There are lots of smaller “rules” or “speech protocols” around Queen Elizabeth and the royal family. I knew some of them – like, the Queen hates when people say “toilet” or “bathroom,” she prefers that people say “powder room” or something like that. We’ve also heard, randomly, that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge apparently don’t want their nanny to refer to George, Charlotte and Louis as “kids.” Never “kids,” always “children.” I guess “kids” is too informal. Well, did you know that the Queen apparently hates the word “pregnant”? I did not.
Expecting Princess Beatrice avoids using one word in particular when she discusses the arrival of her first child with the Queen. Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who married in a secret lockdown wedding in July, are to welcome a baby in the autumn.
But it is claimed she tries not to use the word “pregnant” in any conversations she has with her grandmother.
A royal insider told Us Weekly that Queen Elizabeth finds the term “vulgar”.
Instead, they say she prefers pregnancy being described as a woman being “in the family way”.
The baby will be the Queen’s 12th great-grandchild following the arrival of the Sussexes’ second child in the summer.
“In the family way” is such an outdated term! What’s wrong with “pregnant” or “expecting”? Or knocked up, preggo, gestating, bumped out, etc? Lord, these people. I’m surprised they didn’t bring You Know Who into it. “The Queen finds it terribly vulgar that Meghan keeps telling people that she’s ‘pregnant’.” You know what’s a vulgar word? “Vulgar.” You know what’s actually vulgar? Decades of systemic discrimination protected by unearned power and institutional racism.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Can we get where Betty stands on “moist”?
LOL!
She prefers “slightly undry.”
Hilarious!
Women don’t sweat. They mist. They dew.
Women don’t sweat? Neither does Andrew.
HA HA! Touche.
I declare! How vulgar!
How I wish I’d see her face, if someone said that to her. I’d laugh until I lost my voice.
LMAOOO!
🤣🤣🤣
Oh eff off! The Queen should more concerned that her son is implicated in a paedophile ring and her family is perceived to be racist.
“Paedophile” is also vulgar; we say “in the Lord Mountbatten way”.
Lolz.
HHAAHAHAHAHA you win the internet today!
@Miranda: I forgot aristos don’t believe paedophilia is a crime. So she probably thinks there’s nothing wrong with Andrew liking under-aged girls.
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LMFAO, 5 stars, best comment
WE HAVE A WINNER
HAHAHAHAHA Comment of the Week!!
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Well, that’s a win for you and the Internet.
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Is racist, not just perceived to be. Is.
My mother (who is 91 years old) also hates the word “pregnant”; she thought it sounded disgusting, and preferred “having a baby” or “carrying a child”.
She also didn’t ever refer to us as her kids, only as her children. She used to say “Kids are baby goats”.
It could be a generational thing.
It’s totally generational, like 7 generations. If you figure every generation is about 20 years and you consider that the monarchy is always a few generations behind – then TQ is basically late Victorian.
That reminds me of my mom getting inordinately outraged if one of us called out “hey” to get someone’s attention. She would say “Hay is for horses.”
Around here the response to “hay is for horses” is “good thing you’re a jackass”
In the early 90’s I worked on the Pampers account at an ad agency. We had to use “expectant mothers” instead of pregnant women.
Generational for sure! My grandmothers also didn’t approve of the words “pregnant” or “kids”. This is normal for that age group.
It’s definitely a generational thing.
But it’s hilarious that people expect a 95 year old woman who heads a dying, anachronistic institution to be woke.
That outfit and brooch is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen “Bee” wear!
@samipup, I agree. Love her pin and that color & style look good on her.
Yes so did my grandmother who had she lived would be the same generation, but even she realized language changes through time. However it is phrased there is still a baby in there. (Also this is US weekly)
Y’all ever read Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure? About a guy who’s jailed for putting his girlfriend “in the family way.” I wrote a college paper on the use of “pregnant “ in the play. It’s used to mean every conceivable (ha!) definition but knocked up. eg The air is pregnant with mystery.
Oh, I love that @Bettyrose. Now I want to immediately go and read it to catch all those moments. Shakespeare is a delight!
“In the family way” was what they said in the 1920s. My god!
