When you’re meeting royals it pays to mind your language.

But one nervous lad surprised Prince Harry and Meghan Markle this week by dropping the F-bomb on a royal visit.

And the reaction of the royal couple was perfect.

The Sun reports that the teenage boy’s faux pas came as he talked about performing at Bristol’s Old Vic theatre, which the couple were touring.

He said: “You can’t just be f***ing around on stage.”

Pregnant Meghan looked slightly taken aback for a second, then smiled and laughed.

Dad-to-be Harry instantly put the boy at ease by messing around and not taking the slip of the tongue seriously.

He bent his knees to duck down to the boy, looked him in the eye and pulled a face.

The couple’s reaction to the boy’s swearing is another indication of the more relaxed approach to interacting with the public that Meghan and Harry are keen to foster.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex braved the snow to visit the historic theatre, built in 1766, on Friday morning.

Former actress Meghan, who recently announced the National Theatre as one of her patronages, is a passionate supporter of the arts.

During the Bristol visit, Harry also offered words of comfort to another boy who got tearful when telling him about the death of his father.

Harry, who lost mum Princess Diana when he was 12, spent ten minutes talking to 15-year-old Iestyn Jones about dealing with grief.

He told the teen: “The same thing happened to me.”

Showing his compassion, he asked aides and workers at a boxing club in Bristol to leave the room so he could comfort the teenager in private.