“Warm and very popular”. What do Meghan Markle’s public hugs really mean?

A willingness to break the modesty imposed by British protocol or a genuine communication strategy? When she appears in public, Meghan Markle is not afraid of gestures of love and never hesitates to be touching with the people she meets. But also with her friends and her husband, Prince Harry, during official speeches. “Koala hug”, hands on shoulder, hand in hand… His gestures can have “different emotional functions”.

According to body language expert Judy James, the former Duchess of Sussex’s hugs convey a very specific message. “He wants to show that he is warm and very loved,” says Judy James Daily Mail: . Its purpose is to show the other person that their relationship is “strong” by giving them “strong signals of affection” and “a little social confidence.” Gestures that can sometimes remind of the gestures of Princess Diana, who was not afraid to touch the people she met, and in particular those with HIV.

And while members of the British royal family should avoid emotional displays, Meghan Markle often shakes her husband’s hand in public. A gesture that, however, does not have the same intensity as when hugging with friends, according to the expert.

“I always loved cuddling”

In a Netflix docu-series about the Sussex couple that aired in 2022, Meghan Markle even announced:

A formality that he didn’t expect and that spilled over into his personal life, especially when he met Kate Middleton. “When Will and Kate came and I first met her, they came to dinner, I was in ripped jeans and bare feet,” she says on the show. “I think I realized very quickly that the formality on the outside continues on the inside,” he added of the protocol, which he mistakenly thought was only kept publicly at the time.