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Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and their children have returned to Britain. The family of four touched down by private jet on August 26, ready to start new lives.
Keen to rebuild popularity in the UK, the Duchess of Sussex certainly has her work cut out for her. The latest YouGov opinion poll showed that only 18 per cent of Britons held a favourable opinion of her.
And it seems there is one moment in particular that continues to be held over her, one that Britons simply can’t let go of.
What was the biggest mistake Meghan Markle made?
Meghan Markle’s biggest mistake is the moment she re-enacted her first curtsy for the late Queen Elizabeth II in the couple’s 2022 Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries.
“The fake curtsy that she did, that was really beyond the pale,” Simon Vigar, the biographer behind The Four Wives of Windsor, tells WHO.
“When she parodied the curtsy that she had to do with the Queen, it was really the last straw. It was what people in Britain saw as typical of her whole attitude problem.”
In what is widely considered one of her pettiest gripes about royal life, Meghan showed her disdain for the tradition of curtsying, likening the first time she performed the gesture for Queen Elizabeth to something out of a “medieval times dinner and tournament.”
Arms outstretched, she performed an exaggerated bow and grinned, “Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.”
Why curtsying still matters?
While the moment was intended to amuse, many felt it missed the point entirely. The curtsy is a simple mark of respect — and the footage aired just months after the longest‑serving monarch had passed away, adding to the sting for many viewers.
A curtsy is really not that hard. I’ve been lucky enough to perform it twice: once while being presented to the Duchess of Edinburgh at the King’s Coronation Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, and again while greeting Princess Anne at a function at Sydney’s Victoria Barracks.
It can feel awkward — especially when one’s heel gets stuck in the perfectly manicured lawns — but for regular folk it adds to the fun and sense of occasion.
Of course, being expected to perform it daily is another matter. However, over the years we’ve seen just about all of the Windsors perform a bow or curtsy to the reigning monarch with no problems.
Meghan is the only one who has raised it as an issue.
Is it fair to judge Meghan so harshly?
Etiquette expert Jo Hayes admits the moment was difficult for many Britons to swallow.
“Meghan has been accused of ‘mocking’ the Queen’s curtsy in her Netflix doco. I’m not sure I would personally describe it as ‘mocking’, but I can see, from the perspective of the Brits, that it felt unrelatable, and, yes, a bit disrespectful, considering their deep royal history and traditions,” Hayes tells WHO.
However, she sees a number of factors that may have contributed to the moment.
“The Netflix doco would have been aimed at, primarily, a North American audience. If Meghan had been interviewed by the BBC, there is no way she would have said or done this particular ‘curtsy mocking’. So I can, actually, see how Meghan was attempting to be real and authentic, to her ‘native’ audience.”
This is where the cultural divide becomes impossible to ignore.
“However, in the mind of the Brit, this was unrelatable, and, erring towards sacrilege. Honouring the Queen/King is an in-built part of life, from the youngest age for the Brits. This person is their regent, their monarch, and deserves the greatest honour and respect. And, they see people curtsying to the Queen/King all the time.”
But while Meghan didn’t grow up around royalty, with people curtsying and showing deference, Hayes also believes she really should have known better.
“Meghan is a clued-in lady. She’s an actress. She knows how to ‘research’ a role,” Hayes said. “So while I do think that perhaps initially, when she first started dating Harry, the British royal traditions would have been somewhat foreign to her … by the time she actually met the Queen, she would have viewed footage of people interacting with the Queen, seen how people curtsy and would certainly have had a fairly decent idea of how it is done.”
However, Hayes also believes that this likely isn’t the real reason why Meghan is so disliked in the country, and that those who made fun of her after the docuseries probably felt that way before.
“I still hold the position that she has faced an inordinate amount of unfair criticism, and hostility, from many Brits (and others), and think she is an amazingly strong woman to ‘still be standing’ after all she’s been through,” she says.
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