Am shocked Meghan said this…

[Ndd135632]

She said: 'Even when Will and Kate came over and I was meeting her for the first time I remember I was in ripped jeans, I was bare foot, like I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger I didn't realise that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.'

'I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward facing way of being and then you close the door and thing OK we can relax now, but that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.'

What an utterly horrible thing to say about your sister and brother-in-law. I am done with her now. People are DIFFERENT Meghan. We are not all like you you you you.

But she wasn't in Saudi. She was presumably in the UK and it's not offensive to hug a Brit.

Definitely hugged and kissed my sister in law on meeting #1. And her now husband when I met him. And all the other in laws.

They are Spanish. They hug and kiss. So who should "win" in this scenario? Should the Brit demand no physical contact? Or should the Spaniard demand hugs and kisses?

It's another passive aggressive dig isn't it ?Culture shocks work both ways.Kate isn't in a position to say well actually the first time I met my SIL she was a bit full on woo west coast with the hugging.

She makes a mountain out of any molehill. Any one of us could make out our families and anyone we cross paths with are awful if we dissected every little thing they say or do. It’s ridiculous. I’ve never come across such a whiny, complaining, fragile, lacking in resilience or robustness ‘strong’ woman in my life.

Could it perhaps be the way she's weaponising it?

I get what she's saying, and I don't think that's outrageous at all and really probably quite true.
I grew up in America but I hate hugging people. I would not want to be hugged by people I know let alone someone I just met! And frankly many people in the US don't like hugs either. And her comment about keeping the formality up behind closed doors - she has more experience of this than we do!

Genuinely rent free.

What this shone a light on for me is that Harry was very keen to settle down and very enamoured with Meghan and frightened to tell her what life in "the family" would be like. He'd had previous partners chased away by the media and responsibility and as a result failed to prepare her for the realities.

Were you really shocked? Was it ‘utterly horrible’?

she said she was surprised they were not more relaxed behind closed doors. Pretty reasonable, non-shocking, non-horrible observation imo.

Maybe they’d have preferred to give her a Glasgow kiss than a hug?🤷‍♀️

I honestly don't understand what's wrong with what she said here or indeed anything she's done? I think it's great that she has shone a light on just how racist the royals are, I think Philip gave us a flavour of what they say/think behind closed doors.

I really am fed up of seeing the other 2 though, baldy and toothpick, and how wonderful they are WHAT DO THEY DO???? 🤣🤣🤣 shake hands and fly to places yet people fawn, why???? "She's so gracious and amazing, beautiful, we love her..." etc 🤮

It is funny & frustrating in equal measure. They finally lost the lawsuit and now put up the disclaimer about it being fiction at the start of each episode.

Ironically, she comes across as being jealous of Kate and her longevity in the role.
I think the monarchy is in good hands if that is the best she can come up with.

I don’t want a hug from someone I don’t know eitherP

What a horrible thing to say OP.

It shows how thick/unaware H is if he didn't prepare M for these situations.
Or perhaps M knew how things would be and deliberately tried to stir things up. s

So would I. She's been dead since 1997.

Did you break your arm reaching so far?

Find it so hard to get worked up about this. Don’t think she said anything bad. Just honest observations. You should calm down!

Are you always this hysterical or are you just trying to whip up a bit of froth?

Why are you so shocked and insulted that someone found meeting the royals (her inlaws, possibly in her home) a bit of a 'culture' shock?

It's not even a culture thing as you put it, as most British people after a bit of food, drink and conversation would, like many people, just relax.

Harry probably didn't even give her a whole brief on how it may play out, so she didn't get overly anxious leading up to the event. And one can only hope you can relax a but once the door closes.

You'll need to try harder or go off into a corner and have a word with yourself.

How traumatising it must have been for her to have her ghastly pawing hugs rejected like that. I mean, how can you possibly continue living a normal life after such a rebuff?

@SoupDragon ??? You throw other women under the bus too?

I am not so sure. In any case an actress, and she was the only American in the cast, would be surrounded by camera and lighting crew, and all sorts of catering and security staff, the vast majority of whom won't be huggers.

I actually have a SiL who has a mother from Latin America and a father who was a diplomat, and who is prone to big stage like hugs. She sort of lunges towards you and bangs each of her cheeks against yours whilst making a loud smacking noise with her lips straight into your ears, without regard to the other persons body language. I am sure she knows that it is not general practice and may well make people uncomfortable. (She went to a very posh English convent boarding school and then onto finishing school, and then, with my brother, hung out with the sort of posh/rich people who have country house weekend parties.) The point she seems to be making is that she is in charge. We were holding a large birthday party and I did a straw poll of friends, all of whom, it seems, hate being pounced upon and hugged by people they don't know, so I asked my brother if he could ask her to tone it down, which thankfully she did.

(The very bizarre thing is that after the hug she will ignore you, at least she ignores me as I am several rungs below her socially. So I once went to her house to pick up my mother, was hugged and invited to sit down and wait, whereupon she went on to make herself a cup of coffee without offering me one. Really discombobulating.)

Meghan is both socially confident and an actress. Kate, for cultural and other reasons, is reserved. I am surprised that Meghan did not learn more about different body languages when taking acting classes, or when observing people in advance of a role. I am also not too sure that Canadians, where she lived for several years, are that demonstrative. (Never been hugged by a Canadian!)

My point is that if you are going to invade someone's personal space, even with a friendly gesture, you are the one taking the action so need to be conscious of how it might be received. And if you got it wrong, perhaps not complain afterwards.

Christ this is going to be tedious. The documentary only aired 4 hours ago and already mumsnet is clogging up with the weapons-grade 'offended'. Take the day off work to binge all this did you?

Perhaps Catherine & William found her loud, gushy and fake? but opinions of first meetings like this should be private and peoples differences respected.

What a bloody awful woman.

Haha this was mean but it made me laugh. It’s so true! Literally all William and Kate do is basically get driven/jetted around to smile and say hi to people and shake their hand and in return gets to live in like mansions and have private security and loads of money and designer clothes and send their children to the most expensive schools in the country and so on and so on. ALL they have to do is smile and say hi to people and shake their hand. And surprisingly, they manage that. As if it’s in any way difficult or tiring 😂😂

And okay they don’t slag people off publicly/to the media. And everyone is like ‘WOW they’re so classy and dignified and wonderful and angelic and beautiful and perfect and amazing!!!!’ I could manage not slagging people off publicly/to the media if it meant I got all the benefits that they go, it’s really not hard. I’m sure they slag Harry and Meghan off endlessly to their own friends and family.

It’s insane how little they have to do to be absolutely worshipped and adored by some people. I always know the type of people who worship Kate because they call her Catherine and get annoyed when other people don’t call her Catherine as a sign of respect even though she always seemed to be called Kate whenever I see her mentioned anywhere 😂

Queen Elizabeth II wasn't her mother-in-law.