The royal family's worst phobias revealed

Despite being one of the most public-facing figures in the world, Prince William has an intense phobia of public speaking, which he has learned to mitigate over the years. 

The father of three shared in the BBC documentary Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health that his phobia had diminished as his eyesight did. 

"My eyesight started to tail off a little bit as I got older, and I didn’t use to wear contacts when I was working, so actually when I gave speeches I couldn't see anyone's face," he explained.

"And it helps, because it’s just a blur of faces and because you can't see anyone looking at you – I can see enough to read the paper and stuff like that – but I couldn’t actually see the whole room. And actually, that really helps with my anxiety."

Just like his older brother, Prince Harry has a debilitating fear of public speaking, as he revealed in a campaign video for World AIDS Day.

"My secret is, believe it or not, I get incredibly nervous before public speaking, no matter how big the crowd or the audience," he said. 

"And despite the fact that I laugh and joke all the time, I get incredibly nervous, if not anxious, actually, before going into rooms full of people when I'm wearing a suit. And now that I've confessed that, I'll probably be even more worried that people are looking at me."

Harry also suffered from agoraphobia in the past, which is an anxiety disorder characterised by a fear of crowds or places that are difficult to escape from.

"I was an agoraphobe. Which was nearly impossible given my public role," he wrote in his 2023 memoir Spare. 

The royal then recalled "one speech, which couldn’t be avoided or cancelled, and during which I’d nearly fainted," that led to a ribbing from his brother about looking "drenched".  

"Him of all people," Harry continued in the book. 

"He’d been present for my very first panic attack. With [his wife, Princess] Kate. We were driving out to a polo match in Gloucestershire, in their Range Rover. I was in the back, and Willy peered at me in the rearview. He saw me sweating, red-faced."

'"You all right, Harold?’ No, I wasn’t," the father of two added. "It was a trip of several hours and every few miles I wanted to ask him to pull over so I could jump out and try to catch my breath."

Queen Camilla has quite the list of fears, with her primary phobia being flying. 

She even cut her 2018 trip to Australia short due to her intense fear of being in the air, with a Clarence House spokesperson telling the press: "The Duchess does not like flying, but I think she has to sometimes embrace that fear."

Her fear of flying was likely exacerbated after an incident in 2022, which saw the British Airways aircraft she was travelling on hit a bird mid-air, creating a massive dent on the plane's nose. 

A spokesperson for British Airways confirmed that all passengers on that flight were okay, and that the aircraft had landed safely in England with no issue. 

Camilla also harbours a fear of needles, which she revealed during a visit to a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine centre in 2021. 

"It's very good news," she said of the jab she had just received. "Although it didn’t matter [what it was]. I didn’t ask. I don’t even ask because I hate injections so much that I shut my eyes...Whatever comes out. You take what you are given."

Queen Elizabeth II seemingly showed no fear while sitting on the throne, yet there was one thing in particular that scared her to no end: helicopters.

"She was only afraid of one thing, and that was helicopters," royal biographer Robert Hardman said on the Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast. 

"She could put up with everything else: she'd been through the war, she'd been through heaven knows what, but she always had a thing about helicopters."

Our King author Robert Jobson also claimed that Elizabeth was afraid of helicopters and had "sharp words" for her grandson, Prince William, after he took his kids out on a helicopter ride one day, despite his extensive training with the RAF. 

"She had warned him against flying with [Prince] George in case of an accident, telling her grandson he always had to be aware of the succession," he wrote.

Princess Eugenie has developed a fear of flying in recent years, particularly after becoming a mother to sons August and Ernest.

"Every decision we now make has to be for August, what he's going to be able to look at and do and how he's going to live his life," she said in 2023 at the World Economic Forum.

"But I think also as a mother, you all of a sudden, totally you change, your hormones change, everything changes," she continued, adding that she had developed a series of "sudden" phobias. 

"Like now I'm scared of flying and things like that, and I would never be before."