Meghan Markle’s royal curtsey catastrophe was a rare misstep after she previously seemed unable to put a foot wrong
Until this week, Meghan Markle seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong. Then, on Christmas Day outside Sandringham’s church, she did precisely that.
Lining up alongside Harry, William and Kate, she displayed uncharacteristic nervousness as they prepared to see Her Majesty on her way with a sharp bow of the head from the gentlemen, a curtsey from the ladies.
Conscious of the entire world watching, her normal composure seemed to suddenly desert her. Dressed in shades of fawn, she looked more like some fragile woodland creature — brown eyes wide, slender limbs trembling — than the confident young actress we have come to know.
When the big moment arrived, Kate dropped confidently in the required fashion, back straight, knee heading for the ground — a feat really quite remarkable given her pregnancy and the vertiginous height of her heels.
Meghan, by contrast, wobbled a little uncertainly and simpered a bit. By no means a disaster; but not quite the command performance.
Harry was quick to reassure her — but she will have secretly been kicking herself. And I feel her pain because I’ve made precisely the same hash of a curtsey myself.
Not in front of the Queen, I’ll admit. Nor the world’s cameras. My royal fail took place in a far more intimate setting, at a quiet dinner at a friend’s house in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall.
The issue of The Curtsey loomed large right from the moment the prized invitation dropped on our doormat. Our hostess being a stickler for such things, she took it upon herself to instruct me.
Admittedly, there is something faintly ridiculous about curtseying in this day and age. It’s not so much the fact of genuflecting in the royal presence, it’s the process itself.
In crinoline and corset and garnished with yards of silk and lace, I imagine it looks magnificent, romantic even; in ordinary 21st-century clothes it appears ungainly and awkward, even when executed by a trained pro like Kate.
Still, needs must. And so my friend took me under her wing — much, I imagine, in the way that Kate will have schooled Meghan.
I thought it would be a breeze. Boy, was I wrong. The aim is to drop the rear knee so that it almost touches the ground — yes, the ground — while bending the front one at a right angle. All the time maintaining a rod-straight back and the appearance of effortless grace.
It is a move guaranteed to send the unwitting novice off-balance. Imagine doing a vertical lunge, only in high heels and a skirt and with nothing to hold on to. It’s actually painful. You need a strong core, thighs of steel and impeccable balance to avoid collapsing head-first into the monarch’s lap.
Not only that, you have to get the timing right. Go too soon and you look like a fool; too late and you risk embarrassing your royal.
And however much your inner republican might be yelling: ‘This is completely ridiculous, why am I even doing this?’, trust me: once you’re actually in The Presence, you want to get it right.
Suffice to say that beforehand I, like Meghan, was a bundle of nerves. And, like Meghan, I fluffed it.
I did the one thing my friend had repeatedly warned me not to do under any circumstance. Reader, I bobbed. A silly little jerky movement that must have looked ridiculous. Whether the Prince noticed (or cared) I cannot say. But I let myself down — and worse still, I let my friend down.
So my heart goes out to Meghan. But she shouldn’t be too hard on herself. Like I say, thus far she hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Now that she has, we can all finally heave a sigh of relief and rejoice in the fact that the girl’s human, after all.