Meghan Markle made a royal visit with her fiancé Prince Harry to Wales on Thursday. Their train had been delayed which caused hundreds of people to wait in the cold weather for hours to get a glimpse of the pair. While greeting the enthusiastic crowd Ms. Markle was seen to have broken a Royal Rule of protocol by giving an autograph to a young girl.
Based on previous requests for autographs the Royal Family have politely told people that they cannot do that. There’s no official rulebook that the public has access to but it’s a well-known policy that The Royal Family’s security staff has instructed the Royals to avoid giving autographs for security reasons.
The possibility of forgery seems to be one of the big reasons behind this policy.
Meghan wrote a note for a waiting fan
People Magazine reported that when Meghan was asked by Caitlin Clark, 10, for an autograph she wrote “Hi Kaitlin” and added a heart and a smiley face. No signature there. So only a slight bend in the protocol, not exactly a break. Faced with children who had been waiting for over seven hours for a chance to meet you, it might compel someone to bend the rules a bit. At previous events in her acting days, Meghan would have been throwing out as many autographs as she could muster as many actors do. To pull back from that is another part of being a Royal.
If you’ve ever seen an autograph from an actor or another celeb you know that they have been instructed to give out autographs that are vastly different from their usual signature to also avoid forgery.
It would seem that the Royal Security team doesn’t want to take any risks.
Who has to tell Meghan she messed up?
One can only wonder if someone from the Security Team had to relay the message to the future Royal that writing anything for well-wishers was a no-go. Meghan has an official aide assigned to her so if there’s a correction or reminder that needs to be made, it will most likely be a staff member like Amy Pickerill, the newly named Assistant Private Secretary to Prince Harry.
Amy previously worked in the Kensington Palace press operation so her job probably prepared her on how to choose her words carefully. She was even standing close behind Meghan during the “incident” in question.
More royal protocol matters for Meghan to deal with
On more unofficial matters Meghan was seen to break with protocol: Her hair.
Twice she’s sported a chic messy bun. Messy seems like too harsh a description. A bun with loose pieces of hair framing her face seems like a more accurate way to describe her recent hairstyles. She looks fabulous but people have noted that for official appearances the royal women are always seen with perfect blowouts with nary a strand of hair out of place. Not helmet hair, as Duchess Catherine is known for her flowing locks but when her hair is pinned up it’s held tightly in place. Close-ups have revealed she achieves this look through the use of a hair net.
It was a sign that Meghan was moving into royal circles when, on the day of their engagement announcement, she had pale pink nail polish.
Another unwritten rule of the Royal ladies is that they only wear soft pale colors on their nails. A pale pink nail polish is what Queen Elizabeth has been wearing since the eighties and Catherine has made the same color a staple of her look.
Other royal protocols involve not crossing one’s legs, rather tucking one ankle behind the other. And the proper way to hold a teacup in public. Meghan has already shown that she’s a champ at curtsying during the Christmas Day church service when the Queen walked by. So that’s one of the biggies she’s nailed. It has got to make us proud as American’s to see a fellow American nail that, in heels no less.
