Meghan Markle awkwardly trying to hug a dignitary who was curtsying went newly viral in the wake of her cooking show getting a .
The Duchess of Sussex was on stage at the One Young World summit in October 2019, just a few months before her royal exit, when the mishap took place.
Kate Robertson, organizer of the summit, went to curtsy for the duchess, not expecting Meghan to try to hug her.
Jake Rosenberg/Netflix and Gareth Fuller – Pool/Getty Images
Why It Matters
The result was a brief but undeniably awkward moment which went viral again as U.S. outlets panned Meghan’s show, With Love, Meghan.
The new post carried the on screen caption “being royalty” and compared Meghan’s awkward moment to more successful curtsies by and Princess Kate.
The was liked 556,000 times and viewed 11.3 million times, making it one of the most viral posts about Meghan on TikTok in the aftermath of her cooking show.
What To Know
With Love, Meghan dropped on Netflix on Tuesday to and the level of online engagement in the TikTok video, which is significantly above average, likely had a lot to do with reaction to the cooking show.
A famous moment from Meghan’s December 2022 Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan in which she performed a mock re-enactment of the first curtsy she did for may also have lent additional meaning.
Some audiences and that may inflect reactions to the on stage curtsy from 2019.
Meghan appeared at the One Young World summit at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2019, just a month before she and left Britain for Canada never to fully move back.
By January 2020, they announced their decision to quit the palace for a new life and in March they moved to California.
Meghan walked on stage towards Robertson and reached out her arms for a hug only, for Robertson to bend into a curtsy at the same time.
What People Are Saying
One reply read: “Ok but like, it does look kind of funny too much bowing,” while another read: “No hate but when you really think about it, one human being bowing to another human being is WILD.”
A third wrote: “The more they do it the funnier it looks—like when you say a word too many times.”
At the time, Meghan’s awkward moment earned fairly sympathetic responses, with Hello! reporting: “Watch the sweet moment tells woman not to curtsy to her.”
Harper’s Bazaar ran the headline, “This Woman Awkwardly Meeting Meghan Markle Is All of Us” and the Daily Mail: “Meghan Markle suffers awkward moment as charity organizer tries to hug, bow and curtsy all at the same time.”
The tabloid’s response was relatively mild in hindsight, given she has accused it of playing a role in a hate campaign against her which in 2020 she told the Teenager Therapy podcast was “almost unsurvivable.”
What Happens Next
Meghan will fully launch her online shop, As Ever, in the spring and has a new podcast on the way.
Williams Brown is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly , at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com’s .
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