Prince Edward seemingly takes a page out of his sister Princess Anne’s book for his public outings.
Walkabouts are a key part of working royal life and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie have had to do a lot of them given their engagements.
However, Edward adopted the infamous policy of the Princess Royal’s in which she never shakes hands during walkabouts.
The Duke of Edinburgh shared with the crowd outside Buckingham Palace during the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, via Express UK.
“I’d love to shake hands, but have you seen how many people there are here? They’d fall off!”
Edward told another person in the crowd, “I’ve been trying to avoid it only because if I do it once, I have to shake everybody’s hand.”
In an ITV documentary, Queen of the World, which aired in 2018, the Anne shared explained why she never shook hands with the public during walkabouts.
“I mean we never shook hands,” she said. “The theory was that you couldn’t shake hands with everybody, so don’t start. So, I kind of stick with that, but I notice others don’t.”