Meghan Markle's Swipe at Brits Undermined by Royal Christmas

Meghan Markle's account of hugs being "really jarring for a lot of Brits" has been challenged after pictures of Prince George being embraced by an in-law at Christmas emerged.

The Duchess of Sussex described an awkward interaction the first time she met Prince William and Kate Middleton during an interview for the docu-series Harry & Meghan, released in December 2022.

And her comments resurfaced after a picture emerged of Prince George getting a hug from former World Cup winning England rugby player Mike Tindall.

Tindall, whose wife Zara was a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II via Princess Anne, joined William, Kate and their children on the walk to church at Sandringham, the royals' private estate in Norfolk.

A photo of Tindall with his arm around George went viral on X, formerly Twitter, after it was liked more than 3,000 times and viewed more than 118,000 times.

The image was posted alongside a quote from Meghan: "Like, I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger. I didn't realize that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."

Meghan's full comment from the Netflix series went: "When Will and Kate came over and I was meeting her for the first time I remember, I was in ripped jeans, I was barefoot.

"Like, I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger. I didn't realize that is really jarring for a lot of Brits. I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside."

Harry described a similar moment in his book Spare, though in his version it was William rather than Kate who found Meghan's hug uncomfortable during a meeting for which the Princess of Wales was not present.

"I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave him a hug," Harry wrote. "Which completely freaked him out.

"He recoiled. Willy didn't hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers. The moment was a classic collision of cultures, like flashlight-torch, which felt to me both funny and charming.

"Later, however, looking back, I wondered if it was more than that. Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsy?"

During a documentary about King Charles III's coronation, Richard Jackson, Bishop of Hereford, also gave a slightly different impression of the royals.

"I think what struck me particularly is how extraordinarily affectionate they are," he told BBC film King Charles III: The Coronation Year.

"They're clearly a very close family of all the generations and in a sense you felt you were part of a family occasion as well as a royal occasion and a national occasion."

His words were played over images of the king greeting William and Kate with a hand on the arm and a kiss on both cheeks. Kate also curtsies to the king in the clip.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.