Well, Queenie WAS born in 1926. Factor in her being born and raised in what is quite possibly the most conservative and old-fashioned family in the most conservative and old-fashioned social circles (both of which tend to push back the clock considerably) and we can comfortably refer to her as being late-Victorian.
I expect this from her, I mean, she clings desperately to the times when she was younger and she refuses to acknowledge that times are changing. I don’t blame her when it comes to posh vocabulary, there’s an elderly version of her in every culture/family whose life goal is to police the way young people talk.
Uh if this is one of their ‘distract from Andrew’ pieces they are really grasping at straws.
And back in the day when she was trying to get in the family way she probably was repeating “for god and country!” to get through it.
Was that vulgar? Oops.
LOL
My late grandmother, who would have been a similar age, told me that in her youth women would disguise their pregnancies as much as possible, because… people would see you pregnant and work out how you got pregnant. The horror! ***clutches pearls***
My MIL told me people would routinely look at her hitchin’ finger (her words) when she was pregnant and be HORRIFIED to find it empty. She had taken her rings off because of swelling. She was mortified that people would try to shame her while she’s just trying to do the groceries.
I had my son 2 years ago when I was 37. My mom was 69 at the time. I took my rings off around 35 weeks pregnant due to swelling. Even my 69 year old mom said “you are comfortable walking around pregnant without a ring on??”. Um yeah Mom. It’s not the 1950s (which is exactly what I said to her).
@GamerGrrl, @StrawberryBlonde, I will tell you another story my grandmother told me. The only time she made a point showing off her pregnancy, was when she was expecting her youngest. At this point, she had a 12 year old daughter in her house. She made a point of going to all the local shops wearing tight clothing that clearly showed her pregnant belly, while dragging her petite daughter along, so that there was no question of whose baby the newborn would be! lol
She’s very old. I know we analyze her behaviour a lot but when I think of my grandma who is a similar age, you just can’t have the same expectations as you would a younger person. I know my grandma still finds people living together without being married scandolous. I love her, but not the most modern thinker. Again, the queen is in her 90s. What do we expect?
I find harassing g a PREGNANT woman until she is suicidal vulgar Betty. Also shielding alleged Child predators
Correct
Oh come on, cut the old lady some slack, she’s what now, 270 years old?
I’m in my 40s and kids have adopted into their slang some words that were vulgar, offensive, homophobic, even racist, when I was young. From slang they’re already jumping into journalusm, so it’s just a matter of time until they’re official. I can’t get myself to use them, tho, I still find them nasty. Doubtless some kiddos here find ne ancient, like, 270 years old.
So, yeah, languages change. Not always for the better, but we have to let it happen, I guess. It’s a natural order of things.
Reminds me of labor and delivery being called “confinement”!
What’s vulgar about the word pregnant? Does it mean something different to creaky old people? And kids vs children. LOL. People who hate regular every day words are funny
I’m guessing in repressed circles the very word evokes horrifying images of naked bodies intertwined in positions not discussed at finishing school. One should only think of England whilst accepting the seed that plants an heir.
She should try saying up the duff.
It’s not surprising given her age and background, really. Though my mother who is in her early 80s and can be rather proper has no problem with the word “pregnant.” But then, she’s not English or a sheltered Royal.
But since Great-Granny can’t handle the word “pregnant,” maybe Beatrice should have just told her she was “up the duff.”
People tend to think of these as cute little quaint stories but all I see is an out of touch, controlling old woman who literally tries to police everything in the family except racism and rape, because those two things are perfectly fine.
I see the same thing as you.
“Don’t use the word PREGNANT, it’s VULGAR! So uncouth! Anyways, time to have some afternoon tea with the child rapist complicit in sex trafficking that I’m sheltering in my palace.” – Her Majesty The Queen
She probably describes Andrew’s actions as “seductions”, and totally acceptable.
Dalliances, or even peccadilloes, how quaint!
Assignations, or trysts……
Oh Betty, come on, it’s lucky Andrew didn’t leave his victims with a bun in the oven.
Due to spending much of my youth watching 1950’s reruns I am not surprised. I feel the same about toilet. I guess the only difference is I don’t ‘let it be known’ not to say that in my presence. Mostly because my family would take that as license to say it every chance they got. LOL.
