What Are The Royal Family's Hidden Talents?

When seeing pictures of the royal family attending official events and waving demurely, it can be pretty easy to forget that the royals are people, too. But don't be fooled: Behind their curated public personas, many members of Queen Elizabeth II's family have prized hobbies. For a number of the royals, these hobbies indicate rather impressive hidden talents for various disciplines — and the queen herself is no exception.

Some of the more senior royals must limit their passions to their spare time. Others are able to practice theirs as part of their actual professions, relatively away from the limelight. In any event, many of the Windsor clan have opened up about their hidden talents over the years, and they have even applied some of their skills towards good causes on several occasions. Here's everything you need to know about what these multi-talented family members love to do when they finally get a second to themselves.

Here's a job not many royals can claim to have done: Paper Source employee. Meghan Markle isn't your average royal, though. "It was her part-time job as she was going through auditions," Paper Source CEO Winnie Park told People in 2018, referring to Markle's stint at the chain in Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2005. "She taught calligraphy and hosted a group of customers and instructed them during a two-hour class on how to do calligraphy." So the duchess' penmanship skills are totally immaculate, as evidenced by a handwritten note she sent to Luminary Bakery in 2019, which they then shared on Instagram.

When it comes to writing, it's not just form that interests the duchess; she also cares about the content. Markle has honed her writing skills in various ways over the years: Notably, she used to have her very own blog called The Tig. Cosmopolitan examined its archives since the blog ended in 2017, perhaps when royal life meant Meghan Markle could no longer be so open about her personal life. Thankfully, she still has opportunities to continue writing. Meghan Markle penned a children's book, "The Bench," according to the BBC. She will write a "wellness book" as part of Prince Harry's four-book deal with Random House, per the Daily Mail. Markle also guest-edited British Vogue in September 2019, helping create a special issue titled "Forces for Change," featuring some of the figures that inspire her the most.

Her talents don't stop there: As well as being a seasoned actor, she can also cook and speak Spanish. She contains multitudes!

Members of the royal family typically receive elite educations, meaning they have all the resources at their fingertips for learning special skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. As such, Prince William has picked up conversational Swahili, which he put to good use during a 2019 celebration of the Diana Awards, honoring 20 young changemakers. Chief Executive of the Diana Award, Tessy Ojo, told People, "One of the young people is from Tanzania, and he started talking to him in Swahili — and this young boy was gobsmacked! It wasn't just one sentence. This was not something he had just read out of a book. It was truly special."

When he isn't honing his language skills, the Duke of Cambridge has a soft spot for more physical activities. Like his younger brother Harry, the future king very much enjoys a spot of polo. In July 2021, he returned to the pitch after a long absence to raise money for charities that mean a lot to him, including "Centrepoint, East Anglia Children's Hospices, Family Action, Fields in Trust, The Forward Trust, London Air Ambulance, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and Tusk," according to Vanity Fair. Also like Prince Harry, Prince William can juggle, as he demonstrated at an event in Galway. The senior royal also loves soccer — or "football," as he would know it.

Princess Charlotte, the second child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, may have only been born in 2015, but she already knows more than one language. Back in 2018, a source told People that the young royal had picked up some Spanish thanks to her nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, who is from Spain and started working for the royals in 2014, according to People.

Charlotte apparently also loves playing tennis, just like her mom. Back in 2019, Hello! confirmed that the young princess had been taking tennis lessons at exclusive members' Hurlingham Club. Charlotte and her brothers seem to really enjoy the sport: the Duchess of Cambridge told tennis champion Novak Djokovic (according to Express), "Every time we put a tennis kit on, the kids are there wanting to join in which is really great." Who knows? Maybe Charlotte will follow in Djokovic's footsteps and become a tennis champion herself one day.

Who do you call when your car breaks down? AAA? Well, by the sound of it, members of the royal family have someone who can help them out right in their midst: Queen Elizabeth II. That's right, the monarch knows a thing or two about fixing a vehicle — or at least she did back in the day. She actually served in the Army during World War II as a car mechanic, meaning she fixed cars as part of helping out with the war effort, according to The Washington Post.

It probably won't surprise you that Queen Elizabeth is a very accomplished woman in many areas of her life. Another one of her special talents is photography, which she indulges in during her free time (or what there is of it). In 2016, the Queen even released some exclusive home videos depicting the royal family in decades past, some of which she had filmed herself (per Express) — proving that her love for being behind the camera extends beyond photography and into moving pictures, too. Someone call "action!"

Princess Beatrice made history as the first in her family to complete the London marathon, according to Hello!. In 2010, she ran the grueling race to raise money for Children in Crisis, founded by Sarah, Duchess of York (Beatrice's mother). The organization is now part of the charity Street Child, which works to bring education to children living in places where they couldn't easily access it otherwise. Fun fact: Beatrice ran the 2010 marathon chained to 33 other runners, and the group "set the record for the largest number of runners to finish a marathon tied together," according to the Daily Mail.

But the royal's love for running didn't end with that milestone: Princess Beatrice has participated in scores of races since. In 2017 alone, she participated in both the Lady Garden 5K in London, according to People, and the National Lottery Olympic Park Run, also in London, according to HuffPost. Perhaps Beatrice's most impressive achievement to date, though, is when she completed the Strive Challenge in 2016. "After swimming 3,300m biking 140km, running a half marathon and hiking up mount Etna I finally made it. @strivechallenge @bigchange_," she tweeted at the time.

"Black truffles from France and white truffles from Italy are the two most highly valued," according to USA Today. That doesn't mean the prized specimens can't grow in Great Britain, though. The late Prince Philip wasn't one to take "no" for an answer, and he wanted desperately to prove that he could, in fact, get truffles to grow in England. That's why he spent 12 years trying to get these fancy fungi to make an appearance at the royal estate in Sandringham. At last he succeeded in 2019, according to the Daily Mail. The takeaway? If you believe in something, don't give up on it.

In the Duke of Edinburgh's 99 years, he had plenty of time to develop a curiosity for a range of disciplines. For one, he loved to create oil paintings, like the one of his wife, Queen Elizabeth, having breakfast at Windsor Castle, according to Artnet. Philip spent so much time painting that a portrait was even painted of him sitting at his easel. The late duke was a very creative person and actually designed his own hearse, a Land Rover he started working on in 2003, according to the BBC. Talk about forethought.

Lady Gabriella Windsor is the daughter of one of the Queen's first cousins, Prince Michael of Kent, according to Good Housekeeping. But her royal status doesn't mean that Windsor is content with resting on her laurels: She sings and writes her own songs, and became ready to share these skills with the world in 2020. At that time, she released two singles on various streaming platforms. "​​It's a little daunting, but exciting too," she told Hello!. "I've always loved music, but never imagined I would become involved with it like this – releasing my own songs."

Windsor has also exercised her creativity in another domain: writing. She has worked as a freelance journalist for several years, contributing to such major British publications as the Mail on Sunday and Country Life, according to Tatler. Harper's Bazaar adds that the royal has also contributed to "The London Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and the Spanish edition of Hello!."