Prince Harry made a “cut-off” gesture after Meghan Markle appeared to “mock” her first curtsy to the late Queen Elizabeth, a body language expert has claimed, a move which was branded a “step too far”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a series of revelations about their life within the Royal Family in the Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. In the bombshell show, the couple opened up about Meghan’s first meeting with the late monarch. The meeting took place when Harry and Meghan were in Windsor to have lunch at the Royal Lodge with Princess Eugenie.
Harry said: “How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you will need to curtsy. Especially to an American. That’s weird.” Meghan added: “Now I’m starting to realise ‘This is a big deal’. I mean, Americans will understand this… We have medieval times, dinner and tournament. It was like that.”
It was then that the duchess re-enacted the moment she met the late Queen and performed a long and exaggerated curtsy before saying while giggling: “Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty”, while the camera showed Harry. No body language expert Judi James said the scene showed Harry’s “discomfort” as he performed one “cut off” gesture. She told The Mirror: “Her [Meghan’s] joke is self-effacing as she speaks about her curtsy when she first met the late Queen. Her smile becomes asymmetric, pulling up on one side to register a shared joke.”
But she added: “Harry, however, is already watching her carefully, turning to gaze at the side of her face with his own facial expression looking less turned to ‘fun’ than hers. “Meghan does an extravagant mock-curtsey that does, as she says, look Medieval. It takes her eight seconds to perform, making it a long joke but there is no change in Harry’s more serious facial expression until the end, when he lets out a small, mirthless laugh.
“As Meghan mentions ‘Your Majesty’, the direct reference to the late Queen, it does seem a small step too far for Harry who quickly drops his head down to perform a cut-off ritual that partially hides his face, suggesting some discomfort at this point.”