This is totally a real thing about the elderly. When Lucille Ball was pregnant on her show in 1953, CBS expressly prohibited the show from using the term “pregnant” because they did not want to offend any viewers – they had to use the term “expecting.” I just find it funny that rather than just acknowledging grandma’s weird generational proclivities, they all tow the line to her. Even my oldest relatives don’t police how we speak, they just shrug it off.
And she was ‘expecting’ while she and Dezi slept in twin beds. LOL.
Well, when grandma is the The Queen, and it’s “The Queen’s English,” then it’s not a generational proclivity – it’s the right way to speak.
My grandmother, who would’ve been about the queens age by now would say the same thing. “She’s in that way” she just could not say pregnant. She would physically cringe. Lol
You know what’s vulgar petty Betty? You supporting your rapist pedophile son and his various friendships with sex traffickers while you can’t even lift a finger to defend the 3 POC in your family who are attacked on the regular by your own family and the U.K. media for just existing.
If we American barbarians and our government collectively flaunted our lack of panty-hose wearing bare legs and worked in the word pregnant with every interaction with these inbred racist twats, do you think it would be enough to give them all a collective stroke? The world would be better for it. And yet somehow, the old bat is still standing despite the many pedophiles in her family and all the many hoohah and bum flashing incidents trashy Keen has given us over the years. Go figure.
Old person here who doesn’t mind the word pregnant. When Lucille Ball was pregnant, they couldn’t say the word “pregnant” on TV. TheTV show “I Love Lucy” had to dance around the word in an episode where she tells Ricky she’s having his baby. It was ridiculous.
They couldn’t even depict a double bed on that show … had to be twin beds. Fast forward to episodes of The Sopranos when Tony calls Dr. Melfi a c*nt. We’e come a long way.
Serioiusly? I’m not buying this. She enjoys breeding horses and dogs. There’s no way she’s that squeamish about a very accurate word.
These are the same people who look down on anyone who says ‘pardon me’ so yeah I believe it. Referencing a topic a few weeks ago on the phrases ariso’s don’t use.
Maybe she only used the term pregnant for horses & dogs though, and not for people? idk, just a guess.
I find her displaying her gold piano vulgar.
Child rapist is as vulgar as they come in the real world that is. Welfare to people who don’t need it, is also incredibly vulgar.
If the Queen wants to go old school, she could also use, “with child.” That’s equally hilarious in its outdated-ness.
Yeah? I find the QUEEN vulgar. And those silly assymetrical hats are really beginning to irk me.
I found out yesterday that back in the day, among British royalty, it was referred to as “Monthly Courses” not a period….So if you miss a monthly course or two, is it possible you are in the family way?
I can’t be bothered to care about this. I’m sure she has many quaint expressions because she’s very old. And she didn’t plant or approve this story unless it’s to distract from Pedo Prince.
My mom and aunts are from that age group and it was always “expecting”.
But, can you say ‘dunny’ in front of her?
I think the Studio 54 had the “powder rooms”.
LOL
I’d expect Her Maj to say ‘in foal’, or ‘whelping’ instead of ‘pregnant’. “Yaaas, my granddaughter Beatrice is in foal.”
And yet they constantly use the term ‘feeling broody’ about any of the female RF’s they think might be pining to get PREGNANT again, as if they are hens that lay eggs, and which makes me want to vomit.
But that’s just me.
Eff off, Liz. Pregnant, pregnant, PREGNANT.
The woman’s heading towards being on this earth an entire century. Cut her some slack, for God’s sake. Some tolerance for generational differences wouldn’t go astray!
Why? She seems to have no tolerance for others? Being older doesn’t give you license to be an ass. You’re supposed to be wiser.
Knocked up it is!
Cut her some slack? What slack has she cut for ANYONE but her alleged rapist son?
She’s almost one hundred years old, she can prefer whatever she wants.
I don’t want to hear about vulgarity from a woman who owns a gold piano.
I love the argument that she is old and can prefer what she wants. She prefers to not employ people of color.
Sigh… it is one of my greatest disappointments that the British Monarchy was not abolished before the end of her reign. …life is always most unjust to those who need justice the most.