Prince Harry looked uncomfortable and “queasy” as Meghan Markle performed the exaggerated curtsy in the couple’s Netflix docuseries that earned her widespread backlash, but couldn’t do anything about it, a new book has claimed.
Harry and Meghan’s eponymous docuseries was released in two instalments in December 2022, breaking Netflix’s streaming record for a documentary debut and earning worldwide media coverage. It charted their fairytale romance and dramatic split from the monarchy over six bombshell-filled episodes.
While Harry & Meghan earned the couple praise from fans, several revelations sparked backlash, including Harry’s reflection that male members of the royal family tend to marry women who “fit the mold as opposed to somebody who you perhaps are destined to be with.”
One of the most standout controversies from the show was prompted by Meghan, who described to viewers that she thought the expectation that she had to curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II when first meeting her was a “joke.”
“We were in the car, driving, and he’s [Harry’s] like, ‘You know how to curtsy, right?'” Meghan told viewers of the first meeting with her then-boyfriend’s grandmother. “And I just thought it was a joke.”
“I mean, Americans would understand this. We have Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament [a dinner theater]…it was like that,” she added, going on to perform an exaggerated bow while saying the words “pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.”
After the episode was released, critics of Meghan quickly accused her of mocking British customs and for appearing to disrespect Queen Elizabeth herself.
Now, the author of the new book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, Robert Hardman, has written that Harry likely recognized the awkwardness the moment could cause.
“One of the most contentious moments, among British viewers at least, was when a smirking Meghan performed a comic repeat of her first curtsey to the queen,” Hardman wrote of the docuseries.
“The queasy look of discomfort on Harry’s face was that of a man all too aware of the consequences yet unable to do anything about it.”
“Social media lit up once again while criticism was not confined to the usual suspects,” he continued. “Yet the king and the family said nothing.”
King Charles and Buckingham Palace adopted a blanket “no comment” position on the Netflix show and the revelations made within it. While Meghan’s curtsy comment left her open to criticism, in the months following the show’s release, a number of examples of her performing respectful curtsies to Queen Elizabeth II went viral after being shared by fans to social media.
Harry and Meghan have not commented on Hardman’s book, which also includes a number of additional observations of the couple and their relationships with Charles and other members of the royal family.
In one chapter, the author cites an unnamed “friend” of Prince William’s who said that Harry’s Netflix comment about royal men marrying women who were considered to “fit the mold” had hurt his brother.
“The clear inference that he was talking about his elder brother astonished friends of the family,” Hardman wrote, quoting the “friend” as saying:
“‘On top of all the other breaches of trust, here was Harry making a blatant attack on Catherine. For William, this was the lowest of the low.'”
The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy is due to be published on January 18 by Pegasus Books.
