Clip of Prince Louis Shushing Mom Kate at Jubilee Sparks Media Debate

Prince Louis seemed like he'd had enough of the Platinum Jubilee on Sunday afternoon when he was seen in the Royal Box at the Jubilee Pageant shushing his mother, Kate Middleton, by placing his hand over her mouth.

A video of the 4-year-old quickly went viral, with some finding humor in his cheeky side while others questioned how the British media would react if a child of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, had behaved the way Louis did.

The 19-second clip comes from the broadcast of the Jubilee Pageant parade on the Buckingham Palace Mall. It shows Louis sticking his tongue out at his mom and making faces at her, as well as putting his hand over her mouth while she talks to him.

The video has garnered 1,200 likes and almost 200,000 views as of Sunday afternoon. Some users took issue with his behavior, while others urged the internet to cut the toddler some slack.

"They've made this baby sit through days of public events that he probably finds very boring," Twitter user @THISisLULE wrote. "He's probably getting frustrated and I get it."

Many commentators posited that while the clip would likely be written off as innocent toddler behavior, it'd be a different story if one of his Sussex cousins, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, behaved similarly.

"If this was archie we wouldn't hear the end of it," user @cheerelles tweeted.

"It's Meghan's fault," Twitter user @ItsDhargan quipped. "British Media Headline: Meghan Markle's nephew, Prince Louis seen misbehaving at The Queen's Jubilee Celebration."

Many pointed to a 2019 news story speculating about Archie becoming a "spoiled brat" despite rarely having been seen in public.

Some British media outlets have been accused of holding a double standard when it comes to how they cover Kate versus Meghan. Meghan has repeatedly been the target of press attacks that were considered by many to be racist in nature.

Omid Scobie, who wrote a book about Meghan and Harry titled Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, also tweeted about the clip, saying, "I did wonder why Prince Louis was taken out for a while. Kids will be kids, eh?

While fans are correct that British news outlets have not criticized Kate's parenting as of this writing, plenty of people on Twitter have done so.

The person who posted the video wrote, "At what point do we go from 'wow, what a relatable toddler moment' to 'wow, you have no control of your children?'" Some also brought up Kate's work with early child development.

Others, like Twitter user @WellingInKent, took issue with the conversation around Prince Louis as a whole. "A perfectly normal child being a perfectly normal child," he wrote. "It's us who's weird, not him."

@SplodgeHappy agreed, writing, "Ppl criticising Kate for not being in control of the situation but if your child was misbehaving & you had 1 billion ppl watching you, what would you do? We need to stop judging mothers."

Prince Louis appeared to be in better spirits when he joined his siblings, parents, grandparents and great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, for a final balcony appearance to round out the weekend's events.

Meghan and Harry visited London for the Jubilee, but did not appear to be in attendance at the Pageant. They attended Trooping the Colour on Thursday, but were not included in royal family photos on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. They were also seen at a church service on Friday at St. Paul's Cathedral. On Saturday, they reportedly celebrated the first birthday of their daughter in Windsor.