windsor is reported to have said: “I have learned from what I have done, but before I forget, and if I can, I would like to ask you if you can forgive.” This was met with silence.
The disgraced royals renounced their royal titles in October after new information came to light about their links to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and child sex abuse offender.
The documentary also shows King Charles apparently saying “fuck me” as he climbed into his royal carriage, and Princess Anne supposedly gossiping about the Duchess of Sussex.
The rise of lip reading has greatly irritated the royal household. A royal source told The Guardian: “As with many high-profile people, members of the royal family are aware of the unfortunate and growing trend of using lip readers, to varying degrees of inaccuracy, to eavesdrop on conversations that anyone would have a right to consider private.”
Dickie Arbiter, who was Queen Elizabeth II’s press secretary for a decade, said the royals were being warned not to speak in unguarded moments that could be recorded by television cameras or members of the public with a mobile phone.
“You were always aware of it, and even in my day there were experts who claimed you could read lips,” he told The Guardian.
“Sometimes they would say outrageous things. Often the member of the royal household in question couldn’t remember if that was really what they said, as they talk to so many people when they are out and about.”
The widespread phenomenon of lip reading was fairly new, said Paddy Harverson, former director of communications for the Duke of Cornwall, now King Charles. “I left the palace 13 years ago and, in my time, lip reading did not exist, fortunately,” he said.
Arbiter, who appears in the documentary, said the rise of social media had exacerbated the problem. “Things get cut and spread, whether they’re true or not,” he said. “Social media is a cesspool, but we’re all in it, right?”
He added that he had warned the royals he worked with to have appropriate conversation during walks, when they walk around mingling with the public. “I said, don’t say anything stupid on a ride that might appear in print,” he said. “And reading lips is a craft that many people have. In fact, I did it once, during Prince William and Catherine’s wedding. When they left in a carriage, she clearly turned to him and said, ‘Are you happy?'”
Table conversations at the Golden Globes and other celebrity events tend to be somewhat private; Although they are filmed, the stars do not wear microphones. But the resulting videos were ready for lip readers to translate and post to social media platforms, including TikTok.
Some of the conversations are banal; A recent video with 1 million views on TikTok shows reality TV star Kylie Jenner apparently complaining to actress Jennifer Lawrence at the most recent Golden Globes because someone was coughing near her and had a fever, which could have made her sick.
Others are more problematic. A 2024 clip from the Golden Globes apparently showed singer Selena Gomez complaining that she asked to take a photo with Timothée Chalamet, and Jenner, his wife, apparently “said no.” Lip readers have also captured and seemingly decoded private, unsuspecting moments.
A TikTok video with more than 5 million views claims to show singer Olivia Rodrigo with actress Iris Apatow at a Los Angeles Lakers game, talking about a man she had been exchanging text messages with. Actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who divorced in 2025, have been filmed having what appear to be arguments at glitzy events.
Celebrity agents have been warning their clients to assume that anything they say while out and about can be filmed and lip-read.
Andy May, director of media agency JHM, said: “Yes, we are absolutely talking to our clients about this, and have been for some time. The nature of advice has simply evolved with the times.”
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.
May said: “Twenty years ago, the golden rule was simple: be careful with microphones and broadcast cameras. That covered most of the risk. Today, the advice is categorically different: assume the cameras are always recording. Every phone in every sports stadium and every post-match walkway is a potential broadcast. As is everyday life, even when it’s ‘out of order’. Now we’re all content creators, and every image invariably finds an audience.
“In an ideal world, a talent agent would never need to teach a client how to be a good person. But understandably, everyone has a day off, and the difference now is that a day off can travel around the world in minutes.”
