The curtsy/curtsey

[Shewonticeskateorseesanta]

Apologies if other threads on this, I haven’t noticed specifically about this.
Just watcher the H&M documentary (I’m a little behind)
What were your thoughts on the scene where Meghan describes the curtsey? I just found it uncomfortable watching Harry’s face, was she taking the piss?
Ive no opinion on them either way tbh, but must admit I’m interested in the relationship between them. He always looks so desperate to please/prove he’s doing things right…is this just love for her? Is there something off or am I reading too much into it?

Im sorry but the idea that anyone would meet the queen without any kind of briefing or heads up on what to expect is such bullshit ! And if Harry gave her absolutely no heads up on what to expect then a lot of this is on him to be fair - he would have known what was expected so why couldn't he help her prepare for it ? The idea that it was all out of the blue is just ridiculous

Come on! Private or not they knew it would be a meeting eventually so why not help and prepare your partner for what to expect

The Daily Mail jibe being used as a put down is getting a little boring.

It looked like she was mocking to me and H seemed very uncomfortable. He had to do a fake smile to cover himself.

I think that is why Harry pulled that face. He knew he'd funked up.

I agree that Harry should have taught her, maybe he thought they had time. I don't know. But my post went solely to the point that at that time, no aides were around to advise her, people on here were picturing aides bustling around at the Palace no doubt. This clearly wasn't the scenario.

I thought she said on the Oprah interview that Sarah had come out of the house, told them the Queen was expected, and this is how you greet the Queen, showed Meghan a curtsey and all was fine - no dramatic hamming it up required.

Good job she didn't marry into the Japanese RF if she found the formality around the British RF difficult.

But I suppose it's all about having a pop at the RF and the Brits, so mission accomplished.

I've not watched the programme, I have just seen the clip but what she did WAS a ballet curtsey, if that was the only curtsey she knew then that is what she would do.

Greed? Meghan burns through money at a rate of knots, I imagine.

Charles was allegedly bailing them out constantly.

I imagine. Allegedly.

This is spiteful and bitchy. And you have the audacity to call out other people's behaviour?

The double standards of people picking over how Meghan acts is astonishing. And they are too stupid to realise.

And MN just laps it up.

It's just like being at the school gates.

Mean girls.

Don't they say that bullies are insecure unhappy people? There are lots of people showing themselves for who they are at the moment.

I see you! Even if you think you're hiding behind a username.

I winced at the way she said “your Majesty” like it was some hilarious nickname.

Whatever her thoughts, to Prince Harry (and a few others in the UK), she was the Queen, Commander in Chief (his own words) and our head of state for over six decades at that point.

all monarchs are referred to like that anyway. Not just ours.

PH has referred to his grandmother as her majesty his entire life. I think he had respect and love for her and believed she was a good hard working monarch. It’s not alien to even me to hear the Queen referred to as your majesty. We had Her Majesty’s Prisons, Her Majesty’s Revenue Collection.

Meghan was also entirely up for being HRH at the time so her mocking tone like it was completely nuts, grated.

If she wants to get into international politics, she’ll need to learn that people have different cultures and taking the piss is considered rude.

This exactly. The people who viciously tear apart Meghan don't see themselves, they don't see that they are far worse people than Meghan is.

I think it's bloody ridiculous that people let alone family members are having to curtesy - it's the 2020s. And even worse they still have to do this during PRIVATE meetings.

The sooner they end this tradition the better.

I completely agree about curtsying to another person absolutely archaic and needs to stop, now the Queen has passed away.

Secondly - Meghan would not have curtsied like she demonstrated in the doc. She was being over dramatic, it was theatrical- she has been an actress for years!!

Re: Haz’s face - it’s the bemused look of ‘what the hell is she doing’. (because that’s not how it happened)…

I have not read all the comments, but to me she is trying to make it come across as making fun of herself in order to ultimately make a mockery of the whole formality of meeting the queen. She’s already commented on how unprepared she was to meet William and Catherine and how she just isn’t used to their formal ways, as if THEY are in the wrong to be like this.

Let’s not forget, this is a woman in her mid/ late 30’s possibly meeting her future in laws for the first time, who happen to be the British Royal family, who are renowned around the world for having a stiff-upper lip. She has studied International Relations. She did ballet as a child. Come on! You would do a bit of homework wouldn’t you? If you were meeting anyone from another culture? I don’t believe for a minute she had no idea she was about to meet the queen, if that’s the case it’s Harry I would have been having words with, why did he just spring it on her? And not explain the protocol?

