Meghan Markle lutou para construir relacionamentos com seus novos familiares depois de se casar com o príncipe Harry em 2018, e sua abordagem incomum para cumprimentar a família real a deixou magoada
Meghan Markle teria ficado magoada depois que alguns membros da Família Real “estremeceram” com seus abraços. Fontes internas afirmam que sua “sensação de toque” causou alguma tensão depois que ela se casou com o Príncipe Harry em 2018.
Tanto Meghan quanto Harry declararam que o Príncipe William e Kate acharam seu amor por abraços “chocante”, mas agora um especialista real disse que foi ainda mais fundo na criação de uma “atmosfera tensa”. Escrevendo em seu novo livro, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants – que foi extraído do The Times – Tom Quinn disse: “A tensão se desenvolveu entre William e Harry como resultado da abordagem calorosa, amigável e de abraço a todos de Meghan. Kate, William e Charles tendiam a estremecer quando ela se aproximava para um abraço.
“Meghan ficou compreensivelmente magoada, já que todo mundo aparentemente abraça todo mundo na Califórnia. Meghan até tentou abraçar um escudeiro de Old Etonian singularmente rígido. Ele também se encolheu como se ela tivesse tentado cutucá-lo no olho, como disse outro membro da equipe.
The couple previously opened up about Meghan’s hugging in their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. Meghan said she did not know the Royal Family’s “formality” carries through behind closed doors and that she is a “hugger” – which she did not realise was “jarring for some Brits”.
She said: “Even when Will and Kate came over and I was meeting her for the first time I remember I was in ripped jeans, I was barefoot. Like I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward facing way of being and then you close the door and think, ‘OK we can relax now’. But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.’”
Harry also recalled the somewhat awkward first meeting between his now wife and his brother and sister-in-law in his bombshell memoir Spare. He claimed William “recoiled” from Meghan’s hug and described the moment he introduced his sibling to his then girlfriend as a “classic collision of cultures”.
“[It] completely freaked him out,” Harry wrote. “He recoiled. Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers. Will had hoped that she would greet him with standard reverence per the protocol,” he added, “[but] she didn’t know it and I hadn’t told her.”
Traditionally, hugging is considered inappropriate for royals during official events, with a bow or curtsey being the preferred greeting. Harry has openly discussed his experience of limited physical affection within the Royal Family, including a lack of hugs during his childhood.
But it appears King Charles is leading the way in breaking this old-fashioned protocol. In September, Charles broke with tradition when he met the New Zealand Women Rugby Team, who made an unusual request.
“Yeah, we all wanted a hug,” Ayesha Leti-I’iga told the monarch, adding, “but only if it’s okay with you.” To the team’s surprise and delight, the King accepted, replying: “A hug? Why not!”
After the group embrace, which he joked was like being “flattened by a scrum”, Charles thanked the team for their “warm hug”, which he described as “very healing”.
Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn is out on February 18.
