In one of the most memorable moments in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix series, Meghan reminisces about her first meeting with the late Queen and remembers how she greeted her – and according to a body language expert it leaves Harry showing signs of ‘discomfort’

When meeting your partner’s new family, you may have to learn new names and faces – but Meghan Markle had to learn a new skill altogether.

Shortly after they began dating, Meghan was introduced to Prince Harry’s late grandmother, the Queen, and it was an exchange to remember. In their bombshell Netflix series, the Sussexes recalled how the meeting came about and Meghan’s important lesson. The surprise meeting came as the Sussexes were in Windsor to have lunch at Royal Lodge with Princess Eugenie – and it was then Harry had to teach his new girlfriend how to curtsy on learning his grandmother was popping over for a visit.

The duke told the programme: “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.” While 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.”

Meghan demonstrated the curtsey she performed while meeting the Queen for the first time ( 
Image:
Netflix)

In the show, she then re-enacted they moment an performed a somewhat controversial, awkward and exaggerated curtsy and giggled away as she said: “Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty” while the camera showed Harry. And according to body language Judi James, the whole scene left Harry hinting at his “discomfort” as he performs one telling “cut off” gesture in the show. She told the Mirror: “Meghan is the more chatty and natural speaker during their interview and here she sits talking confidently and readily in a slightly gossipy style as though talking to a girlfriend she is keen to amuse.

“Her joke is self-effacing as she speaks about her curtesy when she first met the late Queen. Her smile becomes asymmetric, pulling up on one side to register a shared joke. 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.

Harry and Meghan with the late Queen in 2018 ( 
Image:
Getty Images)

“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.”

The moment in the second episode came after Meghan said she found the “formality” of being in the royal family “surprising” and recalled an awkward encounter with Prince William and wife Kate. She revealed: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.

“I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits. I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”