Prince William pulled an Easter prank to scare Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie

Whoops.

The Easter prank that Prince William pulled to scare Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie

Whoops.

It's set to be a very different Easter for the royals.

With the pandemic pressing pause on the royal tradition of attending Easter services all together at St George's Chapel for the second year in a row, it's thought that each family will spend Easter Sunday within their own bubble.

While reports say that the Queen is planning on attending a short Easter service, it's unlikely that she will be joined by her grandchildren.

This will be Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's second Easter in California, following their decision to take a step down from their roles as working royals and become financially independent last year.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, meanwhile, typically spend Easter with their wider family circle – including Prince William's cousins Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who will be celebrating her first Easter as a new mother to baby August.

And while that's probably not possible this year, according to the Queen's former chef Darren McGrady, the cousins still have plenty of hilarious Easter memories to mull over until they can be together again.

Speaking to Ok!, the retired royal chef revealed that one Easter, when William, Eugenie and Beatrice were still children, he decided to make a Hickory Dickory Dock nursery rhyme-themed chocolate egg as a special treat for them. But it didn't quite go to plan.

"It had a clock on the top striking one and a sugared mouse peeking out of a mousehole. We sent it up to the nursery on the silver tray, but 15 minutes later the Footman brought it back," he told the publication.

"He said, 'Nanny asked me to return this. Prince William has just stood on a chair and bitten the mouse’s head off, frightening Beatrice and Eugenie.'"

The chef explained that he had to swiftly mock up a replacement, saying, "We had to quickly make another mouse, pop it in the hole and send it back to the nursery. I think Nanny put the egg out of William’s reach to make sure it didn’t happen again."

Oh dear.

Kate McCusker

Kate McCusker is a freelance writer at Marie Claire UK, having joined the team in 2019. She studied fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins, and her byline has also appeared in Dezeen, British Vogue, The Times and woman&home. In no particular order, her big loves are: design, good fiction, bad reality shows and the risible interiors of celebrity houses.