Anna Williamson opens up about viral King Charles moment
- By Maria Lopez -
- Aug 06, 2026
Tele vision presenter and relationships expert Anna Williamson has shared her most humiliating moment in the presence of a celebrity. A Royal hello with now King Charles, had ended in disaster after she had taken a spoonful of risotto.
During a reception at Charles’ former residence, Highgrove House, the pair’s introduction went dramatically wrong when Ms Williamson attempted a too eager form of royal etiquette.
When Charles was the prince. She had been asked to attend a gala at Prince Charles’ former home in Gloucester The pair were standing beside one of Charles’ personal assistants at a drinks reception, but the 42-year-old was so excited, her protocol-leading skills were in full swing as she said: “The prince stepped to give me a round and this is going to sound stupid you can curtsy and/or say a few respectful hello’s [then] when i got down for my curtsey I’ve had pea risotto in my mouth.
” Williamson continued, the anxiety was caused “because I respect him and the whole Royal family such a lot that I was trying not to miss a single bit of being respectful to him”.
Explaining to the show that there’s a number of ways in which you’re able to interact with the Royal family including.
Williamson, who served as the long-term ambassador for The King’s Trust (formerly the Prince of’s Trust), revealed during a discussion on the latest episode of Joe Marler Will See You Now – the England rugby veteran turned-podcast host – that a meeting in the year prior left her embarrassed, after accidentally greeting King Charles III (when he was still the Prince of Wales) and “had to be pulled off him” with a mouthful of pea risotto flying.
[Picture evidence was later circulated round friends with an anonymous witness quoted in The Daily Mirror saying, at the time: “We heard a collective gasp and saw this presenter had collapsed at his feet”.
The celebrity has a strong association with the 1573 Countryside charity as she hosted its summer concert at Highgrove some years ago.] After a quick correction from one of her entourage about doing “a bow and a curtsey, the presenter said she lost her footing on a paving slab due to nervousness and lunged forwards.
He helped me back up – but my outfit was covered in it.” She joked that a ‘disappointed but very amused Prince’ had then “got security to come along and pick me off him and stand me upright again”, while he apparently joked the duo had now formed “our very first introduction so how have you broken the ice at our house?” Her fellow podcasters responded to the clip. “It’s going to be in every memory I’m going to make for now,” Marler added.
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Meanwhile, their other podcaster, Tom Francis commented: “This takes away any doubt. There is no such thing as the royals being ‘imposing or formal”.
Anna rose to fame in the late 1990s in children’s television as host of shows including CITV’s Zapper and five’s Milkshake! She later moved into presenting mainstream television shows as well as mental health advocacy, including most recently, acting as counsellor to celebrity contestants on E4’s smash-hit reality TV show Celebs Go Dating.