How ‘duty-bound’ Prince Harry was ‘torn’ during his first overseas visit with ‘relentless’ Meghan Markle, according to body language expert

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle touched down in Fiji in October 2018 for their first overseas tour, all eyes were firmly fixed on the new royal couple.

The red carpet was rolled out for the pair as they were greeted by a joyous welcome party before Prince Harry faced a ‘protocol predicament’ on his and Meghan’s first overseas tour as husband and wife. 

Body language expert Judi James told the Daily Mail that Harry, now 41, appeared visibly ‘torn’ between his royal duties and looking after his ‘relentless’ new wife while analysing footage of their arrival at Nausori Airport. 

A striking clip captured the moment Meghan, now 44, appeared to reach for Harry’s hand, while the prince seemingly ignored her and kept walking forward.

Meghan then made a second attempt, this time reaching for his arm, but Harry continued cautiously striding ahead in what seems like an attempt at following ‘formal royal protocol’.

While such protocol does not forbid hand-holding, public displays of affection are traditionally discouraged while performing official duties in accordance with the royal etiquette enforced by the late Queen Elizabeth II during her 70-year reign. 

Analysing the ‘awkward’ interaction between the Sussexes, Ms James said: ‘Harry sticks to the protocol of status by walking first here but also twists his right arm awkwardly to hold her hand behind his back.’ 

Ms James called it a ‘classic Hollywood “tow-along” pose’ that makes the Duchess of Sussex look ‘like a protected and precious star’.  

She added that Meghan’s seeming desire to ‘re-write royal protocol’ created an ‘awkward moment’ for Harry and left him ‘suffering from divided loyalties’ and ‘conflicting priorities’. 

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured) landed at Fiji’s Nausori Airport, the prince faced a ‘protocol predicament’ – appearing visibly ‘torn’ between his royal duties and his ‘relentless’ new wife, according to body language expert Judi James

She also claims that the Duchess is ‘relentless’ in her attempts to get her husband to ‘re-clasp hands’, even ‘speeding to catch up and touching his arm to register her intentions to re-couple’.

As the Duchess attempts to ‘take the lead’, Harry appears to perform ‘gestural cartwheels’ with his wife, while holding a ‘serious facial expression’ in contrast to Meghan’s ‘beatific smile’.

Ms James highlighted how Prince Harry was expecting to have a ‘solo chat’ with one of the members of his welcome party, but Meghan makes multiple ‘attempts to join in’. 

Harry’s ‘refusal of a hand-hold’ is made abundantly clear by the prince’s slight turn of the head to ‘inform her that this is a solo gig’. 

Meghan’s gesture for hand-holding ultimately results in ‘an awkward barrier ritual’ between the pair, she concluded. 

But the Duchess’s seeming ‘desire to be constantly physically coupled with Harry’ is not unique to this particular interaction. 

During their short-lived tenure as working royals, Harry and Meghan became known for their constant hand-holding. 

Their desire to be physically close was often seen to be in great contrast to Prince William and Kate Middleton, with the Prince and Princess of Wales often maintaining a stance of physical distance during public engagements.

As the Sussexes walked along the runway, a striking clip captured the moment Meghan made two attempts to reach for her husband’s hand and then arm, while the prince seemed to ignore her and kept walking forward

Analysing the ‘awkward’ interaction between the Sussexes, Ms James told the Daily Mail: ‘He (Harry) looks torn, also appearing duty-bound to make his protection of his cherished wife look like a trusted and important job’

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When Harry and Meghan returned to the UK in September 2022 for the late Queen’s lying-in state, the couple walked solemnly through Westminster Hall with their hands firmly clasped. 

It was, Ms James previously told the Daily Mail, a use of ‘statement body language’ in which the pair ‘deliberately did not follow the rest of the group’.

Going against the expected choreography, in which the couples all kept a ‘large spatial gap between them with no touching or communication’, Harry and Meghan issued a ‘rebellious statement’, both in terms of their positioning and distancing.

Ms James described their body language as an intentional ‘rebuke’ that signalled their desire to be perceived as a ‘closely welded couple’ who present a ‘non-negotiable romantic narrative’.

Four years prior in Fiji, however, Meghan’s tendency to ‘re-write royal protocol’ may have been partly indicative of her position as a newbie struggling to adjust to the life of a princess.

Having wed Harry at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel just five months earlier after a whirlwind 16-month courtship, the former Suits star was alleged to have found the extensive royal protocol challenging to grasp.

Ms James  notes that the Duchess is ‘relentless’ in her attempts to get her husband to ‘re-clasp hands’. Her behaviour, she claims, ‘creates an awkward moment of conflicting priorities for Harry’

As the Duchess attempts to ‘take the lead’, Harry appears to perform ‘gestural cartwheels’ with his wife, while holding a ‘serious facial expression’ in contrast to Meghan’s ‘beatific smile’

Since making the decision to leave royal duties and relocate to Montecito, California, in early 2020, the Duchess has opened about the extensive rules members of The Firm are required to follow. 

During the second series of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, the Duchess said that she ‘couldn’t be as vocal’ and wore clothes that were ‘not very myself’. 

Then, during a candid interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang in August, Meghan made what appeared to be another subtle dig at the Royal Family. 

She described how she had to ‘wear nude pantyhose all the time’, adding that it had felt ‘a little bit inauthentic’. 

‘It is an example of when you want to dress the way you want to dress and say the things that are true, and you’re able to show up in that space really organically and authentically – that’s being comfortable in your own skin,’ she said.

According to royal biographer Tom Quinn, when Meghan was ‘shocked by the Palace protocol and by the fact that she was not and never could be first in the pecking order’.

During the Sussexes’ short-lived tenure as working royals, the pair became known for their use of tactile hand-holding, despite it contrasting with traditional royal etiquette 

Writing in his book Gilded Youth, Mr Quinn claimed: ‘[Meghan] hated the fact that she had to do what she was told and go where she was told in the endless, and to a large extent, pointless royal round.’

Meghan allegedly tried not only to carve out her own independent career as a working royal but also tried to ‘outshine’ every other member of the family – including Her Majesty.

‘She was a global superstar but was being told what she could and could not do, what she could and could not say.’

‘She hated it,’ Mr Quinn said. 

The royal expert added that Meghan ‘undoubtedly felt constrained’ by the Royal Family and that both she and Harry felt the need to ‘do their own thing without consulting the big royal machine’.