Could you imagine a foreign visitor such as Obama, or his wife, saying the same thing, even in private, let alone to the entire world? Or a member of Mandela’s family or any representative of a foreign country or institution having had the privilege to meet the queen and then claim not to have known or prepared themselves on how to curtsy or bow or greet the queen? She is being disrespectful, not only of the British culture but of her possibly future in-laws, her boyfriend’s own family and traditions.

What he says is - how do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother and that you’ll need to curtsy, especially to an American? Like, that’s weird.

Then it goes into her saying that’s when she realised it was a big deal and the curtsy bit...

So yeah, he just didn’t tell her.

Ffs, I did ballet as well, that's how a ballerina would curtsy on stage. If she did ballet a child it makes sense that she would curtsy low like that, using her arms.

It's really not the 'gotcha' moment people here are making out.

I thought she said on the Oprah interview that Sarah had come out of the house, told them the Queen was expected, and this is how you greet the Queen, showed Meghan a curtsey and all was fine - no dramatic hamming it up required.

that’s what I don’t understand , on the show she said it’s Fergie , Jack and Eugenie and when the Queen left they all said you did great, is Fergie so close to the Queen she’s just there all the time ?
and why is she announcing they Queen is ready for you instead of the Staff. ?

there's two version of everything they say 😵‍💫

Oh come on. She knew the formality William and Kate had to display in public, she just expected them to be a bit more relaxed within their own family. I am British and I was really surprised when I learnt that Harry and other members of the Royal Family had to curtsey before the Queen. She was his grandma! The whole thing is completely ridiculous! I'm not surprised she struggled.

Meghan travelled overseas with charities before she even met Harry. She'll have been briefed on different customs and traditions before, and that you respect them.
Maybe for her the issue was the lack of preparation ... which comes down to Harry because they said the RF offered other advisers and she didn't meet most of them as she thought Harry could prepare her. But Harry is so privileged and insular that he didn't realise how different every aspect of his life was from an ordinary person's life.

She taking the mick out of herself but at the same time it's an insult to the Queen who has just died. I felt sorry for her until this point, she knew what she was getting involved in and chose to continue. Now they want the sympathy that she didn't like it 🤯

'I'm British and I was really surprised when I learnt that Harry and other members of the Royal Family had to curtsey before the Queen.'

I'd like to see Harry do that!

It's the royal bit, then the family bit though, isn't it - as Zara Tindall has said, it's a quick bow (of the head) or a quick curtesy (dip at the knee), an acknowledgment of respect to the Head of State, the royal bit, then the hug for granny - the family bit. Not everyone has a queen as their granny, so wouldn't expect the more formal greeting, but I don't see the big deal tbh.

But the family IS formal, apparently in private too. They just are. So why even reference it when the whole issue is the fact that Harry, could and should have been the one to explain it all to her? She’s telling the world about this, frankly very uninteresting, detail, but all along it’s the man sitting next to her, doing this and all the other programmes with her, who held the key. Why he didn’t, who knows? Didn’t occur to him, he didn’t want to put her off etc. etc. But ultimately it was his responsibility to tell her these things or find the correct person to teach her if he couldn’t. I felt the same at the beginning of episode 1, where Meghan seemed to be waiting for things to change, to get better. And the person who had the answer was right next to her all along. Harry could have been truthful right from the beginning and wasn’t. That’s not the Royal Family’s fault. That’s not formality’s fault. It’s Harry’s fault.

Agree OLP …complete bloody nonsense that she wasn’t briefed and if not,why not ?

The woman who founded the women’s equality party said that deep courtesy-ing is apparently a ‘thing’

“Her re-enactment for Netflix of curtseying to the Queen instantly drew ire, real and confected, for supposed disrespect to the memory of her grandmother-in-law. Nobody curtsies like that, critics harrumphed. They’re wrong. When I was researching my biography of King Charles, I discovered his female staff were running a competition to see who could perform the deepest curtsey without falling over. A former girlfriend of his also confided that protocol demanded she curtsey to him, leading one evening to a clash of heads when he mistimed an attempt to kiss her.“

But why was he comfortable?

• because he hadn’t thought to tell Megan
• because he had previously thought or thinks people bowing to him is acceptable and he think he is superior
• he disagrees with bowing/curtsey thing
• he doesn’t want to say something which looks bad on W and K

Precisely.