What Prince Harry Was Afraid Meghan Would Do in Front of His Father King Charles That Made Him ‘Flinch’
Meeting your partner’s parents can be a nerve-wracking experience. What if you don’t like them? What if they don’t like you? What if you say or do the wrong thing? Those questions are a concern for just about anybody and that includes royals.
As much pressure as Meghan Markle must have felt when she met Prince Harry‘s dad, the future king, Harry was also nervous and hoped for a good outcome. And as the Duke of Sussex shared in his memoir Spare, things that day went rather well that is until Meghan did something that made the prince “flinch.”
How Prince Harry described Meghan’s first meeting with his father in ‘Spare’
Harry shared in Spare that he introduced his future wife to his father and Queen Camilla (formerly Camilla Parker Bowles) for the first time at Clarence House. And according to Harry’s account, the conversation between the four flowed “easily.”
Harry remembered, “We talked about acting and the arts in general. What a struggle it could be to make your way in such a trade, Pa said. He had a lot of questions about Meg’s career and he looked impressed by the way she answered. Her confidence, her intelligence, I thought, caught him unawares.”
The prince also recalled that Charles seemed interested in Meghan’s career and discussed her role in the legal drama Suits.
Harry then claimed that while they fell into a “quiet chat” Camilla appeared “keener on eavesdropping than talking to her stepson.” But while things seemed to go well between Meghan and his father, Harry said Charles and Camilla ushered away and that led to an awkward moment.
The awkward moment when Harry wasn’t sure what Meghan would do
“Our time was up. Pa and Camilla had another engagement. Royal life. Heavily regimented, overscheduled and so forth. I made a note to explain all this later to Meg,” the duke wrote.
He continued: “We all stood. Meg leaned towards Pa. I flinched; like Willy, Pa wasn’t a hugger. Thankfully, she gave him a standard British cheek-to-cheek, which he actually seemed to enjoy.”
This isn’t the first time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex put out there that certain members of the royal family aren’t huggers. The duchess first discussed this in her and her husband’s Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan when she talked about her first meeting with the Princess of Wales (formerly known as Kate Middleton). Meghan claimed that she tried to embrace Kate but it wasn’t reciprocated saying: “I was a hugger and have always been a hugger. I didn’t realize that that was really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
Kate and King Charles never responded to the accusation that they’re not huggers, however, both have since been seen hugging members of the public during walkabouts and royal engagements.
