Prince Harry’s speech at the UN on Mandela Day earlier this month was one of the rare times we’ve gotten the chance to see him and his wife Meghan Markle interacting in public. The royal couple has a tendency to draw eyes no matter what, but one particular moment of PDA caught a lot of attention. We’re taking a look at how one outlet covered that moment and sharing our own thoughts on the matter.
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Prince Harry, Meghan Markle’s PDA On Display
During his speech to the UN on Mandela Day earlier this month, Prince Harry remarked on a number of important topics, including abortion rights and climate change, that affect both his new home in the US as well as people from around the world. While his speech got some people fired up, others focused on a moment between him and wife Meghan Markle that happened offstage.
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While seated in the audience, cameras caught Markle and Harry holding hands. At one point, Harry pulls his hand away slightly, dislodging their interlocked fingers. Markle slips her arm through his and wraps her other hand around his once again. It’s an innocuous moment, one of the many moments of PDA (public display of affection) between the notoriously affectionate couple, but a writer for The Telegraph was clearly aghast over it.
A Much Different Read On The Same Moment
The author gave a similar, though much more colorful, description of the brief interaction. After describing Markle’s “grip” on Harry as “the sort of double-handed grip you or I might apply to a particularly delicious bottle of rosé,” the writer continued, “All the time, her benign countenance never flinched. Harry’s jaw, though, looked clenched.”
“The arm was brutally retrieved so he could lean over and shake a delegate’s hand, at which point Meghan began rubbing his back as if he were a poorly toddler. The general mood in Team Sussex did not look, well… unified.” Well, now we know for sure that we don’t all grab bottles of rosé the same way. We’re fond of a basic one-handed grab ourselves, but to each their own.
Watch The Interaction For Yourself
There’s clearly a not insignificant amount of inference from the writer, but it’s not uncommon for tabloids to take this path in their coverage of Markle. What is surprising is seeing this in an outlet that has a little more gravitas as an institution than say, the Daily Mail, or others of its ilk. The writer goes on to accuse Markle of displaying a form of “performative PDA” in order to “show just how progressive and human she is.”
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Getting Overly Personal
The Duchess of Sussex is further accused of “manhandling her husband” in public to the point where the author has no trust in her ability to keep her hands off of him when appropriate. Finally comes the most insulting bit, a snide parting comment to a woman this writer has likely never met and never will.
“…Nothing—not age, boredom, demands of young children, or globally important diplomatic settings—will prevent the Duchess of Sussex from physically expressing her affection for Harry. Whether he reciprocates it is neither here nor there. If the cameras are rolling, the hands are holding,” the author wrote, bringing their commentary on Markle and Harry to a close.
Another Royal PDA Couple
Instead, the writer switched focus to other types of PDA, remarking on the “comfort PDA” shown by Harry’s father and stepmother Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. Of course, Charles and Parker Bowles have quite the history with each other, so their unconscious, familiar, and comfortable PDA habits have been formed over a large chunk of their lifetimes. The two are nearing their 20th wedding anniversary, after all, which puts them in a much different relationship bracket than their son and daughter-in-law.
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The obsession the media has with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s marriage is obvious and sickening. Markle is always cast as the villain: the insecure actress determined to be the “wokest” feminist on the world stage, willing to exploit her marriage and her husband to make it happen. Or. Could it be… that she is simply a woman who finds herself on the world stage through what we’ll call marital happenstance, with strangers watching her every movement in an effort to force her into a narrative of their choosing?