ROYAL family members are typically the picture of elegance, but there have been moments when they’ve been spotted doing a rather unroyal habit – smoking.
From Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, a number of the famous family have been known to love a crafty fag, even if they have given up now.
This is despite the late Queen being strongly against the bad habit, particularly as her father, King George VI, died of lung cancer in 1952.
This was after three previous monarchs, George V, Edward VII and Edward VIII, all passed away from smoking-related illnesses.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s own sister Princess Margaret was known to smoke up to 60 cigarettes a day, which led to a lung operation in 1985.
Never afraid of speaking her mind, the party-loving royal refused to bow down to pressure from both doctors and members of her family to ditch smoking.
However, it is reported she cut down to 30 a day, rather than 60, before her death in 2002.
King Charles is reportedly responsible for revoking the royal warrant for tobacco firm Gallaher in 1998.
But, which nicotine-loving royal family members have been known to love a smoke…
Prince Harry
Despite being pictured puffing on a cigarette in the past, Prince Harry has allegedly kicked the habit since tying the knot with Meghan Markle in 2018.
He wasn’t a frequent smoker but was occasionally pictured lighting up, including one time outside a pub in London‘s exclusive Chelsea area on his 31st birthday.
A source told the New York Daily News at the time: “It’s no secret among friends that they want to start a family immediately.
“One of the reasons she got him to quit smoking is because smoking affects sperm production.”
In his bombshell memoir Spare, Prince Harry admitted he indulged in joints in 2020 while staying at US actor Tyler Perry’s house in Los Angeles, after quitting royal life.
He wrote: “Late at night, with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows. Then I’d sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint.
“The house looked down onto a valley, across a hillside thick with frogs. I’d listen to their late-night song, smell the scented air.”
Two of his previous girlfriends – Chelsy Davy, who he dated between 2004 to 2011, and Cressida Bonas, who he was with from 2012 to 2014 – have also been pictured smoking in the past.
Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas has also lit up in the last[/caption]
Chelsy Davy – who Harry dated between 2004 to 2011 – has also smoked[/caption]
Meghan Markle
Although she is the picture of wellness and health now, the Duchess of Sussex, who has been pictured smoking in the past, once boasted to pals about how she’d serve illegal marijuana at her first wedding.
Leaked emails reveal plans to put the dope in party bags at her nuptials to Trevor Engelson.
Urged to buy a certain type of bag by a pal, the Duchess replied: “Already ordered ’em. And teeny ones for the pot that say ‘shh’.”
The American actress even personally ordered small muslin bags for the illegal drug to be placed inside glitzy gift bags to guests.
The future Duchess then signed off to the friend with a jokey smiley face.
Meghan’s estranged father Thomas revealed last month that guests at the wedding in Jamaica were given a bag of marijuana.
Meghan Markle boasted about giving out 200 marijuana joints at her wedding to first husband Trevor Engelson[/caption]
At the time of the wedding in 2012 any possession of cannabis was illegal in Jamaica.
A guest added that although she was “very excited” about surprising guests with marijuana, it was more of a gimmick and she did not smoke too much herself.
The guest said: “It didn’t seem like it was really her thing.
“Trevor and his friends definitely had more experience with it. I think she is more of a champagne and rose kind of girl. It almost looked like she didn’t know how to smoke.”
Queen Camilla
King Charles is said to have stopped wife Queen Camilla from lighting up too, after she was known to puff 40 a day, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Royal expert Tina Brown claimed that Camilla loved cigarettes so much that she would “furtively smoke up the chimney”, so Charles wouldn’t catch her.
In the past, royal footmen have been instructed to put silver cigarette boxes from her favourite brand in every room of her house.
Meanwhile, royal biographer Angela Levin claimed that Camilla was known to frequent posh members club Annabel’s in Mayfair, London, which has “the world’s most luxurious cigar room”.
However, she kicked the habit in 2001 and allegedly told a pal: “It wasn’t so much me giving up smoking, rather smoking giving up on me.”
Queen Camilla told Paddington actress Emily Mortimer in November 2024, that she “quit 20 years ago.”
Meanwhile, her son, Tom Parker Bowles, 50, insisted that she “doesn’t smoke” and has “never drunk a glass of gin in her life”.
Princess Eugenie
In her younger days, Princess Eugenie – daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew – was also spotted with a cigarette.
One such example was in 2009 at the age of 19 during her gap year in Sydney, Australia.
Onlookers told the Daily Mail that she had pulled “a packet of cigarettes out of her bag” and started smoking it.
A bystander said: “She wasn’t chain smoking but she is clearly more than just a social smoker.”
Mum-of-two Eugenie has reportedly since given up the habit.
Prince Philip
Being married to a monarch comes with its sacrifices, and smoking was an example of this for Prince Philip.
The long-serving consort was known to love smoking in his younger days, but gave it up on the morning of his wedding.
This was after his bachelor party at the Dorchester Hotel in November 1947 where he was pictured sharing cigars with Lord Mountbatten and his private secretary Michael Parker.
Bryan Kozlowski wrote in his book Long Live the Queen: 23 Rules For Living From Britain’s Longest Reigning Monarch: “Understandably, Elizabeth was adamant that Philip give up the habit that wreaked her father’s health.
“Previously a heavy smoker himself, Philip obliged with phenomenal efficiency, going from a pack a day to quitting cold turkey on his wedding day.”
The truth about smoking
ONE in eight people in the UK smokes.
And yet it’s the biggest cause of death and disease that we can control.
About half of life-long smokers will die early, losing about 10 years of life on average.
The most common smoking-related causes of death are: lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary heart disease.
But it is linked to all sorts of other conditions, from heart attacks and strokes to diabetes and depression.
Smoking harms every organ in the body, which is why it accounts for approximately 74,600 deaths every year in England alone.
It kills more people annually than having a high BMI, alcohol and drugs combined.
Around 506,100 NHS hospital admissions in people over the age of 35 are attributable to smoking, accounting for four per cent of all hospital admissions in this age group.
Smoking also costs the NHS in England about £1.9billion a year.
Source: Action on Smoking
