A somber outfit and a sympathetic expression were put on the newly wed royal, who was walking around in public with three other people. The pointillistic armchair analysis of that brief event is still going on.
The incident may have presaged an eventual thaw in the relationship between the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
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The video of the event has been analyzed as if it had been filmed by Zapruder, turning into instant lip-reading, body language analysts, fashion critics and protocol experts.
Kate wore a black and calf-length dress with a slim skirt to the wedding. Is it possible that Kate snubbed her by not looking at her? Is it true that Harry reminded her of royal protocol by subtly holding her hand back to let William and Kate come through to the first flowers, as claimed on TikTok?
With facts thin on the ground, reactions to events like these tend to reflect deep held and entrenched emotions. Some people said on social media that a happy murmur went through the crowd at Windsor when they saw William, Kate and Harry together, while others said they were opposed to the presence of the bride and groom. The topics trended on the social networking site were #Meghan and #MeghanMarkleGo Home.
The two couples, along with other members of the royal family, left a service at Westminster Hall following the arrival of the queen’s coffin. The other royal couples walked out with their hands in the air. Was it appropriate to hold hands with your spouse while leaving a somber occasion or was it disrespectful to do so?
The issue was complicated by the fact that Princess Anne’s daughter and her husband held hands on the way out. As fans of her have pointed out, she is often attacked by the tabloids and social media for doing the same things that other royals do.
In the United States, where they moved after stepping back from royal duties in 2020, they have been working diligently to raise their two children and repositioned themselves as celebrities and influencer. They have made high-profile speeches at places like the United Nations, started a series of interviews with famous guests, and spoken about issues like mental health and how they feel betrayed and mistreated by Harry.
They are collaborating on a memoir that they say will be a candid account of who they are and how they feel, with lots of details about their falling out with the royal family.
When Elizabeth died last week, the couple were already in Britain at the tail end of what The Daily Mail derided as a “pseudo-royal tour”.
The papers stepped on their own arguments by showering them with attention despite the accusations of attention-seeking made against them. Hilary Rose wrote in The Times of London that she was afraid that the couple would return to the US.
Harry traveled to Scotland by himself after the queen’s death. There were reports that he was ordered to leave the family so that he wouldn’t upset them. After a brief stay, Harry returned to his wife. They accepted the invitation to walk around with William, Kate, and the crowd at Windsor and a bunch of cameras.
We won’t know the truth of it. We will never know if King Charles III ordered his warring sons to set aside their ongoing feud or if William sent a “bombshell text” to his brother laying out the terms.
Some mourners in the crowd refused to shake her hand and one of them wore sunglasses in response to her arrival, according to a report in the Mirror. According to the paper’s analysis of a video of the incident, another woman turned away and gestured towards the duke before laughing.
Piers Morgan waded in with his usual views.
He wrote in The New York Post and on the Fox News website that the scenes of hatchet-burying between William and his brother should not be taken lightly.
One reader said, “Rein in your wife…”. This is the Middle Ages.
The New York Times Company is owned by The New York Times.